I recently dusted off a Remington 3200 field grade to use at the trap range. The guys at the range were very interested in the gun and looked it over. They confirmed what I had recently learned that it had been upgraded. They also caught something I missed. A crack in the forend on the left side rear. On closer inspection we decided it had been repaired because there was epoxy on the inner side of the crack. On even closer inspection when I got home, I discovered the crack we had seen was actually below the epoxy and the epoxy had been used to fix a higher less visible crack. I can actually make a clicking sound if I put pressure on that side of the forend.
Needless to say I want to reinforce this lower crack. Can any of you guys offer suggestions on how to prepare and finish the reinforcement of this cracked area? I am fairly familiar with using epoxy with wood after a few years working with remote control airplanes and reinforcing the weak areas with epoxy. I don't plan on doing anything to affect the exterior of the forend.
Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!
Jim
P.S. I have read that deactivating or removing the ejector spring assemble in the forend will ease the stress causing any cracks. If you have any information on how or what is done - I have the metal out of the forend now so I could do that before I reset the assembly in the forend. I see one long pin holding the arms riding on the ejector springs. I am wondering if I punch out that pin if the springs can be removed. I am just going to reinforce the cracks if I can't figure out the ejector part. Of course I could easily be looking at the wrong thing.
Last edited by WJN; 01/31/12.
