A quick question for the Husky experts please, I have acquired a 1900 with a nice stock in 6.5x55, how much of a hurry should I be to bed the stock, I don't seem to see as many cracked 1900 stocks when compared to the 1600s but possibly I am mistaken. I have usually paid someone to do this task for me, just curious on opinions. Thanks in advance.
Husqvarna 1900 glass bedding
- Thread starter Milt Dale
- Start date
- Location
- Western Manitoba
I am not a Husky expert, but have repaired and bedded a few of my own mauser rifles. No need to worry about it, until the shot before it cracks. By then, too late. When properly bedded - not talking epoxy bedding, I am talking the fit of the metal parts to the wood parts - the mausers should have an air space at very rear of their tang - so maybe two or three printer paper thicknesses, and the recoil lug on the underside front of the receiver should be bearing firmly on the wooden shoulder up there - ahead of the magazine mortice. If that space at the rear end is closed up, a good chance that the recoil shoulder at the front has started to yield, crush or mush - or maybe was never fitted properly in the first place. With that air space present at the rear, the wrist is not going to crack - when that space is gone / closed up, the crack is next. The rear tang of a mauser is roughly in a taper shape - as loose action screws or punky bedding allows the receiver to move rearward in the stock under recoil, that wedge shape pushes the sides of the wooden stock apart - resulting in the typical mauser crack.
That front recoil lug on the action - on most of my Swede mausers, it bears directly on the stock wood. On many of the 98 Mausers, but not all, it bears on a steel cross bolt, which, in turn, bears on the wood - and that bearing area can go punky and soft due to oils, age, etc.
I have a sporter Mauser rifle in 7x57 that was proofed prior to WWI - and there is no epoxy in there - and it still has that air gap at the rear, and has no crack on that wrist.
That front recoil lug on the action - on most of my Swede mausers, it bears directly on the stock wood. On many of the 98 Mausers, but not all, it bears on a steel cross bolt, which, in turn, bears on the wood - and that bearing area can go punky and soft due to oils, age, etc.
I have a sporter Mauser rifle in 7x57 that was proofed prior to WWI - and there is no epoxy in there - and it still has that air gap at the rear, and has no crack on that wrist.
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Thanks, that makes sense, I had a Brno that was probably going to do just that a few years ago, a gunsmith pointed out the contact with the rear tang during a re-barrel, so I had it bedded and He made a little gap behind the tang, your explanation makes it clearer. The rifle is not even in the mail yet, so before I take that shot you mention I will make some arrangements. I appreciate it, good 1900 stocks seem scarce.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
There was an "old school" fix, maybe frowned on in this day and age - a shim - wood, but more likely metal - would be placed at the front of the recoil shoulder in the stock - shifted the receiver forward that thickness and restored that "gap" - but really only a "stop gap" - the softening or disintegrating shoulder was allowing the receiver to move rearward, and that was the root issue that needs to be remedied.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Maybe a source of misunderstanding - your rifle was "bedded" - bedding is the setting of the metal parts into the wood parts. Can be done poorly or done well. Used to be a thing called "glass bedding" - when we mixed fibreglass fibre floc into a resin and gooped that in to make a tighter or closer fit between wood and metal. Pretty much replaced today with various sorts of epoxy material - but, when done well, is all trying to establish the correct relationship between the metal parts and the stock parts - to fit well - at least in a "return to battery" sense - always getting back to same relationship for next shot fired. Back in the day, was done with soot and scrapers and really careful wood inletting - labour and skill intensive - easier today to set it in place and let the epoxy do the fine fitting.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Yes it would, so long as the receiver was placed into the epoxy with that spacing assured. I have done so a few time by placing three layers of masking tape at very rear tip of the mauser tang - first piece, say 3/4" long, next an 1" long, then 1 1/2" long. So makes like a taper but three thicknesses of masking tape thick at pointy end of the tang. For me, that ensures that there is some epoxy going between the recoil lug of the action and the stock shoulder, near the front. For a really rotted out punky Swede stock, I had removed about 80% or more of that recoil shoulder in the stock - got to good wood on sides and bottom, then drilled 1/8" holes for the epoxy to flow into - made mechanical locks, beside the epoxy adhesion - essentially re-made that recoil shoulder, except out of epoxy, instead of wood - and I knew it was in correct place because the masking tape at the rear tang held the receiver forward.
Old school guys would have likely chiseled out the rotten wood and then glued and pinned / dowelled a new piece of wood, and re-inletted, to properly bed that action. Was easier for me to do that with epoxy - I am no where near that good with chisels.
Old school guys would have likely chiseled out the rotten wood and then glued and pinned / dowelled a new piece of wood, and re-inletted, to properly bed that action. Was easier for me to do that with epoxy - I am no where near that good with chisels.
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I've bedded 2 Husqvarna 1900's. Didn't bother with mod's near the tang. Be aware that the hinged floorplate is aluminum alloy and therefore fairly brittle. Use enough release agent in the area so it doesn't accidentally get glued to the stock.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
I will stand corrected! I should have taken a look at the 1900 - yes - significantly different tang arrangement compared to earlier M96 and M98 receivers!!!
