Stock bolts rarely add anything to the strength of a stock and usually do far more damage than good. The main reason they fail is the fact wood and metal are dissimilar and react very differently to temps and stresses.

They can be used and used well, but the effort to do it right is major and advantages are small.

No point in inletting twice. Repair once and inlet as needed after.

The clamping method is pretty open... A sound bike tire tube can be wrapped around the area with a block of wood as a filler. You want it loose to start. Then inflate the tube and allow some air to work all the way through the tube. Then finish inflating the tube and there will be plenty of pressure on the mend.

As to why it cracked, there are a lot of possible reasons and we can only guess right now. Possible culprits include getting the stock very wet in the action area and shooting it. Having it wetter on one side than the other would increase possible stresses.

Sloppy initial inletting... Wet blank to start with... Drying stresses in the wood... An errant chisel or tool splitting it during construction.... Improper assembly at some point... And you could go on and on...


Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.