By Shep Kelly
A Custom Shotgun Stock From Wenig Custom Gun Stock
Since sporting clays was a game to replicate upland bird hunting, I assumed a factory stock on a shotgun designed for this type of shooting would suffice. I knew the way the English fitted their game gunstocks was a well-established almost religious-like ritual. No English bird hunter (or game shot, as they liked to be called) would think of going to the field without a properly fitted shotgun with a stock made to his/her precise dimensions. This hand fitting of a stock was not confined to just the London high-brow firms such as Holland & Holland and Purdey, but also to the hundreds of provincial gunmakers who flourished in the UK over the last 150 years.
These English gunners wanted to maximize their chances of taking birds be they pheasant, partridge or grouse. It didn’t take too many poor scores on my part in sporting clays competitions to cause the light bulb to go on. I had a mechanically sound gun (a Beretta 391 semiauto, excellent ammunition, all the necessary shooting accessories such as glasses, vests, etc.), but the gun didn’t fit me worth a hoot! Lessons from some of the leading sporting clays competitors coupled with a “gun fitting” from world-renowned English shooting instructor Chris Batha confirmed my factory shotgun stock didn’t fit and wasn’t even close to what I needed.
I am a bit over 6' tall with a long neck and long arms. The Beretta factory stock was designed to fit Mr. Average who was a bit shorter both in height and arm/neck length. As a result I was fitting myself to the stock instead of the other way around. And my scores suffered. Chris Batha confirmed I needed a much longer stock with a higher comb and a slight modification to the grip in order to fit — a custom stock. Fortunately, I already had experience with a stockmaker, so I called Fred Wenig of Wenig Custom Gunstocks in Lincoln, Missouri.
pattern board covered in non-drying paint by Shep to determine the final fit.
Nearly 30 years ago, my father called one day to tell me he had found a 1936-vintage Winchester Model 70 in .30-06, with excellent metal and bore, but a ‘tired’ stock. My Dad gave me that rifle and when I received it, it just begged for a classic stock, made of well-figured wood. I was living in the Midwest then and a friend suggested that I call Reinhart Fajen Stocks in Warsaw, Missouri. I made an appointment with a fellow named Fred Wenig who at the time was the operations manager for Fajen’s.
Many older readers will be familiar with the Fajen name — and that of another Warsaw stockmaker — Bishop. Both companies made the bulk of semi-inletted stocks for the military rifle sporterizing craze of the 1950s and ’60s. I met Fred and spent an hour or so going through wood blanks, finally choosing a well-figured blank of California Claro walnut. Two months later, I had a stunning example of a stockmaker’s artistry — a classic American-style stock, oil finished and checkered by hand that to this day causes other hunters to ask who did the work. I have hunted that rifle every year since I got it and, while wearing a few dings, it gets rubbed down with linseed oil every season and still is as beautiful as the day I received it from Fajen.
Fajen purchased Bishop and later was purchased itself. After several years the new owners decided custom stockmaking wasn’t a business they wanted to be in and Fajen closed. Fred Wenig and several other veterans of Fajen formed their own company and today Wenig’s Custom Gunstocks is known worldwide as the stockmaker of choice for those who want to improve their shotgun shooting performance through a custom stock.
Wenig’s offers a “one day service” for custom stocks. You arrive very early in the morning, select your wood and while the stock is being fitted to your shotgun, you go across the street to Winkler’s restaurant (the in place in Lincoln, Missouri, population 400) and have a great breakfast of all those things bad for you — biscuits and gravy, bacon, hash browns — the wonderful list just goes on. Then you waddle back to the shop where your stock is now fitted to your shotgun and roughly sized.
Your stockmaker, in my case a 20-year veteran named Jimmy Cardwell (and usually Elbert Smith, Wenig’s Vice President who started the company with Fred) will take you out to the farm where the pattern plate and clay pigeon traps await.
There you’ll shoot against a non-drying-paint covered pattern board to see where your shot charge is impacting based on the stock fit and the ‘stocker’ will make adjustments with rasps and files until the pattern on the board is exactly where you want it in relationship to your sight picture.
To make sure it’s exactly right, you’ll be thrown clay pigeons from a trap to ensure what appeared to be a correct fit on a stationary target is indeed right when the target is moving.
This later stock fitting phase is especially important in sporting clays, where the gun is usually held off the shoulder then mounted like a hunting shot when the target appears. Unlike trapshooting where the shooting is done with a premounted gun, the stock fitter and maker has to insure the stock fits coming to the shoulder and then be in position for the shot. The ability to successfully accomplish both of these requirements is the mark of the master stock maker.
About 30 shots later, both Jimmy and Elbert were satisfied the stock and me were in synch and we headed back to the shop. I left the fitted stock to be finished with a hand-rubbed oil finish and checkered.
The new Wenig stock (left) is longer in length-of-pull and has a higher comb than the factory Beretta stock. This allows Shep to look down the rib and have 1/2 the shot pattern above the rib and 1/2 below. Ideal for rising or falling sporting clays targets and the same for game shooting.
The Result
The pictures speak to the beauty of the finished product. A masterpiece of wood working, the stock still had to improve my scores or it would just be a pretty addition to the gun. I kept careful track of my scores for the next several months and the improvement was dramatic. I no longer was contorting myself to the wood affecting pattern placement resulting in lost targets. The headache I usually had after shooting with the factory stock was gone.
My scores improved an average of 10 percent or more and I am now shooting better than ever. If you are serious about improving your shotgun shooting whether for hunting or competition, you need to have a stock fitted and made by recognized experts like the folks at Wenig. When the stock fits better, you’ll hit better.
Wenig Custom Gunstocks
103 North Market St.
Lincoln, MO 65338
(660) 547-3334
www.wenig.com
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