I have up for sale a 338 Win.Mag. on the 'Classifieds' and mention finding a crack behind the magazine and trigger.....in the wood section that doesn't have a lot of wood. (please check out the rifle pictures-click on the 338 picture and more will appear.) How big of an issue is this? Of course it shouldn't happen but I recall someone saying some factory guns NOW don't have any wood in the area. I'd need to get a trusted guy to resolve this but I don't know any locals off the top of my head in Boise, Id.

My Sako L61R Finnbear .338 has been cracked through that section since before I got it in 1979. Shoots like a dream. I just re-barreled it to .375 AI and thought about fixing it while rebedding, but think I will just let it slide.

Well thanks, that's good to know but I'm too anal for my own good and thought the crack would be a minus to a buyer. Guess I leave it alone.

As with anything else, it depends on the buyer. Many buyers would consider the crack a definite minus....or they would at least tell you they do, to help in haggling the price down, if nothing else.

As you know it is there, though, I think that carries a moral obligation to tell all prospective buyers about it before taking their money.

Personally, I have had a couple of hunting rifles which split that area completely, so I just removed the split section and still continue to use them. They still seem to work fine and shoot as accurately as ever. If they were heavy recoiling rifles, I'd probably have put in a "through-bolt".

Some rifles were designed to have full contact between the back of the magazine and the stock...apparently to help distribute recoil absorption. Others are designed to have zero contact between the back of the magazine and the stock.

I've never seen the results of a scientifically controlled valid and reliable test to determine if either approach clearly and demonstrably works better.

(That doesn't mean I haven't read claims of superiority for one or the other. I have, for both. But claims aren't scientifically tested proof.)