May not be in all cases, but most military gun stocks are just a finish of oil. I have seen many things used, but one of the best jobs I observed was a buddy of mine's work. He re-finished an old Enfield .303. He coated the stock liberally with Easy-Off oven cleaner and put it in his bath tub. He occasionally re-coated it with oven cleaner over a few hours. It just literally SUCKED the oil right out of the wood. After it had worked for some time, he then heated up a pot of water on the stove, and rinsed off the cleaner. He never let the oven cleaner dry completely, just kept it moist with it. Most all of the finish was removed. The hot water also served to help raise/swell out some of the small dings it had acquired over time. He then lightly sanded the stock after it dried out well. He mixed up some green fabric dye and water and applied it to the stock to bring out the grain and give it a nice green tint (in your case, I would use a nice wood stain!!). He finished off with about 8 coats of Tru-Oil over a course of several days. Once together, that was a fabulous looking rifle.
Just one way of doing it, but worked for him. He actually did it on several old military rifles, including an old Nagant.
YMMV.
