JAS-SH - I'd say you won the wood lottery with your 457 American. I've seen several photos of CZ RF stocks over on RFC that were very attractive, and I have to say yours is about as good as any 457 I've seen so far. I've ordered in two Americans, a Varmint, Varmint MTR to date, and the American I decided to keep (mostly because the stock was more attractive than the other American's) shot like crap. It was so bad that I bought a Shilen bbl blank, did some contour work on it, then chambered & glued it into my action. Hope you appreciate how lucky you were to get a stock like yours....enjoy!