This section presumes you will be finishing a semi-inletted stock. These stocks come in various degrees of completion, usually advertised as 80% or 90% shaped. They are very rough compared to what you want the finished stock to be. There will probably be a lot of excess wood to remove on most of the stock and perhaps not very much in some areas. The stock will be inletted to accept the barreled action you requested it for. The inletting will be good at the action area but will require wood removal to fit the action and then more removal to relieve stress on the action. There is a good chance that you will have to fashion the bolt drop, as some come with very little wood cut for that. Inletting of the barrel channel will probably be quite undersized with you having to cut most all of it. However, the channel will be centered with the action making it not difficult to fit the barrel properly leaving equal wood on both sides of forearm. The butt end of the stock will almost always not have to be shortened. The forearm tip may well have to be shortened. If their is a bonded tip cap (rosewood, etc.) it may need to be shortened. It is best not to shorten stock until barrel channel is fully fashioned since over widening can occur at tip during channel enlargement.
Because the stock will be shuffled around a lot during the inletting process, likely causing it to hit something while it is moved side to side, up and down and all around, I suggest inletting the barreled action first. If you want to float the barrel I suggest doing so before removing much wood from the forearm You may need extra wood there because of the widened channel. Floating the action can wait since that does not require the degree of removal as does the barrel.
