Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Stock Cross Bolts/Dowels and Wrist Reinforcement

I'm looking to make do my first stock inletting and checkering job this fall. I'll be purchasing a shaped blank with no inletting for a Ruger M77 MKII in .35 Whelen and then going from there. I kind of like the looks of cross bolts and I wouldn't mind having some extra protection against stock splitting or breakage. I've thought about threading the ID of a piece of 3/8" .120 wall steel tubing to 1/4-20 and epoxy bedding it into the stock and then screwing in low profile head screws on either side of the stock.

I also thought about just drilling a 1/2" hole from side to side and epoxying an ebony dowel in place. I think that would look nice and work just as good, but I have no experience with this, so I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts about both ideas.

On the same vein of stock reinforcement, I recently saw a video of Larry Potterfield of Midway USA installing a piece of all thread into the wrist area of a stock for added strength. The all thread was bedded in epoxy. Does anyone do this or think it is a worthwhile practice?

I always figure a crossbolt might just as well look like a crossbolt but there are some qualifications. The purpose is to prevent the stock from splitting rather than to transfer recoil forces to the wood, so placement is important. A crossbolt between the magazine cutout and the trigger group is beneficial.
As far as the threaded rod through the grip is concerned, if the flow of the grain through the grip is wrong, reinforcement can help. If the grain flows well, it doesn't make a big difference. GD

The Talley cross bolts I've installed have turned out very nice...look like factory Model 70's. They come in the white.

Hope this helps. -Al

I'm glad the Talleys worked out well for you. The first idea I put out, I'm basically imitating the Talleys, but I want a bolt with a hex in the center instead of the pin spanner style. I figure if something ever needs to be tightened in a remote location, a pin spanner will be impossible to find, but hex keys are kind of ubiquitous.

Cross bolts aren't meant to be adjusted after they're in place.

But if you want a different look, a couple of Allen headed button screws would be my suggestion. One in from each side screwing into a threaded sleeve. Epoxy the sleeve in and epoxy the threads of the button screws so everything is locked together once the screws are tightened.

Good shootin' -Al

You're employing a difficult protocol for your first attempt at stockmaking. (All decent suggestions above for cross bolts as far as I'm concerned, but for a .35 Whelen I wouldn't bother with a crossbolt in the first palce - really not a heckuva lot more real-world recoil strain on a stock than a .30-06, but that's just my opinion.) What nags at me a bit is your trying to inlet a pre-shaped stock. Usually you want to inlet the metal first and then shape the exterior, unless you mean that you're actually doing a pre-inlet stock blank.

I agree. Inlet the barreled action and carve the stock around it.

This is what I have done.




As for cross bolts, most split wrist that I have come across are because a tang or such has not had clearance at the back of it against the stock. I am not familiar with the 77', I am probably wrong. If not, a cross bolt isn't going to help that, will it?

Nope, it won't, I've fixed several such 77's - with epoxy and clearance, only. But if a cross-bolt bobs one's cork...

No clearance behind tangs and rear action screws are the usual suspects. Bad wrist grain run doesn't help either.

When I make a stock, I rough shape it, from the pistol grip forward, before inletting. I like to have the forearm within a 1/4 inch or so of finished dimension. Otherwise, I have had trouble with stock movement as wood is removed. Of course, the better the wood, the less likely this is.
I have ordered uninletted, shaped, blanks from Richards, and they have worked out OK. These were usually laminated blanks BTW. GD

Saddlesore & Ias are giving you good advice. You should study the parent stock you are duplicating. I'm not really familiar with Ruger rifles however, I've not heard of issues such as you are hoping to avoid. Does Ruger use crossbolts? I confess that it did not take me long to cultivate good relationship with a couple of duplicators who would use my template stocks - which were previously glass-bed fit to action. Today, when making or modifying composites, I reinforce suspect stress areas - such as Greydog refers to between the magazine cutout and the trigger group - with an ultra-strong epoxy putty/clay. Most of today's stocks are reinforced with aluminum so large voids for a universal fit for triggers is the norm. But that's not the norm with wood. One of the best bits of advice I ever got was from Joe Balicki who said the last inletting he did on bolt actions was for the trigger (he loved Model 70's for their 'skinny' triggers) - he said "removing wood for convenience was a bad habit for a stocksmith to get into" - the point being is that wood is strength so remove the least amount of wood you can especially in areas such as the trigger well.

Also when wood was the norm, for heavy recoiling actions you may find beautiful wood used but the true professionals ensured the blanks they used had longitudinal structural strength usually predominated figure-wise by pronounced stripe or fiddleback-stripe more than burl - especially in the wrist area, this followed and flowed with the stock layout and never across/against it. Also that's why European/English walnut was so popular because of its density and strength. The next best was American walnut. I love Claro (California) walnut but it is less dense with much larger grain and I would never use that if I were building a heavy hitter. Bastogne if more like English but sometimes the strongest is noticeably heavier You see a lot of blanks being offered today that may be beautiful wood but having poor layout possibilities. From your picture, I can't tell what yours is like, so it's difficult to comment on the true merits of a crossbolt in your situation.

The stock I planing to use is a preshaped, but not inletted blank from Richards Microfit Gunstocks. I've got a different barrel contour than their standard inletting and per a conversation with them on the phone, they don't have the in house technical know how to change the programming on their router. I figured the simplest way to go would be to just buy the stock preshaped and then inlet myself, which they can accommodate. I feel pretty confident in my own skills to do the inletting, but I'm not so sure of myself when it comes to the full exterior profile. The exterior is more like a form of sculpture, and I could maybe get it right on my first try, but I wouldn't be shocked if I made 1 or 2 kind of odd looking stocks before I really got the hang of it.

Saddlesore,
Where did you get the paper template you've got attached to the stock blank? Is it your own creation or something standard? I think if I did try to make a stock from a blank some kind of patterns would be a real help.

It is my own creation after studying a lot and trail/error. Several stock making books will give some basic dimensions and what to do and what not to do. I have 2-3 of the templates depending on what type of rifle or shotgun I was doing. I like Weatherby stocks and some of the features, I incorporated into mine. Shotguns and center fire rifles take different dimension and of course if you want to use iron sights or scopes.

You would still need to figure out what LOP, drop at comb,drop at heel, pitch and cast you need.

That particular stock was for a TC Black Diamond muzzle loader. Not meant to hijack this thread, but here is how it turned out. There is little bit of belly right in front of the trigger guard. I had to compromise because of the short height of the trigger group, action screws, and the need of wood for the ram rod.

Thanks for showing a picture of the final product. That looks amazing!

What books on stock making do you think are the best reads?

I have an older version of NRA Gunsmithing Guide I bought from the NRA store. It doesn't show on the NRA store, but I found it on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/NRA-Gunsmithing-Guide-Updated/dp/0935998470.

There are three articles in it.

Gunstock Fundamentals by Lenard M. Brownell ( has basic dimensions)

Achieving Gunstock Elegance by Charles DeVeto

Stocking Sporting and Varmint Rifles by Morgan G. Holmes

Crossbolts are the answer to the question answered better by epoxy many decades ago. Done right they do not weaken the stock too much. Done wrong...

Metal set in epoxy works to fail the joint asap by thermal movement, especially when crossgrain.

Adding greatly to the inletting difficulties in your plan is the angled front action screw in the 77. Figuring out where it will end up and getting it there without referencing against a pin will induce head scratching. For a first try without help or guidance standing by it may prove difficult.

Saddlesore's reference to Len Brownell's article on stocks is very good and he designed the original 77 stock. Saddlesore also posted years ago about bedding Kevlar fishing line in epoxy across the grain to reduce cracks. It works well!