Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles I feel very sick; Broken favorite rifle

Go JR. - Merry Christmas. By the way, I smacked a buck this year, up in the Hollow, with The "Taconic". 130 gr. Barnes. he didn't go far.

That's why I like my rifle in my hands and not on my back ! I've more than once had to keep my gun on top during a fall .

Sh*t like that happens when you have a figgured stock. My Jap made Browning Sweet 16 did the same type break on a covey rise of Sharptails . Pinned and epoxied ,no pins and it will happen again,my bet. Magnum Man

SO sorry to see the results of your accident. I hope you're ok though... my uncle was out elk hunting and came home with an important discovery; "when side-hilling a mountainous area, sling your rifle on the down hill side rather than uphill."

Seriously though... that is extremely repairable and as others have said, it'll have a cool story. Don't go screwing up a beautiful Super Grade w/ a plastic stock!

Who said anything about a plastic stock?

Well I have a stock that many here say should be repaired. And maybe someone will repair it, but it wont be me. The repair can be made by a new owner of this stock. I also don't feel spending a sum of money on a repair and refinishing is wise. I 'd rather put that money into a new stock.

I did find many nice Winchester stocks online. There were Super Grades without checkering, fancy grade Sporters, Custom Shop without checkering, and NOS Super Grades. Pricing was $270. to $600. At the upper end price range and plus a little more I can get a custom stock.

For now I've Desided to go with a fiberglass Stock. I want high quality utillity, strength, and upgraded ergonomics more so than fancy wood. I can do fancy wood later down the road.

Yesterday I spoke with D'Arcy Echols and sometime after Christmas I will have an order in for Echols to produce a Legend pattern stock for me.


I also want to thank everyone here who gave suggestions, web links, opinions, support and encouragement.

I wish all of you and your families a nice Christmas !

For practicality, I think you've made a good decision. It is hard to resist the pull beauty can have on one.

Some would suggest that if you can't keep fo falling you should stay home...

Did you manage to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe diresction thoughout the fall?


Sorry about your misfortune - that was a beautiful rifle.

What a tragedy. But the Stock died while hunting. Which is what a hunting rifle is for and belongs doing.. Better than losing it in a home fire, a burglery, or a divorce. Hey Lake Berryessa is steep country!

Yep all mountains; Some rolling, lots of steeps, but all mountains for sure. Only thing flat around here is the lake !

Absolutely NO!!! Obvious the grain ran wrong through the wrist. I'd send it back to Winchester, MAKE them make it right with a stock you are satisfied with. Supergrades, no matter how pretty the stock is figured, should definitely have the right grain flow through the appropriate places. As pretty as that stock was, it didn't have it. Either they put the right type of stock on that rifle with figure to your satisfaction, put extended tangs on the heel and comb, or give you compensation for the stock. Bad rifle building there. Gorgeous wood, but weak in the grip, the most vernabule place of all.

I've taken a lot of ridiculous spills, busted my bones enough that only surgery would repair, have busted scopes, but that stock shouldn't have busted in a fall, unless a horse or vehicle fell on it.

I fell on top of the rifle. It was slung on my shoulder. When I slipped on the marbles I fell backwards and landed hard on the stock with much of my body wieght (270lbs.) on top of the stock. The rifle did not feel good getting stamped into my back and sides. The trail was almost all rock. It was not a good situation.

Unfortunate indeed. I have (literally) busted my tail and broke a rifle stock but luckily for me it was just along the grain in the fore-end and TiteBond took care of it. I'm 250+ and if I fell on anything I own I can't imagine I could bust it like that. Really unlucky and wish you good luck getting that fixed. My backside only hurt for two years (I'm over it now) so I hope you didn't have physical damage as well...

I hope you take the advice and get it fixed.

lets see it when you do.

How many baseball bat manufacturers do you think could get away with selling their "top of the line" product with improper grain flow?

Win screwed up by not training the guy that laid out the stock. Training that should have taken less than 5 seconds.

Even if you want to put a synthetic stock on it, Win owes you another Super Grade stock with proper grain flow.

Would ANYONE here buy a baseball bat with poor grain flow? I hope not.

As it may be a tough pill to swallow, rifle customers need to understand that grain flow through the stock is paramount and color and figure should be just window dressing on a well built "house".

I'm hoping in the future everyone reading this thread critically looks at the grain flow on every broken stock. The overwhelming majority has "musket grip", or grain flowing across the grip like the one at the top of this thread. Try not getting mesmerized staring at the pretty butt when you've got your wallet out.

If it were only that easy.....

http://www.lcsmith.org/faq/obtainstock.html look at the stock in the 2nd link http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/15127852 . It is in many pieces of old wood. Amazing what can be repaired. Repair steps are shown in a photo sequence. The rifle stock repair would be much simpler than the one shown here.