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Some of us Butte and Sutter County CalGuns guys went to the Oroville Clay pits a while back, and during the outing I cracked my stock. So I'm repairing it, and WickedPete asked that I put a post here in case anyone else runs into a crack.
It's not likely anyone will run into a stock like this one, however.
Several years ago American Gun Stocks down in Yuba City suffered an unfortunate fire. http://gunstocks.com/ They lost many stocks and had many damaged ones. I was up at the Chico Gun Show at the Silver Dollar Fair Grounds that year, and I picked up this stock. It was badly burned, so I got it for $5. I kid you not.
It was so burned I did not even know what kind of wood it was, as even when I cut into the wood, it was tanned from the heat. I thought it was maple. I probably was wrong. I still don't know.
Now, being a Mosin Nagant collector and general idiotic tinkerer, I bought the stock for what I call my FrankenMosin: I put it together from parts, starting with the bare receiver. It has an Ishevsk m38 barrel, a Hungarian receiver, a Tula trigger guard, Remington bolt handle, and the general mix mash of other parts that gave it its name.
Thinking it maple, I made repairs using maple strips to the barrel channel and to the inlet at the trigger guard, and I used bamboo dowels to hold it together. Heck, it was a project for an old fart, you know? For the finish, in the Finnish manner, I first treated it with pine tar and baked it in the sun to cure it, then put on a few coats of Boiled Linseed Oil cut 50/50 with mineral spirits. I thought I'd make a light weight gun in case I ever went for pigs down in Livermore with my son. I didn't want to carry any of my nine pound m39's or anything while schlepping around after wild hogs. The barrel is fully floated, and the receiver is quite nicely tight in there. :-)
This stock had a huge cheek piece on it for a scope, but I wanted to make an open sights rifle for pigs. I took my trusty low angle block plane and took down the butt stock. I'd mount the barreled receiver in there, and hold it up to my eye to check. This was done a couple dozen times, but the result is, if I look at a target with my eye and raise the rifle without looking at the sights, looking only at the target, the sights line up exactly. Then I did the sanding and finishing. Sweet.
Now, as it turns out, it appears that burning the wood in a fire had an effect on the wood. Who knew? ;-) Apparently the wood became a bit brittle. So, after maybe 40 or so rounds, I noticed the crack. There are cracks just like this on many other Mosins, and some of my Finns have a repair just like this in the same place.
First, I used a pair of snap ring pliers and a couple strips of scrap maple to spread the crack. I forced in glue, then with the pliers I opened/closed, opened/closed the crack until glue came out the other side. Then I clamped it.
The next day I drilled two holes deep through the cracked piece, through and deep into the solid part of the stock at two different angles in an effort to prevent further cracking. In a couple days when the time opens up, I'll slice off the two dowels, sand it lightly, and put on some more BLO. I also hogged out the stock at the tang in a further effort to prevent future cracks. Whether it will be successful remains to be seen.
Here is a pic of the repair. I put it here so folks can see the charred insides. During that range trip, WickedPete noticed that my interruptor was not performing as smoothly as it might be, so when I had it apart, I took out some more wood there. Now it is smooth. You can see the color of the wood there, sort of tanned. When I do the BLO coat, I'll put some in that now-unfinished area.
When I finish it, I'll put a pic on this thread so folks can see how it turns out.
CDFingers
It's not likely anyone will run into a stock like this one, however.
Several years ago American Gun Stocks down in Yuba City suffered an unfortunate fire. http://gunstocks.com/ They lost many stocks and had many damaged ones. I was up at the Chico Gun Show at the Silver Dollar Fair Grounds that year, and I picked up this stock. It was badly burned, so I got it for $5. I kid you not.
It was so burned I did not even know what kind of wood it was, as even when I cut into the wood, it was tanned from the heat. I thought it was maple. I probably was wrong. I still don't know.
Now, being a Mosin Nagant collector and general idiotic tinkerer, I bought the stock for what I call my FrankenMosin: I put it together from parts, starting with the bare receiver. It has an Ishevsk m38 barrel, a Hungarian receiver, a Tula trigger guard, Remington bolt handle, and the general mix mash of other parts that gave it its name.
Thinking it maple, I made repairs using maple strips to the barrel channel and to the inlet at the trigger guard, and I used bamboo dowels to hold it together. Heck, it was a project for an old fart, you know? For the finish, in the Finnish manner, I first treated it with pine tar and baked it in the sun to cure it, then put on a few coats of Boiled Linseed Oil cut 50/50 with mineral spirits. I thought I'd make a light weight gun in case I ever went for pigs down in Livermore with my son. I didn't want to carry any of my nine pound m39's or anything while schlepping around after wild hogs. The barrel is fully floated, and the receiver is quite nicely tight in there. :-)
This stock had a huge cheek piece on it for a scope, but I wanted to make an open sights rifle for pigs. I took my trusty low angle block plane and took down the butt stock. I'd mount the barreled receiver in there, and hold it up to my eye to check. This was done a couple dozen times, but the result is, if I look at a target with my eye and raise the rifle without looking at the sights, looking only at the target, the sights line up exactly. Then I did the sanding and finishing. Sweet.
Now, as it turns out, it appears that burning the wood in a fire had an effect on the wood. Who knew? ;-) Apparently the wood became a bit brittle. So, after maybe 40 or so rounds, I noticed the crack. There are cracks just like this on many other Mosins, and some of my Finns have a repair just like this in the same place.
First, I used a pair of snap ring pliers and a couple strips of scrap maple to spread the crack. I forced in glue, then with the pliers I opened/closed, opened/closed the crack until glue came out the other side. Then I clamped it.
The next day I drilled two holes deep through the cracked piece, through and deep into the solid part of the stock at two different angles in an effort to prevent further cracking. In a couple days when the time opens up, I'll slice off the two dowels, sand it lightly, and put on some more BLO. I also hogged out the stock at the tang in a further effort to prevent future cracks. Whether it will be successful remains to be seen.
Here is a pic of the repair. I put it here so folks can see the charred insides. During that range trip, WickedPete noticed that my interruptor was not performing as smoothly as it might be, so when I had it apart, I took out some more wood there. Now it is smooth. You can see the color of the wood there, sort of tanned. When I do the BLO coat, I'll put some in that now-unfinished area.
When I finish it, I'll put a pic on this thread so folks can see how it turns out.
CDFingers
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