Emgee, while my Sportmodell 33 Junior is in fact Beech, the DSM34 like Sportmodell 33 stock is elm. The only stain I have ever tried with any luck on Beechwood is a very slight tint from American walnut hulls - and once I had some luck with the color boiled out from red oak bark. When I repaired my 33 Junior, I did not alter the original stock, other than to use alcohol to get the original finish off. I also used the darkest shellack I could find, but the original shellack had some bit of opaque color to it. A little help with my Sport Modell 33 junior? You can see the new handguard I made from beechwood off a mutilated 310 stock. Color matches pretty well. I think I gave it a slight wash with walnut hull stain, but very slight. Stefan is right, On other projects - crappy muzzleloader stocks of beech - no amount of stain seems to make them look good.
With this elm stock, I have had to destroy the existing finish - there was really none left on the surface, and it was all scarred up. Also, I have to splice on a new foreend, and that
will be much easier to blend if all the surface is new. In my experience, old oil soaked elm military stocks have a wonderful look, but when they are cleaned up much of the attraction is gone. This one was really nasty, but the finish - shellack or whatever - seems to have kept what oil it got from soaking into the wood.
Now I must get me some elm off ebay.de to repair it with - I am not sure whether our American variety would look the part!