Bleaching wood ?

[Tom-May]

Graeme,

I think you'll have to try colour matching.

A little van Dyke brown (usually water based) with the addition of red and yellow (possibly some green) analine alcohol or water based dyes, applied with a fine paintbrush (size 0 or 1-ish should work).

I'd suggest working in natural light, and make sure that you test on scrap material*. Don't forget to test the 'new' colour with oil (and against an oiled sample of the rifle's own wood), but leave a patch unoiled for colour matching on the rifle proper*.

It may be worth while adding a coat of 'sanding sealer' first, but as this is shellac based (about 30-50% concentration of standard 'French Polish') you may not feel so inclined.

I'm sorry, most of my (very limited) experience is with 'brown' furniture.

Best Wishes

Tom

*Bloody obvious I know, but you'ld be surprised at the number of times people forget (me included).