Tru-Oil vs. Wizard!

[Ranch Dog]

Put the Wizard back together tonight and the complete Tru-Oil treatment did wonders for this rifle that had a dull dog dodo finish. I took the rifle down to no finish, just the bare wood and then started from ground zero with the B&C Walnut Stain, Filler & Sealer, four coats of Tru-Oil, Stock Sheen & Conditioner, and finally their Stock Wax. The pictures do not do it justice, will need to get it outside in natural light but the deep walnut finish looks like you could reach in and grab a handful of character!







I never put any elbow grease into the finish, just a few minutes a day for a week. The rifle I have I bought as the 45-70 Govt and then I purchased a 44 Mag barrel and rechambered it to 444 Marlin with a rented reamer.

[joec]

That is the closes stock grain I've seen to my R92. It was also very dull but I didn't use the filler or stain on it just the oil on but 6 coats of the oil. I was shocked by the grain in the wood. Great job RD.

[pricedo]

That is the closes stock grain I've seen to my R92. It was also very dull but I didn't use the filler or stain on it just the oil on but 6 coats of the oil. I was shocked by the grain in the wood. Great job RD.

Pretty close to the results I got by using Tru-Oil on top of the incumbent Rossi "shoe polish" finish.
My 92 stocks didn't have anywhere near the natural grain patterning that RDs did.
I was originally going to buy custom walnut stocks for my 92s but changed my mind after I saw the rather plain Jane utilitarian beauty the wood took on after I applied the Tru-oil / Rossi "shoe polish" amalgam.
Took about an hour all told per stock........not a labor intensive project by any stretch of the imagination.

** after all that work do the groups on the target paper look as good as the stock does?

[Ranch Dog]

Thanks guys!

** after all that work do the groups on the target paper look as good as the stock does?

I don't shoot it as much as I should but it is a ragged hole shooter at 100-yards with my 310, 360, and 425 grain bullets sized to .458". My 444 Marlin barrel shoots my 250, 270, and 300 grain bullets sized at .430 just as well. I have a 350-grain 444 Marlin bullet but have never made the time to shoot it.

The Wizard is in it's fourth model year and my disappointment in the rifle is that only half of the rifle barrels promoted are available. I think Rossi's claim into the "buy & shoot" single shot market, rifles that do not need to be returned for a barrel fitting, is hurt by the lack of choice. Personally, I think there caliber offerings need to tailor barrel length for the cartridge a bit better than just having everything at 23". There are two "Youth" barrels available, the 223 Rem and 243 Win, at 22" and I would buy them for my use before I would buy the regular 23" barrel.

From what I have figured out the 17 HMR, 22 LR, 38 Spl/357 Mag, 454 Casull, and 7.62X39 barrels are mere pipe dream. The 308 Win, 35 Whelen, and 45-70 Govt are offered as complete rifles but individual barrels have not been made available. In the RossiUSA store they have a 7mm-08 barrel available and that has never been listed.

It is ashame that Rossi doesn't take a bit more interest in this design as I feel, having owned three, that it is a better rifle than the H&R product. Everyone's big objection to the H&R is the trigger and if they shot a Wizard they would never go back to the H&R. From the get go, the Wizard is approximately $50 cheaper and the owner can change the barrels. What the H&R is offering is choice, there is a huge selection of calibers out there and they are available. Finally, Rossi needs to consider giving this rifle a more traditional stock comb. I could guarantee them that alone turns heads the wrong way at the start. Didn't mean to rant off the post subject but feel Rossi could be doing better!

[pricedo]

I have a New England Firearms (NEF) single shot in 45-70 that despite being a good shooter seldom gets out of the gun safe as it gets eclipsed by my 2 x self customized Guide Guns that are tack drivers with the Hornady FTX 325 grain ammo and of course there's the Pedersoli 86/71.
The Wizard sounds and looks good but I don't need another safe queen to dust around. The Marlin 1895G with the small footprint Leupold 2-7x28mm scope (the smallest profile scope in this power range I've ever seen) on it has become my favorite truck rifle. With the FTX ammo it is a 200 yard gun. Nothing touches that "Happy Trigger" from Wild West Guns I installed in both Guide Guns which has a crisp clean 3 pound break. There's so much in the way of custom accessories for the Marlin 1895 levergun that even a shooter of modest mechanical dexterity can make a Guide Gun into just about anything he wants.

[Maximumbob54]

I wish I had that much character...

[akuser47]

Looks great I new it would. My next 92 in stainless will get this kind of stock finish.

[pricedo]

The wood on RDs Wizard looks like the kind of fancy wood you'd see on a high end British double rifle (H&H or Westley Richards) costing $100K or more.
I'm being quite serious......it does.
A chap wearing a top hat from the House of Westley Richards might be rapping on RDs door wanting to write him a big check for a whole lotta pounds sterling for the secrets of his gun stock finish.
By the way Westley Richards is having a web-sale of used guns........a WR 375 H&H Droplock double rifle is going for a piddly $75,000.........better move fast or you'll miss it.
I don't think my house is worth that much.

[akuser47]

The wood on RDs Wizard looks like the kind of fancy wood you'd see on a high end British double rifle (H&H or Westley Richards) costing $100K or more.
I'm being quite serious......it does.
A chap wearing a top hat from the House of Westley Richards might be rapping on RDs door wanting to write him a big check for a whole lotta pounds sterling for the secrets of his gun stock finish.
By the way Westley Richards is having a web-sale of used guns........a WR 375 H&H Droplock double rifle is going for a piddly $75,000.........better move fast or you'll miss it.
I don't think my house is worth that much.

agreed with Jaqua's Fine Guns their gun room is a super huge gun safe literally. No exageration the doorway is a huge bunker style/ bank vault style door to their gun room. They have those types of guns for sale. mostly O/U annd Double barrel shotguns but also many nice weatherby rifles and so on.

[Tuco Ramirez]

Great job RD!!!!

Makes the grain really pop.