Does anyone know if Iver Johnson used different types of wood on their Champion shotguns? If so, what wood did they use?
I have an older 16 ga Champion (circa 1909-1919) and the wood appears to be very dark. I just bought a .410 ga Champion(circa 1920-1929) and the stock was also very dark. The forearm was split and missing a lot of wood. The stock had a crack in the wrist and the previous owner used some sort of epoxy to fill the crack. They never banded it together when filled it in, so there is a visible gap and I cannot remove the old epoxy to try and fix it correctly.
I found a replacement forearm and stock on eBay, and they fit perfectly. They have matching numbers and were covered with layers of some sort of lacquer. Yesterday I stripped off the lacquer and found the stock was almost a maple color, not the walnut color of the old stock and my 16 ga. The stock appear to be original, does anyone know if Iver Johnson used Maple for stocks?
I have an older 16 ga Champion (circa 1909-1919) and the wood appears to be very dark. I just bought a .410 ga Champion(circa 1920-1929) and the stock was also very dark. The forearm was split and missing a lot of wood. The stock had a crack in the wrist and the previous owner used some sort of epoxy to fill the crack. They never banded it together when filled it in, so there is a visible gap and I cannot remove the old epoxy to try and fix it correctly.
I found a replacement forearm and stock on eBay, and they fit perfectly. They have matching numbers and were covered with layers of some sort of lacquer. Yesterday I stripped off the lacquer and found the stock was almost a maple color, not the walnut color of the old stock and my 16 ga. The stock appear to be original, does anyone know if Iver Johnson used Maple for stocks?