Repairing a forestock.

dave9252

dave9252

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I've recently bought a 1917 No1 Mk3 Lee Enfield, I stripped it down for a clean and found the forestock was split just in front of the magazine housing and is split and broken into pieces at the rear. It appears the stock bolt was over tightened and the square end went to far thru the receiver, hitting the forestock.
Anyway my question being, Is there a certain wood glue to try or is any ok?
 
Without going into too much detail about the cause because its not the topic of your thread, I would think the stock bolt protrusion was not the sole cause of the damage, if at all. There would have been other factors at play.

I cant help you with the repair, but the damage sounds severe and probably can't be fixed by conventional methods used by Commonwealth armorers. I feel your pain mate, it's happened to me more than a few times. I'm sure you'll get some good advice.
 
I have all the parts and have pieced them together. I can see the indent of the end of the bolt in the forestock right in the middle of the break, the spring washer is still on the bolt so was thinking I could add a flat washer just to bring it out that extra little bit.
 
I think if you check the reference material on the Mil Surp forum, the No. 1 stock bolt is meant to protrude through the wrist, and it's square end is to engage into the rear of the forearm. The forearm must be removed first, before trying to turn the butt stock bolt, or the stock will split. Removng the forearm from either a No. 1 or No.4 requires that it be tapped straight down - do not try to pivot the forearm down by pulling the forend tip down - the stock draws will be damaged if you try to remove the forearm by pulling down on the forearm tip.
 
Agreed. The stock bolt can damage the rear of the forend when it's turned without removing the forend first. But this alone is not the cause of the type of damage in question here. Wood shrinkage and compression of the draws allow movement between action and stock under recoil and the problem escalates until the wood splits in front of the trigger guard screw and the draws get blown out. The first thing to look for when appraising an SMLE is a crack in front of the trigger guard screw. This is a sure sign of more sinister damage inside thd stock that can't be seen when the rifle is assembled. Sometimes the stock can be damaged and not split there but all I've seen have been.
 
Just an option, Milarm in Edmonton has some sort of barrel full of LE wood in various stages of awful, they might have something you can make use of.
 
I'd suggest reading Cpt Peter Laidler's articles over at milsurps on repairing damaged draws as well as the one on deleting the Ishaphore screw. Do both of these repairs properly after drying the oil out of the stock and then glue the stock when you glue your repairs in place and it will be good forever. Heed his warnings about grain direction, and take lots of measurements as you go.
 
flying pig said:
I'd suggest reading Cpt Peter Laidler's articles over at milsurps on repairing damaged draws as well as the one on deleting the Ishaphore screw. Do both of these repairs properly after drying the oil out of the stock and then glue the stock when you glue your repairs in place and it will be good forever. Heed his warnings about grain direction, and take lots of measurements as you go.
Click to expand...

Do you know the headings for the articles by any chance, I tried searching with the name you mentioned and got no results..
 
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