Thanks guys, really appreciate the comments!

Joe Do…, I’ve had many people help me when I’ve had questions on how the originals were made or configured.  And I appreciate all the help I’ve had from everyone.  What you did when you disassembled your original and taking pictures, measurements and making drawings was especially helpful.  Thank You.

On to the stocking of this action now.

The action is stocked from a blank by using mostly just hand tools, including rasps, files, scrapers and sand paper.  I've had the blank since 2013 so it is well seasoned and believe it to be English walnut, probably California English though.  While I do use measuring tool for layout, pretty much everything else is done by eye.  I do what I feel looks best in shaping a gun stock, so it may not appeal to some.

This first photo is of the blank.  Looking at this side, it has no imperfection that I could see.  But later you will see that, what I call, a bark inclusion showed up just behind the grip below the comb.  The crude drawing of the stock will be cut out on the bandsaw, this is well oversized because I did not know where this was headed as far as inletting and dimensions goes.  And to start I only cut the head and grip area out so I could get started inletting the action.  The rest would be trimmed off after I know where the drop and pull length will end up and I put no cast off/on in this stock at either the heel or toe line.

2.  Stocking this action was somewhat challenging with the crazy curved tangs and curved frame.  I started by inletting the head and top tang first.  The black you see, for anyone not familiar with the process, is what is called inletting black.  This stuff is somewhat messy but I've tried many different ways and products and I find this has been the best to work with.  A little bit goes along ways. 
This picture shows just getting started on a long and tedious journey!

3.  Progressing along with the top tang.  The inletting black is applied to the metal, the metal carefully set on the wood and lightly taped with a wood mallet. The dark spot that are left on the wood are what need to be removed, as they are the high spots.  This is continued until everything fits.
I need to add that both tangs have a bevel filed into their sides and around the end of each.  This helps in getting the inlets started and keeping them tight.  I use a chip carving knife to mark the outline of the inlet.  This bevel allow the knife blade, when held at an angle, to get under the side of the part, keeping the outline inside the part so a tight inlet is possible. 

4.  This is a different gun but shows the knife being used for the marking of the inlet.

At this point I had a reproduction butt plate ordered and it had not arrived so what I could do was limited.  In the end the plate took two months to get so the gun ended up sitting much of that time until it came.   
I did rough shape the grip area and installed the buffalo horn grip cap.  I'll get into the horn installation and shaping later.  Anyway this photo is where we are currently at in the stocking.

Did a bit more engraving today.  That is now done.

This is easily one of the most complete and helpful build up articles I've yet seen...I had been toying with the notion of building a No.7 for my bride and this has made up my mind...Gotta do it! It's the perfect rifle for her and I have a lovely piece of walnut in the stash that will look just right on it.Guess I have to call Rodney, and get off my keester and find a rotary table/dividing head.

I have been trying to find time to do my own write up of building an 1877 Sharps from Rodney's castings and it is a ton of work, really appreciate the time an thought you've put into this.

Since it is important for the stock size on this gun, and several have shown interest in building one, I thought I should in include the buttplate dimension photos of the original.

As I said in my last post, I like well a defined nose of the comb on my guns.  I know most factory guns have a blunt wide nose and my guess this is because it's easier and cheaper to form in the factory setting.  

1. I struggled with this for a time.  As they say its easier to remove wood than replace it so I approached the nose shape cautiously.  This shows a fairly wide nose yet.

2.  The original guns have a really sharp point at the nose which I don't really care for, so this is the final shape I settled on.

3. A front shot of the comb nose.  Here you can see why a flute is nearly impossible with the tang where it is.  Also note the bark inclusion I talked about several posts back.  It's fairly shallow at this point and will be fixed later but not hidden.

Here are some pictures of the original grip cap with measurements.  By having these measurements, on both the gip cap and the buttplate, gives anyone building a #7 some of the dimension they need in order to get started on stocking a gun.