Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Unstable wood stock.

I have a post 64 LA factory stock that will not quit moving. I am fond of the walnut stock and the blind magazine. I feel my problems may originate in that area. I have sealed the inside with several coats of shellac.

It supports a 25-06 sub MOA barreled action. When I aquired the rifle it had some shims in the recoil lug area. I glassed bedded the action, floated the barrel and was able to achieve sub moa groups. The following year I had a serious vertical string. I had to remove more material in the barrel channel. Back to sub moa. The following year I again had some vertical stringing, but the barrel was still free. I removed all existing bedding compound and pillar bedded it. Sub moa again. The following year it had flexed enough to place a strain on the action strong enough to wear the jeweling from the top of the bolt. I used it a year with the rear action screw barely tight. Still shot moa.

I replaced it with a Hogue Overmold, let my wife use it and left it at that.

She has taken a shine to a nice little Model 7 CDL. I guess I get it back now and I would like to know if there is some miracle compound that will penetrate and stabilize that OEM stock.

I think time is likely your only friend here. Might dismantle it, put the stock in dry and well ventilated spot and leave it there for a year with recoil pad or butt plate removed. Bed and or float as desired. Subsequently seal the inletting and butt of the stock with about a 50:50 Tru Oil/terpentine mix brushing it on continuousely for about 40 minutes. Repeat a week later for about 20 minutes. Let dry for another week and reassemble.

I had similar issues with a 257 Weatherby that took almost 2 years to settle down. 1Minute

yoop
To start with, shellac is not much good for waterproofing... Nor is any oil finish. But the real problem likely stems from a different treatment on the outside and inside of the stock. If the inside is glassbedded and it extends up the channel for a ways it is waterproof. The factory finish is a long way from waterproof.

The outside changes moisture content with the weather and the the inside stays put. That causes wood to move.

Two approaches that I have used individually and together are stiffening the wood by removing a lot of it from the inside and filling with stiffened epoxy, and really sealing the wood.

Hollowing out a fore end until there is little more than a shell left and filling the cavity with short sections of old fishing rods bedded in fluffed epoxy will make it stiff and completely stable.

The other option is to actually seal the wood completely. Epoxy and superglue are the only two options I have found that will do that... I do not consider a total refinish on a factory stock worthwhile, so I cannot speak to how easily or well it will seal the refinished wood.

As 1minute said, time is doing a lot to settle the wood down, but some just does not want to quit moving.
art

Instead of cutting up your fishing rods, try carbon arrow shafts. If you have friends big on archery you may get shafts or pieces of shaft for free. Any crack or imperfection makes a carbon arrow unsafe to shoot and the more expensive the shaft the more often it seems to happen! Handy material for any stock reinforcing job.

hollow out the forearm all the way to the recoil lug use bedding compound and glass bed a 1/2 or 3/4 inch round excruded aluminan rod in .

Thanks for the help.

Time is not going to work here. The thing was 15 years old when I got it. Stiffening the fore end may be a good idea, but the thing is free floated from the recoil lug forward.

I probably should quit whining and use the stock to heat the camp deer season and get a Richards.

If it was and remains truly free-floated the problems are possibly in the action area and it would be easier to fix with a simple pillar bedding job that removed a significant amount of wood...

I did pillar bed it and that is when the action got enough strain to wear the jeweling from the bolt. That is why I believe at least some of the problem is from the area under the magazine.

I have thought about using a penetrating epoxy compound called GitRot. Boat builders use it. But then it will require bedding compound and pillar removal. Then a new pillar bedding. I am fond of the stock....

AVoid GitRot!!!!! it is waterbased and will only make your problems worse! Works for boats because they stay wet anyway...

looks to be a simple case of needing to go back and carefully rebed...