Safe to shoot?
- Thread starter k98dot16
- Start date
Is it a common repair? Like most gunsmiths would know what to do to fix?
The stock repair imo would be cheaper but not by much and take a lot longer. That also depends if it turns out the bedding overall is not correct and it needs to be rebedded by hand so it has proper clearance.
Cyrano4747
Well-known member
Honestly? No. Most "gunsmiths" today basically make their living playing legos with ARs and maybe milling a glock slide for optics once in a while. They likely aren't going to know how to do the repair and aren't going to have experience. This is really more into woodworking than anything else. Better than even money that it ends up done wrong (i.e. bedding the action) or looking really ham fisted and ugly. The people who do stock repairs on antique guns can be absolute wizards, but they also dont' come cheap. Frankly this stock probably isn't worth sending off to one of those guys.
It's also a project that is very, very doable by yourself if you go slow, listen to good advice, and are willing to get your hands a little dirty. There are a few different ways to go about it, and I'm sure people here will be able to fill you in on all the options. What you're going to need to do is carefully remove the recoil lug (make sure you have the correct tool - not expensive) and then assess how bad the break is - i.e. if the wood is fully broken out or if it's still a fracture that's anchored to the stock. That will dictate how you do the rest of the repair. You will want to de-grease the wood around the break, put some kind of adhesive in there (I personally would use wood glue), and then find a way to firm that area up. The easiest (but ugliest) would be to drill a hole through the stock that goes through the damaged wood, then coat a dowel of the proper size in glue and tap it in there. Trim flush with the stock, let it dry, reinstall the lug. If there is any gap between the lug and the wood you'll need to fill that, either by shimming or bedding it with some acraglass or something similar. Again, this is just one approach and there are a lot of ways to go about this. Depending on where the break is you might be able to drill internally and push in a couple of smaller dowels to pin it all in place. I'm sure others will have some more specific, better advice on how to go about this, maybe even a link to an old thread illustrating it.
The good news is that you're already talking about buying a new stock, and this kind of fix is cheap to attempt. All you really need is some wood glue, a sharp knife, a hand drill, denatured alcohol, a dowel of pretty much the exact diameter of whatever drill bit you use to make the holes, and a willingness to give it a shot. We're talking a $20 trip to Home Depot if you don't have the glue or alcohol in your garage. Plus $13 for the tool to remove the recoil lug:
Mauser Recoil Lug Nut Spanner Wrench - Brass Stacker
Mauser Recoil Lug Nut Spanner Wrench model MK98SW by Brass Stacker
www.tgrenterprises.com
Worst case scenario you screw up and buy the new stock anyways.
In your shoes I'd use this as an opportunity to try a new repair and learn a little about how to work on these old stocks.
Maybe I’ll give it a shot.Honestly? No. Most "gunsmiths" today basically make their living playing legos with ARs and maybe milling a glock slide for optics once in a while. They likely aren't going to know how to do the repair and aren't going to have experience. This is really more into woodworking than anything else. Better than even money that it ends up done wrong (i.e. bedding the action) or looking really ham fisted and ugly. The people who do stock repairs on antique guns can be absolute wizards, but they also dont' come cheap. Frankly this stock probably isn't worth sending off to one of those guys.
It's also a project that is very, very doable by yourself if you go slow, listen to good advice, and are willing to get your hands a little dirty. There are a few different ways to go about it, and I'm sure people here will be able to fill you in on all the options. What you're going to need to do is carefully remove the recoil lug (make sure you have the correct tool - not expensive) and then assess how bad the break is - i.e. if the wood is fully broken out or if it's still a fracture that's anchored to the stock. That will dictate how you do the rest of the repair. You will want to de-grease the wood around the break, put some kind of adhesive in there (I personally would use wood glue), and then find a way to firm that area up. The easiest (but ugliest) would be to drill a hole through the stock that goes through the damaged wood, then coat a dowel of the proper size in glue and tap it in there. Trim flush with the stock, let it dry, reinstall the lug. If there is any gap between the lug and the wood you'll need to fill that, either by shimming or bedding it with some acraglass or something similar. Again, this is just one approach and there are a lot of ways to go about this. Depending on where the break is you might be able to drill internally and push in a couple of smaller dowels to pin it all in place. I'm sure others will have some more specific, better advice on how to go about this, maybe even a link to an old thread illustrating it.
The good news is that you're already talking about buying a new stock, and this kind of fix is cheap to attempt. All you really need is some wood glue, a sharp knife, a hand drill, denatured alcohol, a dowel of pretty much the exact diameter of whatever drill bit you use to make the holes, and a willingness to give it a shot. We're talking a $20 trip to Home Depot if you don't have the glue or alcohol in your garage. Plus $13 for the tool to remove the recoil lug:
Mauser Recoil Lug Nut Spanner Wrench - Brass Stacker
Mauser Recoil Lug Nut Spanner Wrench model MK98SW by Brass Stacker
Worst case scenario you screw up and buy the new stock anyways.
In your shoes I'd use this as an opportunity to try a new repair and learn a little about how to work on these old stocks.
Cyrano4747
Well-known member
Franky I wouldn't worry too much about the bedding beyond getting the stock lug issue fixed, especially something that is going to be a relatively light duty range toy.
Crack in the tang of your stock I think the correct identifying factor but in my book when any wood cracks that is resting against/in contact with the action then that's a bedding failure to me.
So would I drill the hole here? How big? And I assume all the way through the bottom of the stock?
Attachments
Cyrano4747
Well-known member
If it were mine, yeah, that's where I'd do it . Probably two holes for two smaller dowels. De-grease the living hell out of the area with denatured alcohol to really make sure the wood glue can penetrate. I might also carefully cut out the damaged wood (basically finishing the cracking job that's started) if it's not loose already so that would really get in all sides with the glue. Glue it, let the glue dry, then drill two holes down through the affected area and fix it in place with some dowels.
I'm pretty sure I remember someone doing that same fix about six months ago and posting pics. Let me see if I can dig that up.
The other (uglier) option would be to drill horizontally through the stock and use a larger dowel, essentially creating a secondary wooden lug reinforcement behind the actual lug. That would be visible from the outside and kind of ugly (although there are ways to make it less aggressively annoying - e.g. dye the dowel ends). It's probably what I would do if I tried the above fix and it failed and I just wanted to salvage the stock for shooting.
Cyrano4747
Well-known member
Here you go, about half way through the first page in this thread. That should give you an idea of what it entails.
How can i fix the area around recoil lug for my yugo 98k?
Cleaning out my stock of some of the cosmoline ended up revealing a hole in the side wall I guess to the recoil lug washer. I took the lug out after I noticed that it was loose so it wasn't tightened down when I was shooting it previously. I was going to use epoxy to fill out the space behind...
www.k98kforum.com
Note that in this case he was dealing with an utterly cosmolene soaked stock. I don't know how bad the wood is on yours as far as being oily.
So option 1 I would drill two holes here, parallel with the stock?
Option 2 would be to drill a large hole through the wooden stock perpendicular (my first marked up picture from above).
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Cyrano4747
Well-known member
No.
Option 1 would be to put in two supporting dowels from the top, like in the link I included above. Straight down through the affected wood if you're viewing the stock from above.
Option 2 would be to put in a larger dowel through the outside of the stock, parallel to the recoil lug. That is an uglier option.
Oh okay gotcha. Sorry I misunderstood. Thanks for the help! In case I mess up lol, where is the best place to find a replacement stock?
Cyrano4747
Well-known member
There really isn't a best place any more. I think I saw sarco or numrich had a few a while ago, but they looked pretty thrashed.
Probably want to just post a WTB on the trader here and see if you get any bites.
I guess I’ll probably give the repair a shot. I’ll try option 1. Would the dowels go all the way through the bottom of the rifle, so both sides (top and bottom) would be trimmed flush? How big of dowels should I look for? I’ll buy the correct recoil lug removal piece, is there a video somewhere that shows me how to remove it? I’ve read on a lot of forums and threads to do so carefully as to not break it.
Blackpowderresearcher
Well-known member
It's the contact between the REAR of the recoil lug and the stock that is important. A gap allows the recoil lug & receiver to move under recoil, stressing the stock.
To me it seems like mine doesn’t have a gap. It’s like shoved into the wood even.
Blackpowderresearcher
Well-known member
Exactly what you want.