I have a real nice old (not sure the date but it is fluid steel barrels) 16 gauge side by side Belgian guild shotgun, boxlock that is a little loose, I believe where the stock attaches to the action. The barrels seem to be tight on the action. If you hold the gun by the stock and wiggle it, you can feel the looseness. I never noticed it before until I cleaned it today after a dove shoot. Is this an easy fix for a gunsmith or is it an expensive proposition? Is the gun safe to shoot? I would think it would get worse in time.
joe

Glass bedding might work.

Mark

Could be very easy. Might not be

take off fore stock and see if yyou have the same problem. If not then that is loose and no worries

If you still have

Take off the recoil pad or plate and tighten the through bolt. Use a flashlight to see down tge hole. Do not over tighten

I dont recommend you to try and tighten the action screws.

Put back together and try.

If yo still have the problem, call a sporting clays or skeet range and see who they recommend

It may not have a through bolt. In that case, the stock is held tight by the action screw, usually back by the safety. It can be tightened by inserting a steel bushing (small) and glassing it into the stock. Not for the faint of heart.

Steel bushings defeat the purpose of how the actions are designed to hold the stock on. If its held on the traditional way with a hand pin/screw, tightening the screw will act to draw the stock into the action.

The action metal work is built like a wedge. As the bottom trigger plate is drawn closer to the action tang it draws whatever is between these two parts into the action, in this case the stock. As wood shrinks it is designed to be tightened in this fashion. It may be necessary to shorten the hand pin underneath the safety.

Its also possible there is stock cracking in the head of the stock which would result in this not working like designed. The more you shoot a stock while loose, the higher the chances of splitting occures.

Sounds tyo me like it is a little too loose for that fix. If te pin and bushing are set with the stock tight against the action, it will tighten sufficiently.

Can you wiggle it up and down, or side to side, or BOTH?

Up and down is, usually, a question of the screw underneath the top lever being loose. The one that goes through into the trigger plate below.

Side to side sounds like the stock is split at the hand.

Thanks for all of the replies. There is no through the stock bolt. There are no cracks or splits in the wood that I can see. It looks to me that the stock is held on by screws going through the trigger guard tang up and screws going through the top tang down. The screws are all tight, but the stock is still loose. There is more movement from side to side, and only slight movement up and down.

I'm thinking that the wood may have shrunk some over the years and that some glass bedding compound applied at certain spots would replace what has shrunk and thus tighten it up. It seems that the repair job would be mostly labor so could be expensive or not depending on the 'smith. There is an older local g'smith who has done work for me in the past including fixing the timing on the ejectors of a double gun. I will probaly take it to him. Still welcome your additional thoughts though.
joe

It is my belief that your gunsmith will find the head of the stock is not only loose but split lengthwise down the web of the stock. This can be attributed to recoil set back of the wood. You mentioned you went dove hunting. Did you use 2 1/2" shells? Most of the older Belgium guns didn't have 2 3/4" chambers. I have fixed many in the years with this same problem. If you have a man who can do the bedding it is fine. May I suggest you consider having the top hand pin and the rear hand pin(USA=screws) re-worked as well to put new wood into the area as the old wood has been crushed beyond it's ability to rebound under recoil...thus the bushings Jim suggests. I don't use steel myself, but it will do the same thing in the end. Aaron is correct about the wedging effect of the action. Please note that when you shorten the back hand pin it changes the sear engagement on the triggers and that has to be addressed as well. I have seen the rear screw cause an increase of 3 lbs. per trigger doing it this way. I have one, myself, that I bought 12 years ago that is still not under 8 lbs of trigger pull. It is out at a specialist now to correct so I may use it.

It all boils down to getting the gun to someone who can look at it and give you an educated/informed opinion without guessing. It is nice to guess and be right...it is miserable for the guy who guess wrong!

The gun is marked as having "70mm" chambers under the barrels. I believe that is 2 3/4". So, I don't believe that is the problem. I will check out and tighten all of the screws and if that doesn't work, I'll take it to the smith.
joe

Tightening the hand screws only works so much like mentioned. If your wood has shrunk beyond this fix, or if there are cracks in the head of the stock it wont work. Bedding will need to go in place of the shrunken or damaged wood.

I echo DES's comment about the head splitting lengthwise, you wouldnt see this until the action was off the stock. Shooting a loose stock will create cracks that will act to seperate the stock head "wings", allowing side-to-side play and wood/metal gap.

Pretty much everything DES said rings true. I still dont use the bushing on the fixes I have done, but there are many ways to do the job. I believe there is an italian maker that puts them in place from the factory.

My method is to glass the action in with the pins, but leave the pins so they are not turned parallel with the bore. I then go back after things have hardened and scrape the glass until I can get the hand pins turned parallel. Its also important to relieve the backs of the stock pin holes so that they have clearance to draw the action back without the pin stopping movement. This also ensures that the pins themselves dont act as a recoil surface and start cracks.

Just needs to be re-bedded as Aaron and other describe.
Techniques vary a bit among 'smiths that do the work, but it should be done by someone familiar with SxS's.

There are a few small but important points that make a great difference in the final strength.

Wood/metal contact and where not to have it is very important. The 'bushings' is one of those things that some use,,some don't.
I use them when rebuilding a stock on a SxS with a single trigger. But otherwise do not.

One thing is for certain, stock damage is the sure result of shooting it in the present condition. Then you have to fix that as well as the original problem.

Once you pull the stock off you may even find that someone else has been inside and 'adjusted or improved' the inletting for what ever reason. That may have led to the loose fit after some live fire.
Might be just wood shrinkage and/or compression too.

All fixable and if done carefully, nothing will show from the outside.

Had same problem but just vertical movement. When you say screws are tight have you removed the trigger guard so you can access the rear tang screw.I tightened the rear screw first then the screw under the lever and it fixed it,as stated above the side to side movement my be a split stock but it can be repaired.just my thoughts.