Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing un glue a stock

I bought a 700 on a WEB site. The stock is glued to the receiver. Looks like epoxy. The after market trigger is set so that the firing pin moves rapidly forward if: 1. The safety is on, 2. the trigger is pulled, 3. the safety is pushed off.

I've mulled over options... Would like to save the stock, it is a nice looking stock. I may have access to liquid nitrogen and am considering submerging the metal into the nitrogen.

Anyone have a better idea?

If it is well and truly epoxied into the stock, first step is to sharpen the hatchet...

Heat is a great softener of epoxy. I would try heating a large old fashioned copper soldering iron and holding it to the metal, repeating often enough to try to sink enough heat into it to soften the epoxy. If that doesn't work, aim the hatchet right amidships on the butt stock...

How about not chambering a round until ready to shoot, even when hunting? Would be one way to get around the malfunctioning safety.

A friend builds BR rifles and commonly glues in actions.

Puts them in a chest freezer overnight then gives them a good whack with a mallet to loosen them up.

It possible that it was epoxy bedded, a release agent was used, but it was never broke loose for the first time.

I'd try just traditional methods of breaking it loose, first, before resorting to extremes.

What have you tried so far to break it loose?

Sounds like the saftey is working "properly" to me!

That's how most Remmy triggers come from the factory . . .

Most of the Remington triggers are fine. I firmly believe the issue with their triggers is the tolerances were too wide and if all the tolerances added up in the wrong direction then there was a problem. However, in this case it is an aftermarket trigger. I think Timney, but am not sure as I can't view it as good as I would like. I think someone bought an aftermarket trigger adjusted it to several ounces then glued the action in.

Having said that the way I have normally tried to remove glass bedded barreled actions is by gripping the stock firmly and slapping the barrel (close to the end of the stock) on a flat wooden surface.

I'll try following gnoahhh's & 284luvr's recommendations. Since I live in SD, I probably could just set it outside overnight Won't need a freezer. Also have soldering guns. Thanks.

freezer over night and a good whack with a wooden mallet and the epoxy with have to be buffed or ground off the action. I used to bed some of my Varmint rifles this way back in the 70's

Dang that sucks, did you know it was glued before you bought it? If you did i hope you got a good deal on it.

Nothing was mentioned. Bought it at Gunbroker from a pawn shop. I understand that buying things on-line (especially from pawn shops) often is like buying a pig in a poke. Most of the time things work out.

The worst deal I ever made though was from a pawn shop that had just started selling guns on Gunbroker. They got the worst rating from me. The Marlin 336 35 Rem rifle was covered with light rust, the blueing was sanded, the wood had been sanded below the metal. The cartridges wouldn't feed from the magazine. The picture they had on Gunbroker was very poor. I made a big mistake on that one. Also, they would not answer any correspondance.
Not all pawn shops are bad, but I am much more careful about dealing with pawn shops any more. I've bought some guns from pawn shops that were good deals and will continue to deal with them.

The SOP for removing a glued in action is to heat the action carefully with a heat gun and then push/pry the action out of the stock. You need to get it pretty (couple hundred degrees) hot but it won't affect the finish or steel. The heat softens the epoxy's grip on the action and it is a less violent method than whacking with a hammer and breaking something you didn't mean to. Poke around at 6BR.com or benchrest.com for more detailed info.

That sounds like excellent advice. Would you use propane torch or pewrhaps something else?

I went to benchrest.com and the suggestion there was to use the wife's iron. Thanks

I accidentally glued one in a number of years ago. I ended up placing it metal side down on a gas space heater. When the metal got too hot to touch, I picked it up with a rag and gave the barrel a couple of whacks with a rawhide mallet. Came out easy enough.

I've also used a heat gun, they're not very expensive, to heat the metal and stock. Wasn't too long before the action could be pulled from the stock.

Harbor Freight sells one that can be bought for 15 bucks. Even less with their easy to get 20% off coupon.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1500-watt-dual-temperature-heat-gun-572-1112-96289.html

The use of heat to break a bond between epoxy and metal is effective but hazardous to your stocks health.

You can break down the bonds between layers of laminate as well as the bond between metal and laminate.

Use heat at your own risk.

I'd use an iron and heat just the metal rather than a torch or heat gun that will also heat the stock

Assuming they are in contact, if you heat the metal, you are also heating the stock adjacent to the metal. Heat sufficient to soften one layer of cured resin is not likely to leave adjacent layers of fabric / resin unaffected.

I learned this from by trying to release metal molds from lay-ups in boat building. Have seen it happen with both epoxy & polyester resins.

I am not saying that this approach cannot be used - only that it can have unintended consequences which can be difficult or impossible to reverse.

I would exhaust all other possibilities before resorting to heat.

Sorry, but wood is a pretty fair insulator and it would take nearly ridiculous heat to have any real impact and it would be shallow.

Not that you cannot do it, but the action would be free and smoking LONG before serious damage was done to the stock.

And I have removed a bunch of them with heat.

Assuming the stock is wood, I would agree with you - heat works fine and you would really have to go over the top to do any serious damage.

If the stock is a quality resin / fabric laminate, than I would tread carefully with heat.

I understand your concerns, but the bench rest guys have been doing this for decades. It is a well accepted practice for wood and synthetic stocks. I'm sure that someone has overheated one but I've never heard of a specific case.

With an iron on the metal you have control, and a MUCH lower temperature than a propane torch, which will be well above ignition temps for most stocks.

There will be little heat transfer to any portion of the stock not in direct contact with the action

Hopefully the metal expansion alone would be enough to break the bond

I've done it both ways. Heat (carefully) and cold. My freezer isn't big enough but sitting it outside at -10 worked just as well.