This was posted in Big Bores.

I am just wondering why I seem to see this type of thing in planesawn wood but never in quartersawn wood.

quote:

quote:

Originally posted by PNWHunter:
Hi everybody. I'm not sure if this belongs here or in Gunsmithing, so mods please feel free to move it. I went out shooting today and cracked the stock on my 375 SR20 pretty bad. There's no pieces missing, but it still looks pretty bad. I've never seen a crack like this. Does anybody know what could have caused this, and what I can do to prevent it from happening again? I think that the crack is a pretty easy fix for a good gunsmith. I'm thinking that when I have it repaired I'll also have the rifle fully bedded and have a crossbolt installed (just because I think they look cool). Is there anything else that I should have checked or anybody that you could recommend to do to the work? I took some pics of the damage when I got home.

Here's a pic of the inside of the stock.


The crack starts near the front checkering,


runs through the front recoil lug,


through the rear of the magazine,


and through the wrist. Here's the top near the tang,


and here's the bottom.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Typical of flat-sawn wood, but also typical of non-bedded or poorly-bedded stocks with no crossbolts, regardless of the stock layout.

Anyone who doesn't use multiple recoil lugs and crossbolts on a heavy rifle is begging for problems. Now some of you wouldn't consider this to be a heavy recoiler but obviously it was heavy enough to crack the stock.

Reminds me of lots of Weatherby stocks I've seen, cracked and broken from recoil.
Regards, Joe

With the grain flowing the way it does, crossing diagonally across the side of the mag box, I wouldn't fix it--time for a new stock. You could glue it but the grain next to the glue joint is going the same direction and will most likely break the same way.

Overkill is always better than under kill. Can a stock be to stable or to good?

For the two heavy recoil wood rifles I have:

1. Ruger 375 H&H Mark II (the real deal, not the Hawkeye) - shot it for several years, including Africa, without any issues. However, I did have it epoxy bedded with Devcon in 2006 - just to be sure.

2. Father-in-laws 7 mag -almost finished. XL recoil lug, Devcon bedded, pillars as well, dual cross-bolts, and a 3 piece laminated stock (flipped center 3/8" of original blank around). I don't think it's going anywhere!

A couple of rifles in the works - all will get the same treatment as #2 (except for the stock lamination). The .458 will use Mesquite instead of Walnut for extra weight.

PS: I even pillared and bedded my son's .308 Mohawk. Used epoxy to strengthen stock internally - made molds of trigger and completely epoxied around it and around the magazine. It's a solid piece of wood and epoxy internally now. Thinking back, though, the factory wood was yuck - so probably wasted my time. Planning to redo with a blind magazine setup and a nice walnut stock.

Is this the result of a lead sled?

IMO if the smith can't back the butt firmly against a big tree and pull the trigger on a full load with no damage, then it's not stocked properly.
Regards, Joe

That is a major league fracture! The grain layout in that stock doesn't look good.

I have to wonder whether proper glass bedding, including relieving the tang, and even adding cross-bolts, would have prevented this.

I have a stock with similar layout. It's very pretty, but I don't intend to use it for a big bore.

Hi everybody, I'm going to try calling Heym USA about this on Tuesday, but I'm assuming I'll be on my own with this. I've been looking at stock blanks online and will most likely have the old one duplicated, then have the new one bedded, crossbolted, and reinforced at the wrist. I also may have an extra 1/2" added to the butt.

The trouble is, I know almost nothing about picking a blank. I like the darker walnut, and have heard that the grain through the wrist is important. Here's a couple of blanks that I found that I like:

http://www.oldtreegunblanks.com/pics.php?id=1157
http://www.oldtreegunblanks.com/pics.php?id=367
http://www.oldtreegunblanks.com/pics.php?id=800

I don't want anything too fancy, but I do want some figure without being too nice to hunt with. Would these be good stocks to use?

Here's a pic of the stock that broke. It's about 33" total from the end of the pad to the forend. I really like the rosewood forend tip, and will probably put either a rosewood or ebony tip on the new stock.

Make sure whoever does the duplicating doesn't duplicate the inlet. I can't believe how much wood is missing inside that stock. The trigger can't be that massive to require a cubic yard of wood being removed like shown on the first picture. There isn't even any wood left to put a second cross bolt. I'd like to see a few pics of the b/action. From the look of the inlet, it wasn't programmed by a stockmaker IMO.

How did you get toes to grow on your finger like in the second picture?

quote:

Originally posted by PNWHunter:

http://www.oldtreegunblanks.com/pics.php?id=1157

I would never ever layout a stock like that. Especially for a big bore.

I wouldn't recommend picking a blank and then finding a smith. Having a smith help you find what you're looking for always works out better for the finished product.

I like GSS1 blank. Looks good I know some guys that can pattern it if you PM me.

I know luxus has a few blanks that are sub 500 buck that are hard, and ready to turn.

1-2071 for $480
1-2072 for $579

Both of these are hard dense blanks--look under there spotlight blanks, they have a few. Adam is good to deal with and Turkish will just look at home on that rifle!

Ed

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Originally posted by gunmaker:
I'd like to see a few pics of the b/action.

Here's a couple pics of the action that I took the other night. They're not very good pics, but they show most of the action. I really like the third stock. I almost had the money together to buy the scope I want and have the rings made for the claw mount, so I'll probably just push that project back a bit.

That's a BFTH!

Looks like there's about a 3/16" web of wood between the magazine mortise and the trigger mortise. On the barreled action it looks closer to .58638725378" This should be left in the stock when you have another one cut. A secondary cross bolt will fit nicely there.

Even though this action has a real recoil lug, the round action behind it acts as a wedge even with a properly bedded action. Pick your stock blank carefully.

With today's CNC techno, I can't understand why so many factory stocks are over inlet to this degree. It takes less time to remove less wood. They just need to take some direction from a qualified stockmaker when programming the inlet.

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With the grain flowing the way it does, crossing diagonally across the side of the mag box, I wouldn't fix it--time for a new stock. You could glue it but the grain next to the glue joint is going the same direction and will most likely break the same way.

That stock at the very least should of had a crossbolt with grain like that if not also bedding .

From what little I can actually make out from the pictures that isn't exactly a stellar stock

it appears to be plain sawn and as mentioned isn't worth the effort to repair ,IMO.

Yet I'm not a gunsmith only a wood guy .

Doesn't appear to me that the recoil lug was seated against the steel insert. It was probably seated against the rounded corners of the inlet and only bearing on the ends. When the rifle was fired this would cause a wedging effect from the recoil lug being forced backwards and resulting in the stock splitting like it did. A good glass bedding job would probably have prevented this happening. A crossbolt would have added some insurance for sure. Too late now, but something to keep and eye out for in the future.