I want to epoxy and pin a crack in my rifle stock. The crack is between the magazine box and the rear screw hole with some cracking in the wrist also. Where do I find some repair pins? I plan to put two pins by the two stock screws. Should I use stock bolts instead? The rifle is a 9.3x62 Mauser 98. I plan to fix the stock then refinish it and properly bed the action.

Help,
Tom Hughes

Since you are going to refinish the stock anyway, then put in cross-bolts.

They are the strongest and surest way to hold things together.

Put some epoxy in the cracks before pulling them tight .

You might be able to get some epoxy into the crack on the wrist, but then again maybe not.

If you can spread the crack, even a little bit, lay some thin epoxy on the crack, and blow it in with compressed air. then pull the spreader out and let it harden.

Thanks for the response, Terry. I think I will go with two cross bolts from Brownell's. Now where exactly do they go? I saw a 60's Browning HighPower in 300 WM just yesterday and it had two cross bolts, but I didn't pay much attention to the locations of them. I just Google searched for pictures and came up empty. Does the front bolt go before or after the action lug for a Mauser? The one in the back could only go between the trigger hole and the magazine just eye-balling it. Thanks in advance.

Tom

Tom, the first goes just behind the lug and near the top and the second goes as you described.

I've found that if the crack goes all the way through the best way to get epoxy in it is to pull it in using a shop vac on the other side.

Thank you one and all. That gets me pointed in the right direction. The bolts are ordered and I will strip the stock this weekend.

Tom

Tom,

As I recall there are several threads here on crack repair. I would only add a few suggestions to the good advice posted so far. I would use either superglue or brownell's bedding kit. I find that a thin runny epoxy works best. I always like to know why wood cracked and resolve the problem - e.g. recoil, drying, grain, etc. I drill using my drill press on a low to moderate speed. I should know the rpm, but I dont. I sometimes, drill a hole at the crack end to stop propagation. I shave off the "pins" well below the surface of the wood. I usually cover the holes, etc. with mixture of epoxy and sawdust. I use a rope tourniquet to close crack. I use a syringe to inject epoxy into the crack and may use small nails to open crack a little to insert.

I hope that helps a little.

Good luck,
Dave