Well here it is with all the screws inletted and fitted. All I have to do is mix the
epoxy and put it all in. There is quite a bit of space, I am going to fill it
all with epoxy then remove just enough from behind the magazine
box to prevent any battering. I will put it together and let it sit
for a week before taking it apart. I'll then shoot some low
recoil loads before building up to the heavy loads. If it breaks then
I'll be waiting a few months before I'll be able to buy some wood. Then
I'll have to get the stock duplicated. Oh well...

Roger,

I can't tell from the pic, but if the angled pieces are just press fitted in there I'd secure each one with a dab of super glue on each end just to make sure they don't start moving on you when you start spreading the epoxy around. I'm sure you've probably done that already but just in case you haven't it is a real pain to have everything sloppy with glue then start shifting...

[ 10-28-2002, 09:19: Message edited by: MarkWhite ]

Mark,

It is already done! I didn't even faint. This one is too expensive to make even a tiny mistake.

I had taken an angled wood shaver and sliced all the wood in different directions in every groove and flat surface. The dremel makes a very smooth surface and I wanted max holding on this. I then filled the grooves to make sure there was enough epoxy to fill the groove and cover the backside of the screw that was being pressed in, I had swiped epoxy all over each screw before laying each one home.

It took me 30 minutes or so since I wanted it to be as perfect as I could get it. The rifle is now relaxing in a corner and I won't touch it for one week. At the end of that I'll take it apart and do the clean up. If I have any open spots I'll fill those too before I take it out. I really do hope this works 'cause if it doesn't...$$$$.

About 10yrs. ago I repaired a Ruger M77 that fit on a 338mag. for a friend of mine. He had run over it with his pickup truck, right across the pistol grip. All the cracks were clean, but some were quite long. Owning a cabinety and millwork shop we do a lot of gluing. The secret to glueing is clamping. I made wooden jigs to fit around the grip so I would have a good flat surface to clamp on instead of trying to put clamps directly on the stock its self. Also, I placed waxpaper between the clamping jigs and the stock to keep from gluing them together. For glue I used AcraGlass, great glue. One other thing, when gluing cracks I cut little wedges to drive in between and spread the crack far enough so one can get glue into the complete crack.
I didn't use any cross bolts or pins, if the crack is clean and most of the wood is in place a properly made glue joint is stronger then the wood around it. Where people get into trouble is they get glue completely into thr crack, and don't devise a way of correctly clamping it.

By the way my friend is still shooting and hunting with that same 338 and stock. Pete