re-finishing basics-again!

I've never been able to fill "Fine" wood anything, furniture, cabent or gunstock! If ya cant sand it out, hmmmm. Good hardwood dowel or inlay is about the best - or they make woodedn caps for scews and stuff. Drill a shallow nice 1/4 inch hole, not too deep, and glue in a piece of dowel and sand flat is about the best... Or inlay some Mother-o-Pearl or somethin creative also works... "Fill" on a fine clear finish is tuff...

Common finishes are polyuretheline (spelling), varnish, lacquer.
One a the best i ever did was marine spar varnish. a good captins varish - a very durable, good lookin finish. Lacquer is nice and easy to work with but chips easy. Browning uses poly.
Poly and varnish apply the same way, multiple coats, 3 will do, ligtly sanded(320) between coats. Thin either 80-20 with mineral sprits and apply multiple THIN coats for best results - hang it when aplying and drying to prevent dust fall...

Actually the the wipe on (with a rag) poly ya find a unfinished furniture stores is very hi grade poly, pretty easy and gives a very good result... especiall in satin! HiGloss anything is tuff!

Woody:

If you are going to use super glue (which I would not recommend), find yourself a diabetic that uses insulin with disposable syringes to inject it. These small syringes are great for putting the super glue exactly where you want it.

You will need the type of super glue that allows unscrewing a cap to be able to insert the needle of the syringe to load it. Also be careful of the stuff during every step. It will glue your fingers together. It would be best to also get some thinner for the stuff, just in case.

A good grade, low viscosity epoxy would be an alternative. The down side is that you would almost need a scale to accurately measure the resin and hardner; that is important. The stuff available in hardware stores is not good epoxy and is too thick to allow getting it into small cracks, even whe they are opened slightly. Its high viscosity also prevents it from being absorbed by the wood.

Consider having someone with experience do it for you. It shouldn't cost all that much.

Rollin

Woody,
I would use epoxy resin thinned with Acetone and inject it into the cracks. Where are the cracks and are they just stress cracks or the result of recoil?

I would finish the stock with a polymer modified oil. I use a product called BenneMatte and it is a Tung oil. It does not darken the stock and give a very good protective finish. I use saturation coats. let it dry for a week and then build up a mud coat by wet sanding with 320 and again let it dry for a week. Then I wet sand the mud coat just back to the wood and the pores should be filled. Then it is a process of wet sanding with 320 and on eventually to 600 or 800 grit. With those coats I use a backing to wet sand the stock and then wipe off the stock lightly with a paper towel. After the final wet sanding I hand rub a number (5 to 10) coats by hand. Use just a small dab of oil and rub it until it is hot and it is smooth. The built up coats with BenneMatte will be a matt finish but other finishes can give you a gloss finish. You can also use rottenstone as with oil to bring up a gloss finish at the end. The built up coats will give you the protective finish.