Need advice on stock repair.

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I have an old shotgun that has a couple cracks in the stock. The one is manageable, the other one is a bit more interesting. It appears the stock has split nearly down the centre line of the action. It has been repaired at some point by drilling partially through the wrist and gluing in a walnut plug. The crack has continued through the stock to the next opening.

My issue is the crack spreads only about 0.001” so I need a a way of forcing glue into the crack or a glue thin enough to work it’s way through the crack. Any advice would be appreciated.


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xWcht7E
xWcht7E
 
If that crack was once "repaired" why is the crack continuing - need to figure that out and fix the cause? For example, if the recoil surfaces have gone punky, then inserting pins at a subsequent crack does not "fix" it - crack just continues as the punky wood yields and recoil gets taken at surfaces not designed for that. Has been my limited experience that trying to re-fix a previous "fix" is 10 times the fuss - many times the old glue is holding the crack to be open!! Good luck, and let us know how you made out with that - looks like a "cool" old one - likely very much worth some fussing about it!
 
There are a few ways to tackle this, but success will depend on how oil-soaked that wood is. Is it punky? The needle and superglue might be enough - just keep gently opening and closing the crack to draw the glue down into it as much as you can. Don't overdo it and crack it more, just flex the wood a tiny amount and the glue will seep in. This has worked well for me on a couple of old swede mausers that split between the trigger and the magwell.

The permanent way to fix it is to drill it all the way through (not half way like the walnut plug you have), and pin it with brass and epoxy. If you want to hide the pin, I've seen people countersink the hole and epoxy in walnut plugs. Then refinish as necessary. It can be a fun winter project, but if done incorrectly, it can bubba up your nice shotgun in a hurry.

Good luck
 
Fwiw, if that came across my bench I wouldn't touch it without a complete soak and de grease of the wood,you'll want to use chemical and mechanical support to do it properly
 
I got the repairs finished, I ended up using a bit of advice from everyone who posted, so thanks guys for the help.

I started with an acetone soak to draw the oil out for the wood. Next step was gorilla glue in the head of the stock, I worked the crack open an closed to draw the glue down and added more as needed. Then clamped with surgical tubing. After that I steamed out a few dents and scratches as I thought about how to glue the crack through the inletting.

After a few not so great attempts at thinning epoxy with acetone, I read that you can heat epoxy to thin it with out any negative side effects to the strength. I warmed the epoxy to about 40c and poured it into two different sized syringes and was able to inject through the split, and again clamped it with surgical tubing.

A quick coat of oil and it looks good as new.

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