Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing New Tang Safety stock split

Yo welcome neighbor, and good to know about shipping, you guys decide you want to go back with factory wood, shoot me a PM.

Thanks, will do, I was out shooting gophers with his daughter the other day but he had to make a run north, works in the "Patch". I'll talk to him in a few day hopefully and let you know.
Jeff

10-4, no hurry, Buds had those stocks sitting in the rack collection dust for decades ; ]

This. Well, maybe not the rare part as I've not seen that to excess, but the rest. Neither of my tangers- '06 and 338 have ever had that problem, but I did the bedding almost immediately after acquiring them used.

And of course making sure there is clearance around the screws and back of tang.

I think I have 3 used stocks for RU77, magnum barreled tangers in storage. May or may not be after-market bedded.... All came off rifles that owners were putting into synthetics. I'd have to look for damage (other than dings and scratches, which they have), but I think they are sound.

$100 sounds fair, especially if unmarred!

The worst rifles I ever encountered for cracked wrists/tang area were Weatherby early Jap production. Those boys made the screw holes to diameter- no clearance, which caused the rear screw to act as recoil lug, splitting the wrist. I bet I repaired 10 of those things in 2 years time. Interestingly enough, none of those owners wanted a new replacement......

Good evening las,

All this talk about bedding the lug etc had me wondering/second guessing the original stock. I just took another look at it, there isn't a single sign it was ever bedded. The damage looks to be decades in the making. The original owner got lucky???
Our damage was instant and catastrophic. 11 rounds fired, I still can't get over it.
I'm still waiting to talk to the friend who owns it and see which way he wants me to proceed. I'm leaning towards fixing it but also acquiring at least one replacement that would be bedded.
Last time we talked he said we should look into a synthetic stock. Call me crazy, I'd like to buy the darn thing from him but he fell in love with it, split stock/damaged tang and all.
He is out of town working till next week I believe. (Oil Patch)

Jeff

Rugers need epoxy bedding.... but then so do most other factory rifles, for improved accuracy/consistency, etc. It's only recently that some manufacturers have started bedding even the recoil lug area with synthetic compounds. And that's sometimes questionable. The first thing I did after acquiring a slightly used M70 of 1981 vintage was re-doing that (seemingly) hot glue recoil lug bedding they slopped in there, with quality epoxy.

Trigger jobs don't hurt either.

Over time, if not epoxy bedded, the wood behind the recoil lug can dry, shrink, become recoil compressed, oil soaked, swell in wet weather, etc. An epoxy job will give you perfect contact, which may not be the case with bare inletted wood- especially factory commercial quantity jobs...

Both my tangers, if hunted in wet weather, the wood will swell up beyond the edges of the butt pads (after market - the Ruger pads are terrible!) ), even tho the end grain is epoxy sealed. But they don't change POI. All of the interior inletting has been epoxy sealed, to at least slow moisture acquisition.

As I mentioned before with the Jap Weatherby - early on, as few as 3 or 4 shots would crack the wrist. For that, and other reasons, I'll take a Ruger over a Bee every single time. With a little work... Once prejudiced, always prejudiced - that's me, even when things change for the better. They later started to relief the screw holes.

A little "custom' goes a long ways on most mass-produced rifles. They are almost never inletted where the action sits perfectly flat in the stock- which they should. If the action screws don't go from coming snug to perfectly tight in 1/2 turn (less is better) then they are not bedded flat enough.. You can futz with them using a torque wrench to get them '"best shooting"; but that ain't the way my cork floats.

Any greater screw leveraging is just bending the stock to fit the metal works - and that's where the torque wrench comes in.... I do have one- but that's for bolts and nuts on snow machines, trucks, and the like.

I also prefer free-floating the barrels. Only one of my rifles shoots better with fore-end tip pressure - and it only took me 40 years of killing stuff with a free-floated barrel with it to get it there...

I have seen a number of rifles that have some slop between the recoil lug and the wood behind, whether due to inletting, recoil compression, or shrinkage I don't know. That isn't good, and can lead to problems in other areas, such as the tang cracking the wrist.

With any new to me rifle of my own, whether new or used , I shoot it for base-line, then I epoxy bed the SOB, if it hasn't been. Period. I've never been disappointed, even with (rarely) no discernible improvement in accuracy. I like shurity.... . That RU77 in '06, acquired used?

Lot's of story there, which I won't go into (again!) , but initially when I tried it, it would put 3 into a cloverleaf, and go to 5" for 5... I thought about that for a year, then glass bedded the action and bottom metal, free-floated the barrel and it now shoots 1.25 moa or so all day long, and I don't worry about weather changes.

Now, that said, I had a RU77V Tang 25-06 that I never did a thing to other than handload neck-sized fired brass. Back in my young and more ignorant days.....

It went from 5 MOA factory loads to 1MOA handloalds or less - I suspect an oversized chamber. It also threw the first round from a clean barrel 4" high and left at 45 degrees.

I never hunted with a clean barrel.

When I moved off the Slope, I thought (erroneously) I needed a larger caliber for moose, and sold it. Dumb! I've regretted that ever since- 30 plus years. It had a stock that was fiddleback from tip to butt......That cured me of selling rifles.....

I'm a Ruger fan, but also have a M98, a M70, M700, snd 725 and my walk-about carry rifle, my Dad's M94.

All are epoxy bedded but the 94, - the M98 (heavy barrel) and 70 fwt. are full-length bedded . M98 shoots inch groups at 300 yards, 70 does inch plus at 100 -- I'm going to try free floating the barrel to see if that helps. It should do better.

it's all fun...

I'm a fan of Rugers as well. I deeply regret swapping off my 77 in 35 Whelen a couple or so years ago. It was moved into a synthetic stock shortly after I bought it as I was going to be hunting pretty wet conditions. I should kept it and just bought the Rem 700 XCR II 300 WSM I ended up with. Its a nice rifle, accurate as all get out, good trigger but, it's not a Whelen! The things one regrets in hindsight and all. Once we decide what to do with this particular rifle, I'll certainly be bedding it if it stays in walnut. And re-doing the pillar bedding. Trigger is pretty good actually. I would have to check it with my gauge but it isn't heavy, has a smooth pull. (I'm planning to print off the advice you folks have provided)
Again, thanks very much for all the advice and ideas.
Jeff

I spent fifteen years working as a gunsmith for a busy retail gun store. This was during the heyday of the tang safety Ruger and, quite honestly, I don't recall having seen that many split. I'm sure I glass bedded, literally, hundreds of them though. It has long been established that the only rear-facing surface, on any action, which should contact the stock, is the back of the recoil lug. Otherwise, there is a good chance the stock will split. GD

Absolutely true! -Al

You have to put a gap around the tang on Rugers, or they will split. This is common knowledge, i am surprised it wasn't mentioned yet unless I missed it.

It was mentioned earlier as requiring reliving it.
Jeff