Hi Guys, I posted earlier about a stock I have in where the recoil lug area of the stock was broken out and glued back in. I decided that I should put in a crossbolt to reinforce this area. I have a couple of questions. Can I just hollow out a section of the wood around the crossbolt and glass it in place? Also, could I just drill a hole clean through the stock in the recoil lug area and fill it with Acraglass gel instead of using a crossbolt at all, it looks like that is what Winchester does on it's model 70's (sort of making an epoxy crossbolt)? Thanks for the help.

My preference would be to hollow out the area and use a threaded bolt with the head cut off and the hollow filled with glass bedding. I'm not too fond of Winchester "hot glue" bedding system.
Paul B.

The metal based epoxies (Steel Bed, Devcon, etc.) are much better suited for this due to their higher shock and compression attributes.

Rick

wiktor,



The standard M/70 has a screw through the recoil area and they cover it with a plug. The purpose of the screw is to prevent the stock from spreading open during recoil and possibly splitting.



Good luck,

Headache

Wiktor,
Headache nailed it. One of the things that the stock bolt does is to put the wood in "compression". The set up is similar to post tensioning concrete as they do in bridge beams. Under recoil the recoil lug now tries to stretch that wood and will try to put it in tension. Since it is in compression( opposite of tension) it has to expend some of the energy just to overcome the compression and get the wood back to a neutral position before it can even start to stretch the wood. So it is a lot more than just a reinforced area in the wood.

chic,

Drawing on that civil engineering background made for the best explanation of the "why" I have heard. I had always thought it was just about preventing that split, didn't realize that by pre-compressing it you were forcing it to reach the nuetral first.

Thanks much!

Red

Thanks Chic also,
I never had a clue, but now I'm like, "Duh, of course!".
JCN
Too bad we can't install these in our kid's heads when they turn into teenagers.

Thanks for the info Guys! I never realized the compression aspect of the crossbolt either. This is on an H&R 300 and I noticed on the later years that the factory added a crossbolt.I wasn't so lucky.