Posted by Stocker, 7/25/2005
Tang cracks:
Rick99: I have two 99's in 300. The 99F I bought new in 1955 or 1956. I have shot it a great deal, thousands of rounds, most of which were cast bullets. I have had to relieve the tang twice since purchased due to wood shrinkage and set back of the the long side tenons. The first time I realized I had a problem the stock was not cracking but the wood behind the tang was starting to swell upwards from impact of the tang against the thin wood area. I scraped some clearance and I'm guessing that may have been about 1965 -1970. A couple of years ago I saw the clearance was almost gone so redid it. The stock hasn't cracked at all but I saw the warning sign.
Last year I purchased a 99EG from a fellow who advertised it on this forum and it turned out lived relatively close to me. It is a 1951 production if I recall and I doubt it had been fired 20 times before I acquired it. In checking it out I noticed that there was enough relief behind the tang as manufactured to prevent any problems. It has since been fired several hundred times with cast bullets and I believe I can see a slight reduction in the clearance but it is not critical as yet. Barring accident I don't anticipate either rifle developing a crack but I am very attentive in watching for developing problems.
Another preventive measure I use when acquiring a 99 is to remove the butt and seal the ends of the tang tenons to block absorption of gun oil. Over time oil soaked wood softens and is prone to set back more than wood that does not contain gun oil.
I have noticed that many of the late production rifles had poorly grained and poorly fitted wood as delivered by the factory. Production costs for the 99 had probably reached the point where no time could be allowed for hand fitting in the critical stock areas.
Almost all cracks are repairable and most repairs that are done properly will be hard to see and add many years of life to the rifle.
It's not rocket science, it's just preventive maintenance like having your car serviced to prevent breakdown
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More info...
Posted by Carbon12, Jan 25, 2007:
If you have the nerve, you can try and gently pull the crack apart just enough to see if the interior wood is oil/grease stained. If the wood is stained, the crack most likely pre-existed the temperature shift/reassembly.
How can it be fixed? First, you should decide if you want a 'collectible' safe queen or a shooter. If it is the former, leave it as it is. If it is to be shooter, epoxy is as good a choice as any. To be an effective repair, the goal is to create a ~0.005 gap between the upper tang and the butt stock so as to transfer 100% of the recoil forces to the lower tang-butt stock contact surfaces. This can be done with epoxy bedding.
If you want to maintain the 'all original' character of the rifle and still be able to shoot it without extending the crack it now has, then you can try creating the same ~0.005 gap between the upper tang and butt stock with a carefully fitted shim between the lower tang of the receiver and the buttstock. I use soft brass shim stock. A pattern for the shim can be made with a small piece of business card. The business card is rolled into a 'U' shape and fitted to the 'U' shape inlet for the lower tang. A dab of high tack grease at the tip of the threaded end of the stock through-bolt is used to mark where a hole needs to be punched in the shim pattern for where the stock bolt passes through. Trim the bottom of the pattern so that the shim will be flush with the bottom of the tang and the grip of the butt stock. The width of the shim should be no wider than what it takes to cover the width of the tang. What you do not want to do is make your shim so wide as to transform your lower tang into a wedge. Doing so will only make you cry when you split your butt stock into two or more pieces. In fact, for the actual shim, it is recommended to feather the edges of the shim such that there is a smooth transition from the shim to the side of the tang instead of a step.
I have done this with two of my own 99s and have had no further extension of the original crack. This is with several years of moderate shooting.
An addional point that should be mentioned is that a consistent POA-POI relationship in 99s is dependent, in part, to a solid contact between butt stock and receiver. Shimming, such as I have described, between the butt stock and receiver has not raised a problems with accuracy in neither of my rifles.
Comments from 300jimmy (3/2007):
The stock bolt should be snug. Not loose, not gorilla tight. Check it occassionally. If too loose, this can negatively affect accuracy as well. If tightened properly, the stockbolt lends to improved accuracy.
The bearing surface between receiver tang (lower tang where stock bolt engages) and stock should be the primary bearing surface between the two pieces. If there is a gap at the interface shim it. Make sure the edges of the shim are tapered as they come around the radius to evenly distribute the recoil. This primary bearing surface needs to be maximized. Secondary bearing surfaces are where the cheeks pads meet the receiver. The top tang should not bear recoil.
Replace aluminum stock bolts with steel ones. The mix of aluminum and steel threads tend to loosen over time due to differing coefficients of thermal expansion.
Don't let wood bearing surfaces get saturated with oil which can soften the wood and change bearing pressures.
Do treat the wood with respect. Don't drop, bump, pry or apply a leverage to the stock. I think many a cracked stock has been dropped on the butt or fallen on by a hunter in the woods.
Hope this helps you stay crack free.
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Posted 10/25/2011 by Gnoahhh
I guess I'm one of the few people left who doesn't believe in Gorilla glue very much. Sure, it'll bond with strength in an imperfect joint, but not nearly the strength of a good epoxy. Plus all of the polyurethane glues rely on water moisture to cure. If the wood is dry (and it better be) and it's in a low humidity environment, one has to wet the joint surfaces or the glue will take about three days to cure. I find the clean up from using it to be on a par with epoxy.
CN (cyanoacrylate) glues are ok, but not for major wood glue ups. Generally too brittle with no gap filling with strength. There are formulations of the stuff intended to overcome that but given the cost of a tiny tube of it versus the same in epoxy, it's a no-brainer.
300jimmys suggestion isn't very far off base because it addresses the issue of creating a fresh wood surface for the glue to bond with. Pretty important in an old oil soaked stock. If it's a fresh break or crack get some glue in it and clamp it shut. Heck at that point yellow carpenter's glue is plenty good enough. If it's an old crack you must get the crud and corruption out of it and expose some fresh wood before you glue it or you are just pissing in the wind.
Probably more important than fixing the crack is to determine why it cracked in the first place and correct that issue too, or you will be re-gluing that tang again.
Forget the acetone, lacquer thinner and mineral spirits for cleaning up glue squeeze out. They're all too volatile for a patinized decades old gunstock finish. Ok for unfinished new construction. For epoxy and polyurethane glues use vinegar or denatured alcohol-sparingly. Gary's suggestion of waxing up to the crack is a good one too. In a perfect world one would put the exact amount of glue in the joint to preclude any squeeze out but not starve the joint. Out of about 23 million joints I've glued in my life that state of perfection occurred maybe three times.
Why does everybody bow and scrape at the altar of Brownell's AcraGlass? It's nothing more than a good epoxy, albeit with a higher price tag and the panache of the Brown-"give me all your money"-ell's name on it. Their Gel is nothing more than the AG resin pre-mixed with colloidal silica. Just stop into any shop that works with epoxy and bum a handful of the fluffy weightless stuff and mix your own. If you ask them nicely they may even give you a bit of epoxy to do the repair, or only charge you a buck or so.
Last edited by Rick99; 10/25/11.
