There's a story behind this post.
Two of us at marlinowners had to send our 338MX's back twice. The service manager at Marlin, Bob T (bobbytjr at marlinowners) decided to do something to make it up to the two of us.
Gallo Pazzesco at marlinowners was the first to go back twice. The second time his came back, it had some unbelievable wood on it
(Hot looking girl #1, THIS IS GALLO PAZZESCO's- not mine. His has even better wood)
)The link to his thread is http://www.marlinowners.com/forums/inde ... #msg687031
Anyway, mine went back a second time and came back with the big loop on it I'd requested (at no charge, even though I'd offered to pay for the parts) and the problems more than solved as it cycles as smooth as silk. But then . . . a few days later I got a box from Bob at Marlin with some gorgeous wood in it and an apology that he wasn't able to mount the wood for me. Couldn't believe he felt like he needed to apologize, but he's that knid of guy (hope he gets his shop up soon).
The stock came with a satin finish that tends to mute the wood and hide some of the detail. So I used a trick I learned from the Henry owners at Rimfirfe Central and took some ScratchX to the finish to polish it. Gallo is planning on doing the same thing and with the figure in his wood, it should make your eyes pop outta your head and your jaw hit the floor and bounce a few times once he's done because of how the polishing makes the grain pop.
I've been stalling, but finally got the gumption to put the new wood on. Only took a little bit of work to get it to fit. So here it is.
Left side: (excuse the dirty lens in the first picture)
Right side:
Bob sure out did himself. I can't thank him enough. Both Gallo and I have talked about how much we appreciate what he did to make up for the issues we were having. People like him are going to make me sorely miss Marlin in Connecticutt being closed.
He's talking about opening a shop with a couple of the other smith's from Marlin. If he does, I know where I'm sending my rifle for work. Not only does it look nice, the action is so smooth it makes people smile when they cycle it.
