Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Crossbolt for laminated stock?

I am building a 9.3x62 rifle and need to stock it. I plan to go with a laminated wood stock. Will I need to install crossbolts given this is a laminated stock?

I'm a bit of a newbie to larger calibers like this. I want to take this to Africa in a year or two.

Thanks

I wouldn't waste the time. Even in large calibers in standard walnut stocks it is debatable whether crossbolts do more harm than good...

A laminated stock is fairly brittle . A couple of considerations are the size of the recoil lug and it's placement. A simple answer is to make the glass bedding structural by adding mini fibers.Then the load will be spread out and the stock will be glued together.

Laminates are down right weak when it comes to “spread” strength for lack of a better term. My opinion is I wouldn’t worry about the recoil lug area, just use some good old devcon liquid steel in that area. I would highly recommend putting a cross bolt in the area between the mag box and the trigger mortise area on anything in the magnum recoil class. A split in that area can have a big effect on accuracy and be tough to diagnose to the casual observer.

Crossbolts are the amswer to the question epoxy answered better decades ago...

Besides solid bedding, I'd pay particular attention to the relief around the tang area - regardless of what receiver you are using.

These are all great tips. I do appreciate it.

Should I strengthen the wrist of the stock with a metal rod epoxied in it?

When a stock breaks at the wrist, it's punky wood. Dry brittle weak, almost rotten. A laminated stock is lots of glue and many thin sheets of cheap common hardwood. I would not expect such a plywood to be weak to lateral forces. Brittle to impact yes, but not that.

Introducing a metal to epoxy glue-up adds little to nothing.

Laminates are stronger in virtually every category than walnut. And brittle is not what I would consoder them. Their great shortcoming is weight.

I like to add a sheetrock screw that is media blasted as a crossbolt, in acraglas gel,