[NavyChief]

I do plan to post the entire episode from start to finish with Winchester and this particular gun. I see no reason why they can't make this right and they should be able to re-cut the checkering, fix the fitting with the ebony forend tip, and fit the metal buttplate correctly. I don't think they can float the bbl because they only wanted the stock but I have floated and bedded numerous rifles over the years and I always have a supply of Brownell's accaglass gel on hand. It was actually floated about 8 inches up the stock so I should be able to remove a little material, reseal, and be OK. If it requires any more work than that then Winchester is better prepared for it than I am. While I do have quite a bit of experience with accurizing and repairing rifles, the majority of my work is performed with small scale power tools and accessories. I do not own any CNC machinery or a large scale lathe. This gun is far too expensive for me to begin to work on any wood outside the inner barrel channel. Winchester said about 4 weeks so I should know something by then. In the meantime I plan to mount the scope I bought for the rifle (Leupold VX III 2.5 X 8 X 36) to make sure that everything fits and is correct. I have 3 or 4 old Winchester stocks in the attic for post 64 model 70's so I will use one of those for eye relief. Well the DVR is on and it's time for the game so I'll get off of here but I will check in with updates and post the status. I have faith in Winchester and they should be able to get this fixed but there is some aggravation with having to wait. My fault for being impatient but man it's hard not to be when I finally found the right gun, paid the asking price, waited for a week for it to arrive and have to ship the stock out the day I get it. Well, deployments were always a lot longer than 4 weeks so I'll just try to treat it like that. In the meantime I bought a new Browning A-5 so I can go out and play with it. Talk to everyone later but I gotta go for now and get to the game. Jim