Looking at a Ruger African in 375 that a coworker is selling. He mentioned that Rugers in 375 Ruger have had many problems with their wood stock splitting. Has anyone had a issue with this? Looking at potentially using it next year in African and kind of have a thing for blued/wood rifles for Africa.
Yes, have experienced this, and have corrected this with good resulted.
It has been two fold for me:
Looseness of bedding that allows the barreled action to get a running start. Ruger placed a video online, which stressed the importance of using Ruger's high torque specifications, 90 in-lb off the top of my head, because many customers would reassemble their rifles at a lower setting, which resulted in cracked stocks. I have personally bedded several, and I have found that once properly bedded, I could lower the torque setting without seeing any movement.
Regardless of bedding, the thin area of wood between the mag box and trigger inlets can easily split over repeated firings. Even if properly bedded, the forces of the barrelled action driving the stock into your shoulder, also causes the sides of the stock to bellow outward along the mag box and trigger openings. The only material that holds this together is the thin strip of wood, which can easily split. A properly installed cross pin or bolt will hold the sides together and prevent this breakage.
