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Finally finished this headache.
This was supposed to be a simple crack fix, and clean up the stock. What I got was, a stock shattered at the wrist, and small pieces missing. It was standing up and took a hard hit to the left side of the receiver, which pretty much snapped it in half, bending the stock bolt. It was split back to the start of the comb.
To make it even more fun, the break happened long before I was born. So between now and then, it had been wrapped up in something I think was tape (gooey mess that took hours to remove), with a generous amount of whale oil, and later WD40 applied on a regular basis. It was stored muzzle up in a closet. This nasty mixture seeped down into the buttstock, clear to the buttplate!
This is the third time I've had to deal with a whale oil saturated stock, but nothing this extreme. After satan snot wood stripper, steel wool and lacquer thinner scrub, it was still seeping out of the wood. I submerged it in acetone for two weeks that ended up looking like strong coffee, and it still didn't get it all. Clean enough to glue back together though.
That's when I discovered none of the pieces lined up because everything had warped and twisted over time. Picture a banana peeled shotgun barrel, that's how the wrist was broke. Steamed, clamped, steamed, clamped, and finally got it as good as it was going to get. The steam drew out more whale oil, so back in the acetone. Just to be safe, I clamped it while I let it air dry a couple of days, then got all the available pieces glued back together.
Had to reset all the receiver cross pins and action pivot pin, after I cleaned 100+ years of crap and rust out of it. Straightened out the stock bolt and cleaned up the threads. Tried something different on the finish to duplicate the original oil finish, turned out better than expected. It worked with all the dents, dings, scratches, and gouges that I couldn't steam or sand out.
Life always happens when you make plans? Life happened, the shoulder injury pretty much left me without the use of one hand for the last year. That put me waaay behind. Got about 70% of the left arm working, so I'm trying to get these projects done.
This will most likely be a wall hanger due to the age and chambering. It was made to shoot BP .44/40XL shot shells, and BP or "Lesmoke" 2.5" paper "roll crimped" .410 ammo. You can't shoot modern 2.5" plastic "star crimped" ammo. Modern smokeless is way to hot, and the chamber isn't long enough for the star crimp to open all the way up. That creates a big quick pressure spike that would blow it up. You could reload a 44/40 case with BP and a Speer .44 shot capsule, if you reload.
When I got it:
Before, after acetone soak/steam/clamp:
After:
This was supposed to be a simple crack fix, and clean up the stock. What I got was, a stock shattered at the wrist, and small pieces missing. It was standing up and took a hard hit to the left side of the receiver, which pretty much snapped it in half, bending the stock bolt. It was split back to the start of the comb.
To make it even more fun, the break happened long before I was born. So between now and then, it had been wrapped up in something I think was tape (gooey mess that took hours to remove), with a generous amount of whale oil, and later WD40 applied on a regular basis. It was stored muzzle up in a closet. This nasty mixture seeped down into the buttstock, clear to the buttplate!
This is the third time I've had to deal with a whale oil saturated stock, but nothing this extreme. After satan snot wood stripper, steel wool and lacquer thinner scrub, it was still seeping out of the wood. I submerged it in acetone for two weeks that ended up looking like strong coffee, and it still didn't get it all. Clean enough to glue back together though.
That's when I discovered none of the pieces lined up because everything had warped and twisted over time. Picture a banana peeled shotgun barrel, that's how the wrist was broke. Steamed, clamped, steamed, clamped, and finally got it as good as it was going to get. The steam drew out more whale oil, so back in the acetone. Just to be safe, I clamped it while I let it air dry a couple of days, then got all the available pieces glued back together.
Had to reset all the receiver cross pins and action pivot pin, after I cleaned 100+ years of crap and rust out of it. Straightened out the stock bolt and cleaned up the threads. Tried something different on the finish to duplicate the original oil finish, turned out better than expected. It worked with all the dents, dings, scratches, and gouges that I couldn't steam or sand out.
Life always happens when you make plans? Life happened, the shoulder injury pretty much left me without the use of one hand for the last year. That put me waaay behind. Got about 70% of the left arm working, so I'm trying to get these projects done.
This will most likely be a wall hanger due to the age and chambering. It was made to shoot BP .44/40XL shot shells, and BP or "Lesmoke" 2.5" paper "roll crimped" .410 ammo. You can't shoot modern 2.5" plastic "star crimped" ammo. Modern smokeless is way to hot, and the chamber isn't long enough for the star crimp to open all the way up. That creates a big quick pressure spike that would blow it up. You could reload a 44/40 case with BP and a Speer .44 shot capsule, if you reload.
When I got it:
Before, after acetone soak/steam/clamp:
After:
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