Hello All,

I have an FN-made Browning Auto 5 that dates from about 1948. The stock is in good shape, but has shrunk with age. The parts that are supposed to be flush with the back of the receiver, on the sides, actually have a small gap. On one side it is about .015" and on the other side about .0165"

The wood is in good shape and the finish doesn't have spots worn through. I would like to not have to refinish the entire stock.

In looking at the 'fit', I see that I need to get that gap filled, so that the shotgun doesn't drive the stock bolt back and split the stock over time.

I have read about bedding stocks, but feel that I'd have to grind off about 1/8" of the mating surface to get enough purchase for the bedding, and get through any residual oil. I don't want to soak the entire stock to suck the oil out, or I'll ruin the finish.

Can I just use a wire brush on my dremel to rough up the mating surfaces and THEN acra-glas it?

The other option that came to me was to get a spare set of feeler guages and trim/sculpt two of the blades into shims. Since the gap on one is about .015, I would use a .016" feeler, so that it would snug down tight.

On the other side, where the gap is around .0165, I would use a .018" to do the same.

I would trim/grind the feeler until it was contoured to fit the receiver end perfectly.

When I went to put it in, I would use brake cleaner on the surfaces, and then a hint of superglue to tack the shim in place, and then fit the stock, so that the stock sandwiched the meat of the shim between the stock and the receiver.

The superglue should keep the meat from sliding out [unless it acts like tomato and lettuce and speeds up the side escape of the meat].

The advantage of this approach is that it wouldn't risk damage to the stock by grinding anything or fitting acra-glas, and it wouldn't require stripping any oil from the wood.

What do you think I should do?

When Art’s Gun Shop tightens a stock, they drill out and plug the hole for the stock bolt, then use a jig to drill a new one. I don’t believe he ever does a repair like you are contemplating. The repair itself looks easy but without the jig I don’t know how you’d drill the hole correctly.

You can watch his videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... hop+videos

I can’t tell you which one has the stock work demonstrated.

You may want to call them, they’re free with advice.

https://artsgunshop.com/

I can't picture your situation but I literally just bedded an O/U forend last night that had a little annoying wiggle!! Just cured overnight. I just used JB Clear Weld epoxy and brown epoxy dye (I got a set of epoxy dyes on Amazon--comes with just about every color you can imagine but the ones for guns would be brown, coffee brown and then black and white to lighten/darken to color match).

I used good packing tape to keep the epoxy from sticking to the barrels. Then I mixed up the epoxy put in only two small drops of brown epoxy dye while mixing. Then put a couple small gobs in the foreend and put the barrels on.

I did wake up in a panic when I could not remove the forend, but I then used a tiny block of wood an a rubber mallet and gave it a light tap and it popped off. The bedding perfectly matches the barrel contour and the wiggle is gone.

This.

Remove the bolt, re-fit the stock to the action that tiny fraction of an inch fwd, then EITHER, plug and re-drill that bolt hole that 1/16" farther aft, or just oversize it a tiny bit.

Here’s Art fixing the stock. It starts about 37 minutes into the video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EMBRdYZ5Mhs&t=2501s

Thanks All!

I will have Art's do it, as I needed them to swap the mag tube out anyway. One trip- both probs solved and I can't bugger it up.

Mag tube got bent somehow eh?

THAT is most definitely best left to someone else.

Art shows how he does that too. He uses an old barrel extension to stiffen the receiver so the torque applied to the tube doesn’t warp it. An he cleans out the threads with a special tap.

Both of those jobs are best left to a pro. But in both of these cases, it more a matter of having the right tools than unusual skill. Although Art has an abundance of that too.