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Veronesi Gunsmithing
The Rest of the Story

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Have you ever been interested in having your own custom rifle built? After reading this article you may not be able to resist the urge any longer. Veronesi Gunsmithing is a small custom shop in N.W. Pennsylvania that specializes in custom firearms as well as their repair and modifications. It is not like some so-called custom shops that have twenty or thirty gunsmiths of varying abilities working on your firearm. All the work that is done in house is performed by either George or Anthony Veronesi. The quality control is extremely high. Upon visiting their shop you may view any firearm - from a custom small ring '98 Mauser (in 7 x 57 Mauser, of course) to a synthetic stocked and blueprinted Remington long action with a cryogenic-treated heavy-barrel, custom chambered on the premises. Custom stocked firearms are one of their specialties. The high degree of fit-and-finish craftsmanship involved in properly fitting wood to metal in a custom rifle is one of the reasons why customers choose a custom rifle over an off-the-shelf factory firearm. Your choice of the beautiful types of wood available is another reason.

Wooden stocks are generally graded in the following manner:

Economy Grade -- Very little grain distinction with perhaps some surface flaws.
Standard Grade -- This is a strong piece of wood with good grain flow; perhaps a slight defect.
Select Grade -- Excellent grain flow (strong in grip area). No defects; perhaps some grain figure.
Semi-Fancy -- This wood has no defects with the assurance of some grain figure.
Fancy -- This wood has no defects with up to 50% figure in the buttstock and some strong grain coloration throughout the stock.
Extra Fancy -- No defects with up to 75% figure in the buttstock and strong grain coloration throughout the stock.
Exhibition -- No defects with as much figure as the customer is willing to pay for.

Most of the work done at Veronesi Gunsmithing is performed in stock grades fancy and above. The reason for this is the fact that most customers that are interested in having a beautifully fitted stock are not satisfied with a "plain" piece of wood.

Their favorite wood to work with is English Walnut. This is an extremely strong wood that is very resistant to the warpage that can occur with woods of lesser quality. The higher grades of this fine hardwood have the grain coloration of chocolate syrup. This wood also cuts in a very clean manner. In checkering this wood one finds that the checkering holds up very well and has great definition (not fuzzy). This is the wood that bears the walnuts found in grocery stores.

Another wood that is worked with a great deal is Bastogne. This is a hybrid of English Walnut and Claro. This wood is reasonably hard but its sometimes erratic grain flow can make it difficult to cut. It is not as stable as English, but is still superior to other woods in this regard. An advantage of this wood is one can get as much grain coloration (although of a different type) as English has for less money.

One of the other walnuts that you would probably see in their shop is Claro. This is generally the least expensive of the walnuts. You also get the most grain figure for the least amount of money with this wood. It is reasonably stable, but again, not as good as English.

American Walnut is also a popular wood. It cuts well and in the higher grades has absolutely beautiful grain. The higher grades have gotten rather expensive in recent years. As a result of this other wood types are chosen more often. It is reasonably stable.

The aforementioned woods are the most chosen, but they will form a stock for you in any type of wood that the customer wants, within reason. What is meant by the "within reason" is that some woods are just not suitable for gun stocks.

Several types of forend tips that can be chosen include Cocobolo, Rosewood, Purpleheart, and Ebony. On the proper wooden stock a highly figured piece of Redwood burl is also quite attractive.

Synthetics -- In recent years this type of stock has become more popular. One of the reasons for this is that they are not affected by the changes in humidity that can cause stock movement in a wooden-stocked rifle. They are also much less expensive for the following reasons:

The custom shop only has to bed and final fit the rifle to this stock.
The shaping of the outside of the stock is generally complete.
There is no checkering performed.
Quite often all hardware (swivel bases, recoil pad, etc.) is already installed.
The stocks come prefinished (if you like black) and can be painted as well.
They are available with a full length aluminum bedding block and/or bedding pillars already installed.
The cost of getting a synthetic stock put on your rifle will vary from $210 for an inexpensive synthetic to $500 or more depending on what type of synthetic you desire. These general prices include the price of the stock as well.
The cost of getting a semi-inletted wooden stock fitted to your rifle, bedded, recoil pad and swivel studs installed, with a simple checkering pattern cut and the stock finished would run from $1100 to as much as the customer is willing to pay. This price depends upon the wood grade and finish chosen, and includes the cost of repolishing and rebluing your rifle.
The customer that would like to have his or her rifle fitted with a stock made from a blank will incur more cost than one choosing a semi-inlet. If you have ever seen a 3 foot piece of roughcut 2 x 6, that is what a blank looks like before the gunsmith begins. Everything needs done.

The advantages of having a stock handmade and hand fitted from a blank are as follows:

Any stock design that the customer wants can be had.
You are not limited by the tooling that a semi-inlet factory has on hand, if you could even find one that is willing to accept your blank.
Also at times a customer may have a blank on hand that he or she acquired from a relative, gun show, etc.
Many semi-inlet factories refuse to semi-inlet a blank that they have not sold. So if a customer wants their blank turned into a stock, they have little choice but to have it done by hand by a skilled gunsmith. The cost of turning a blank into a finished stock, not counting the cost of the blank itself, is around $1500. It would cost less than this if the customer chooses a plain checkering job and an oil finish instead of a gloss.

As I am sure you are beginning to understand, one of the main advantages of having a custom rifle built is choosing among countless options.

Besides choosing a certain type of stock, one may also choose what
brand of receiver and barrel is utilized.

The more popular actions chosen include Remington, Sako, Winchester, and Mauser.

The more popular barrels are Douglas Air Gauged, Shilen, and those made by a relatively new company called BlackStar. You have probably heard about BlackStar's -300 degree, cryogenic barrel treating process. They are now selling their own barrels that already have had the freezing process done to them, and are also electrochemically polished. The barrels are made to very precise specifications and have received rave reviews from many shooters. You may get one factory barrel out of fifty that will shoot as well as a BlackStar, Shilen or Douglas. With a custom-barreled rifle, one is talking about group sizes of less than .5" at 100 yds. with good fire formed handloads if the shooter does his or her part. At times, groups of this size can even be obtained with good factory cartridges.

What helps to determine the accuracy of a rifle is the skill in which the barrel is chambered and the quality of the equipment used. Veronesi's uses a Clausing lathe. It's a top of the line lathe that sells for over $18,000.00.

Interested?  Contact us at Veronesi's

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