doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Feather crotch broken stock

Remember the thread where CC repaired the stock that had been run over by a Land Rover. It beat all I've ever saw...I think it was on a Boss.

I think that was the 3rd Invincible

The approach is to inlet/bury structural pieces within the wrist by drilling out matching cavaties in the existing wood. There is sufficient wood left around the outside to form a register that maintains alignment and hides the new structure. Wood is grand stuff, but not very strong in the greater scheme of strength. The new members can be stronger wood (with optimal grain orientation), metal, or composite. The cavaties are sized with enough clearance to allow alignment from the perimeter wood. Epoxy is usually used as the cement to join the structure members. Channels are usually drilled to avoid blind cavaties in the interest of filling, without overfilling (injection or escape routes for the cement). Properly done, you have a stronger area than original. Skillfully done, it is virtually undetectable.

Wrist repair images.

Round mortise with large round rod tenon



Rectangular mortise with rectangular bar tenon



Round mortises with small rod tenons



These methods can use a varity of tenon materials and may be used in conjunction with each other. Epoxy is the usual cement and fill/drain channels can be dirlled to assure proper filling between the mortise and tenon.

Does that help clarify the idea any?

Not to highjack Mr. Mann's thread but I believe this is what Rocketman is referring to,...this is Mark Dube's DH Parker it had a beautiful looking stock and it was fitted with a SBP,...the original repair had been pinned but it started to move again,...we decided to keep the gun original, It was a good call and I believe he is still shooting it to this day

You can rest assured that whatever Doug decides to do will be the the best solution all around

Cheers!

CJ

Examples of repair techniques from 'The Chapel of Perpetual Mess, Trevallion's London Infirmary for Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery', C.J.'s, and others are here
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/15127852

Yes, it does help. Just trying to figure out how to get the mortice cut, align the original stock and get it all together undetectable. Of course I realize it all depends were it took place the action style of the gun as far as places to hide the repair. The plywood repair in the post below yours, is an awesome display of ingenuity.

The photos are now moved over from the other thread .

The concept is simple enough. The skill to make it work is a tad bit more complex. My point is that a broken wrist is common and good repairs can be made. It would be nice if all blanks had a straight grain wrist area free of any internal defects and nobody ever used anything else --- and there were no "fat labs." Reality is that there will be broken wrists and they will be repaired. Properly done, they will be stronger than when they started.

Value? Well, we are still sorting out how to value sleeved barrels and Teague lined barrels as well (both are better/stronger than original).

Rocketman, so on one side you have the square or round mortice and into the other side of the stock, will be the round pins. or I assume square pins would work also, what ever would work if it is smaller than the mortice allowing a fit. The larger sqaure or round mortice is then filled with your favorite glue to also take up the area that would be a void if just using the pins. Is this right? I have always wondeered how it ws done "blind".

Thanks for all the pics!

Dave Katt

No fat Labs? My God, Dave. You've ruined my faith in the board!

Maybe "fat" is a personal opinion like many other things. Labs are lovely no matter how many "handles" they have

When you pin things, they must be lined up well. However, you cannot line them up perfectly to get a final perfect fit, so you have a bit larger hole with the glue/epoxy filling the excess allowing the final perfect fit. Now another way to do it even closer (and stronger) is to drill fron the stock face (if design allows). Then gluing into place. This is done on Weatherbys which have an overly delicate wrist and poorly angled for strength. At first, they were VERY careful in picking good grain in the wrist. They also made the wrist thicker on larger calibers(like on the first 460 W'by which is owned by a friend...in Myrtle). There were still breaks due to the pretty but weak design so first in the larger calibers in the latter 1960's then in all their guns, they started putting pins (5/16" steel) from the rear of the action about 4" into the beginning of the butt behind the wrist. I was an expert witness against them when they forget to put the pin in the hole one time on a 270 W'by with extremely poor grain flow. The resulting shot gave the shooter brain damage. It was an expensive lesson for W'by. At that time (1997), the stocks were made and finsihed in Italy, checked by W'by (but only for external blemishes), then sent to Saco to be mated to the metal. On a few guns, the pin was not put into the hole and everyone missed it. Since it was assumed that the pin would keep them safe from breaks, there was little emphasis put on checking grain flow. Poor assumption.

In the 1940's, Parker put wooden dowells in a few (about 100) shotgun buttstocks to give added strength. They sell for a high premium if you know what to look for.