What I've found, that I really like doing, is to shop around for a "restocked" or "custom stocked" rifle that someone has butchered - preferably by leaving too much wood/meat on it - which means it's usually fairly cheap, for whatever it is.
The extra wood allows restyling to proper classic proportions, fairly easily - followed by some creative staining (if needed, to "create" fancy grain) and a hand-rubbed TruOil finish.
I've had several, over the years, that I've been able to more than double my investment on - with just a little labor.
Virtually every previous seller, that I've shown the gun to after I was done, had the same reaction: "Is that the same gun, I sold you ?"
