All,

I have a 1955 Mdl 70 "Featherweight" 30-06 that is almost like new....took it out for pre-season zeroing this weekend and noticed a hairline crack forming at the base of the top action tang. Uh-oh!

How should and who should fix this for me?

Thanks,

Jeff

That's not all that uncommon a problem.A good gunsmith should be able to deal with it. Or if you're skilled a DIY project.

it's an easy fix. Try to open the crack up a bit with a narrow tool. Then mix up some expoy (accra glass work well, but use the regular stuff not the gel in this case) spread the eposy over the crack and try to force as much as you can into it. Then take an air compressor at about 40#'s and blow the stuff into the crack. This gets the glue into all the little crannys. Wipe the surface off with a rag full of vinegar (cleans off the excess glue). clamp and leave sit for a couple of days. Then clean up the finish.

Cracks at that location on model 70's are not all that common unless something else is going wrong- namely set back of the recoil lug which is allowing the rear guard screw to contact the wood at the back of the screw hole. It's an easy enough repair to glue it up but if you want it to last you should determine why it cracked in the first place.

Check to see if the wood at the back of the recoil lug mortise has compressed or has cracked over the years. If so you can either glue and shim it or do a glass bedding job. Also check to see if the web in the stock in front of the trigger mortise is cracked as well.

Sometimes these cracks occur simply because the owner has been careless about maintaining proper gaurd screw tension. The cracks do not usually start without some other condition existing in M 70 rifles of that caliber unless you simply have a poor piece of walnut and the feather weight models often had lighter weight and weaker wood than standard weight models as Winchester was trying to keep the weight down so they came a bit closer to their advertised weight.