I put 40 rounds of 30-06 down range today and the wood sporter stock on my 03A3 is spliting. Should I replace it with a synthetic or have the wood one repaired? I kind of like wood better than plastic.

If your stock is splitting after 40 rounds, I'd have to say that something has come loose. Or, the bedding job (if there was one) was poorly done. What type of stock, did you just buy it? If the stock was prone to splitting it should have split a long time ago. If you're interested, I have a very nice walnut sporter stock for an '03 that I'd be willing to part with.

Adrian,

Where is it splitting?

Its splitting around the magazine and the screws where the stock is the weakest and behind the bolt

what would you want for the stock oh the stock it has looks like a mauser style stock with black foreend someone modified to fit the 03 especially the magazine switch which is not aligned right when you flip it down into the off position. They removed some wood at some time. I just bought it for $200 off an estate.

Since we're on this topic I thought this might be of interest. Sorry for the size but I'm new to this stuff. Have an '06 action ready to go into the wood.

Beautiful wood and pattern. Looks a bit like an Earl Milliron pattern. I don't think anything looks as classic as a finely done Springfield. I love those old Pachmayr, etc jobs.

That's one for your team...very good. And thanks for the kind words.

Earl has retired or so I'm told but I was lucky enough to get one of his last customs some time ago. He was having trouble with his eyes for quite some time and I waited till he could get back to his bench. Very nice guy.

Notice the side of this stock has a yellow patch at the butt and some don't think that's good but I like the look. It's been called sap wood but the wood is dry dry dry. Would like to learn what exactly makes that different color. I would have shown the other side but today is a first for me with playing with the pictures.

Earl passed away some time ago. I got some of his neat Mauser actions from the great gunmaker, Darwin Hensley. Darwin won best gun of show at the American Custom Gunmaker's Guild NINE years in a row. Darwin came down with Parkinson's and he traded me Earl's actions which were done by Tom Burgess.

That is NOT sap wood. English is white like maple for many years until it starts to add dark lines. This is heart wood which hasn't darkened in yet. It is not soft sap wood. Nice contrast.

Pete

well I traded it back to the gunstore and got an Interarms mark X that fits me better

Without seeing it I'd say you came out fine. IMO, too many discount the Mark X's. Granted they're not an FN but pretty darn close. Same goes for the old Springfield....yep, they have machining marks on them that can be cleaned up but the actions are wonderful and you can buy them dirt cheap. Trouble is the stocks they come with are usually junk. I think this wood I have will be perfect.

Mk X's are good guns. The barrels were German Bohler steel and very accurate. The actions usually needed to be pollished up like the feeding ramp and bolt runners. Easy to pollish. I wonder who makes the barrels on the new Remington/Serbian guns. Another nice stock.

Adrian,
I have a Mauser and the stock split around the same place yours did. It turned out that the trigger guard assembly was bent and the stress caused it to crack. I bought another stock and when the smith went to install the trigger guard on the new stock he saw that it was slightly bent. Barely visible to the eye but visible enough that he called me and told me that if he installs that trigger guard, the stock would probably crack in the future from the stress around the magazine plate.

I then told him that the reason I was replacing it was because the old stock had cracked in that same place. I bought a new trigger guard with plate and had it installed into the new stock and have never had a problem since. Check your trigger guard to see that it's not bent.

Alfredo

Many trigger guard/floorplates are flat. Some have a raised area around the rear tang screw. This is usually round and designed to broaden the surface area of the screw. The worst design I ever saw was on a 1997 W'by. The raised area was diamond shaped and formed an effective splitting wedge. Add to this a perfectly terrible wrist grain flow and a wrist pin hole but with no strengthening wrist pin added and the result was brain damage to the shooter. Good thing your smith found the bend.

Many trigger guard/floorplates are flat. Some have a raised area around the rear tang screw. This is usually round and designed to broaden the surface area of the screw. The worst design I ever saw was on a 1997 W'by. The raised area was diamond shaped and formed an effective splitting wedge. Add to this a perfectly terrible wrist grain flow and a wrist pin hole but with no strengthening wrist pin added and the result was brain damage to the shooter. Good thing your smith found the bend.

Wow! Pretty piece of wood. Take care of that one. 1Minute