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That mention that the stock may be birch was a good point to make. A buddy had an old 22 and wanted me to refinish the stock. I said that I would, so he brought it over. Once i got the old finish off, which was painted on to the wood, it was birch or some other soft white wood. I tried to stain it, but it blotched terribly, so I had to sand off the stain. Finally, after much experimentation, I sprayed the stock with shellac (2 coats, I think) to put a seal coat on it. Then I took a wiping stain and painted it on with a wadded up cotton rag. That actually made the walnut colored stain look like wood grain. Took me a couple of tries to get it just right, and if it doesn't look right you can just wipe that surface stain off with mineral spirits and try again. So, when I got the look that I wanted, I let it dry for a couple of days, then put a couple of coats of Shellac over that. Looked great, and looked like a walnut stock unless you looked really close. The buddy was very happy.
I sure wish I had known it was going to be that much work before I volunteered to do it. It's hard to make birch look good, but I finally figured it out.
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