Back from the dead

[GunnyUSMC]

I was asked to save this Mossberg 146B-A stock that was pretty messed up.
But I like to fix the stocks that most say can't be fixed.


Lets look at some of the shame that was bestowed upon this poor thing.
First off the stock was refinished with paint used on metal doors to simulated the look of wood. Oh! This is a Walnut stock.
Later in life it got broken and glued back together.
It appeares that it was broken a 2nd time and that is when Manny the Handyman used nails to put it back together.
You can see that there is some wood missing from the left side of the grip.




I guess that Manny the Handyman didn't have the right size nails.


So he just bent the ends over so that he would not get poked in the hand.


Don't ask me, I wasnt there when this piece came off. Who ever had it at this time must not of had any glue or nales.


I know that this poor stocks looks bad, but there is a happy ending.

[GunnyUSMC]

Now for the fixing part.
First I pulled out all the nails. Well I did miss one that was in the wrist. I found it and pulled it out after I took this pic. The stock ended up in three pieces.


I then got pertty busy with the stock and some others and forgot to take pics while I was removing what was left of the glue and putting the stock back together. The paint on the stock was a pain to strip off, but in the end I found that the stock was pertty nice looking.


After getting it put together I had to adress the problem of the damage from the nails. I could have just filled them with Acraglas, but that just would not have looked nice. So I went with cross grain plugs. I used an old chopped up Mauser stock to make the plugs.
I used a Fostner bit to cut the areas where the nails had been in the stock.


If you look at the inside of the wrist you can see where I spliced in some wood. I also spliced on a piece at the foretip of the stock.







I did some reinforceing on the inside with fiberglass cloth.


Here are the cross grain plugs, set in place with Acraglas. After the Acraglas cured, the plugs were shaved with hand files and dressed up. The stock was then preped for refinishing.

[GunnyUSMC]

I refinished the stock with a BLO Oil Scrub. Two scrub coats and two hand
rubed coats. It was then topped off with Tom's 1/3 Mix.


















All of the repairs that I did to this stock are covered in detail in the Reference Stickie section over at SRF, but these links will help.
How to strip a stock using a chemical striper

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=137&t=61170

Making Splice Repairs

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=137&t=97944

How to make and use Cross Grain Plugs to fill holes.

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=137&t=60812

BLO Finish with an Oil Scurb

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=137&t=51760

[Wyseguy]

Awesome job! Looks great.

[BretByron]

Bravo!!!

[Citadelgrad87]

Wow. That's amazing resto work.

[BDJ]

Nice work!

[tujungatoes]

Very nice work! I'd have just burned it.

[Capybara]

You sure you didn't work in the Izhevsk Arsenal in the 40s? I've seen several M44s and 91/30s from that era that use the same plug technique and of course, lots Finn M39s too. Nice work, you obviously are a talented wood worker/gunsmith.

[GunnyUSMC]

You sure you didn't work in the Izhevsk Arsenal in the 40s? I've seen several M44s and 91/30s from that era that use the same plug technique and of course, lots Finn M39s too. Nice work, you obviously are a talented wood worker/gunsmith.

I've been doing stock work for about 28 years. I learned a lot from old Gunsmiths and learmed to copy old styl repairs.
Here is a repair on a Mosin M91 stock. Can you tell when it was done?

[spyde12]

Went from oh shoot (SMH) to Oh Shhhhhhoooot (nods head in approval). Great work OP!

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

[golfish]

I refinished the stock with a BLO Oil Scrub. Two scrub coats and two hand
rubed coats. It was then topped off with Tom's 1/3 Mix.

I'm a big fan of the Toms 1/3 mix. Nice work Gunny

[bigbob76]

Very nice work! I'd have just burned it.

I doubt that! You probably would have not only fixed the stock but redesigned the action to a different caliber that you had to use custom handholds in. After shooting it enough to get it dialed in you would've torn it apart it and made a CA legal pistol out of it in an even stranger caliber. hahahahaha