18" Beater Pump Project

Couple years ago I bought a used 20ga pump gun for a hundred bucks to take the lady shooting clays.  I cut the butt stock as short as I could, then added the thickest, softest butt pad I could find.  The result was a gun I could barely shoot without my right hand smacking my nose, and a 26" front heavy barrel that she could barely support.  It sat in the safe for a long time until eventually I decided I might as well get her a youth gun and turn this one into something useful.

I cut the barrel down to 18" and stripped off the finish... next step is (probably) cutting off the buttstock altogether for a "Book-Of-Eli" style quick draw grip.  My dilemma is whether to just varnish the bare wood for a blonde-gun look, or stain very dark for a old-time-beater look.  Opinions?

Before Before.

After Shortening, before hacking. 

Tubing cutter gives a perfectly straight cut -- hacksaw has a tendency to run crooked. 

Drawback is the damage it does to about 1/4" of the finish on either side of the cut. 

Honey color before 

Time to remove the buttstock?

Denzel's Remington from "Book of Eli".

I'm leaning toward dark staining the wood parts at the moment.