You can reattach the peices that you managed to recover and fill the gaps with Acraglas tinted to match the color of the wood.

BUT, to quote a line I really liked....it's going top look like frozen peanut butter.

I dont think Goldilocks will be impressed.

Buy a new stock and do it right. In addition as your not experienced with fitting a stock with perfect tolerances I'd order Acraglas and glass bed the head into the receiver. Done right it will be invisible and will insure 100% even contact between wood and metal helping to prevent cracks down the road.

Anyway, I think that conragutlations are due for trying it yourself and learning along the way.

Jeff

 

I know that you can't shorten an 11-48 very much from the butt end without also shortening the bolt spring housing, but it didn't seem that you shortened it much at all....guess I'm wondering why you didn't shorten the butt....with that said, I think another stock should be very easy to find...

 

I think the idea of shortening it from the front was to bring the pistol grip closer to the trigger? and slim up the area of the hand. Sure, you could fill it in with acura glass, the scraps you have, and some sawdust.

But I like the idea of ordering a roughed out stock from somebody like Macon stocks and restocking it for her.

 

You can reattach the peices that you managed to recover and fill the gaps with Acraglas tinted to match the color of the wood.

Splinters, gone with the wind (literally).

BUT, to quote a line I really liked....it's going top look like frozen peanut butter.

That's what I thought.

I dont think Goldilocks will be impressed.

She's a shooter, and this is an HD gun. Her suggestion was:

"Leave it as is: I'm going to dink it up training with the guys anyway."

My Wife rocks {RO

Fit and function are more important to her than the aesthetics.

Buy a new stock and do it right. In addition as your not experienced with fitting a stock with perfect tolerances I'd order Acraglas and glass bed the head into the receiver. Done right it will be invisible and will insure 100% even contact between wood and metal helping to prevent cracks down the road.

Budget won't allow for it. Details in the basement, =>here<=. I might be able to get away with refinishing an old wingmaster stock, though.

Anyway, I think that conragutlations are due for trying it yourself and learning along the way.

Jeff

Thanks (I think). I tend to learn the hard way.

I know that you can't shorten an 11-48 very much from the butt end without also shortening the bolt spring housing, but it didn't seem that you shortened it much at all....guess I'm wondering why you didn't shorten the butt....with that said, I think another stock should be very easy to find...

When the stock has a 15+" LOP to begin with, you can do a lot.

I did, in fact, shorten the butt end up quite a bit.

I think the idea of shortening it from the front was to bring the pisto1 grip closer to the trigger? and slim up the area of the hand.

Bill got it (the former, not the latter). The finger grooves were put in by the previous owner.

The front end was basically reprofiled to the same as a Hogue Youth stock, which she loves the feel of. It moved the pisto1 grip forward, and more importantly, did the same for the comb.

Sure, you could fill it in with acura glass, the scraps you have, and some sawdust. But I like the idea of ordering a roughed out stock from somebody like Macon stocks and restocking it for her.

Again, budget concerns. I'd say I can invest $50 or so.

I guess I was looking for what I knew was impossible. I still had to ask.

BTW, I just fit the stock with the bearing plate, and final sanding to a perfect flush fit would have been a few passes of 220 Grit paper.

{F*

Thank you gentlemen!

 

We've done awesome work on some pretty busted up stocks, but that one is missing a lot of surface wood and it makes it really hard to create a matching "grain" on a splice or fill. I'd replace the wood if it is available and isn't too expensive. If you want to try to salvage it let me know and I'll see what we can do on it.

 

You can reattach the peices that you managed to recover and fill the gaps with Acraglas tinted to match the color of the wood.

Sure, you could fill it in with acura glass, the scraps you have, and some sawdust.

We've done awesome work on some pretty busted up stocks, but that one is missing a lot of surface wood and it makes it really hard to create a matching "grain" on a splice or fill.

Jeff, Bill, and Joe:

Are you suggesting that it would be possible to create a slurry of epoxy and wood (I still have a LOT of wood left over from the butt shortening) and have it come somewhat close to matching the rest if used as a filler for the missing areas?

I'd replace the wood if it is available and isn't too expensive. If you want to try to salvage it let me know and I'll see what we can do on it.

Brother, you've already offered to help out in this project with the brake. I don't want to wear out my welcome (but really appreciate the offer to try). :wink:

Again, the repair is now for my own ego, as the end user is actually okay with an ugly but functional piece of wood. :?

 

I would be tempted to clean up the top and live with it. I would look hard at cutting down the sides of the stock to a depth to clean up the mess, then cut and glue in some pieces of walnut and reshape the head of the stock. That might turn out looking a little nicer than frozen peanut butter.
Dave

 

I would be tempted to clean up the top and live with it. I would look hard at cutting down the sides of the stock to a depth to clean up the mess, then cut and glue in some pieces of walnut and reshape the head of the stock. That might turn out looking a little nicer than frozen peanut butter.
Dave

Funny enough...

I picked up the chunk of walnut I hacked off to shorten the LOP, and was considering doing exactly that. A sort of veneer job with the scrap I already have from the same piece of wood.

Edit/Update:

I worked for about 6 hours on the stock yesterday, shaping and cutting chunks from the scrap end of the stock. In the end, although the profile (sides) fit, and I managed to match up the undersides fairly well (would only need slight fill with epoxy), it is NOT a workable solution. The scraps I have just aren't large enough.

 

I picked up the chunk of walnut I hacked off to shorten the LOP, and was considering doing exactly that. A sort of veneer job with the scrap I already have from the same piece of wood&#8230;

&#8230;I worked for about 6 hours on the stock yesterday (March 5), shaping and cutting chunks from the scrap end of the stock. In the end, although the profile (sides) fit, and I managed to match up the undersides fairly well (would only need slight fill with epoxy), it is NOT a workable solution. The scraps I have just aren't large enough.

Update: Here's the process in pretty (ugly) pictures:

Cutting/carving out the chipped areas on the head of the stock:

Templates made, and transferred to the scrap left over from shortening everything up:

Left/right inserts cut and applied to the stock head:

Unfortunately, after six+ hours of shaping, the inserts were not enough. There would have been significant gaps at the sides (the inserts weren't tall enough - they just might have fit inside the receiver).

I informed the wife that I was beaten, and dejected; added a synthetic stock to my shopping cart at Brownell's. Just before hitting "submit", I did a quick sweep of the classifieds here at SGW, hoping beyond hope for a cheap Wingmaster stock. I found a used 870P stock (no checkering), and was about to drop the guy an email when I began to think about what it was that I would want to do with the stock.

After a moment's pause, I said to myself "Hmmm, you could just cut the head off that stock and epoxy it on to the one you have now.".

After another moment's pause, I said to myself "FMD, what the devil did you do with that beat-up 870 Express stock you've been screwing around with?".

Here's a visual of what was going through my head&#8230;

&#8230;and that thought played out:

Now while playing with adapting an 870 synthetic stock to this gun, I had discovered that the action spring tube had a beautiful fit inside a length of ½" i.d. copper tubing (don't bother asking why I figured it out, just realize that in a moment of desperation, I did). So to align both pieces of wood to the action spring tube (required for proper operation), I bored out a section of each to 5/8" (which is the o.d. of the half-inch copper tube), inserted the tubing, and here's how things lined up:

There were certainly some odd discrepancies between the two pieces&#8230;

&#8230;but nothing that a little shaping couldn't fix:

The joint itself was epoxied together over the copper tube, and with a small section of brass rod inserted into both pieces.

I knew going in that I would lose the checkering, but the tradeoff of having a majority of he original stock present was worth it to the wife. The fit worked out fairly well in the end:

Getting the crap Express wood to match the beautiful Walnut was a different story, and a process I'd rather not repeat. In the end, a 3-to-4 mixture of Minwax RedOak to Minwax Heritage worked about as well as can be expected under the circumstances*:

The following are photos taken while trying to highlight the mismatch:

In all actuality and in person, the difference seems closer to this photo:

*Hindsight is 20/20. If I had to do it all over again, I would have stained the entire piece, or at least blended the stain over top of the joint and into the old stock. As it stands, the original stock is "naked" and unstained, while the Express piece has been worked extensively on its own in an attempt to match the natural color of the original wood.

The last photos show things how they stand: Two coats of Minwax Satin Spar Urethane on top of naked/stained wood with a few coats of wetsanded Tru-Oil to fill in the grain. I have yet to do final fitting and bedding of the stock to the action, but I needed to take a bit of a break from this monster.

All-in-all, it's not a seamless repair or a perfect match, but it's a solid assembly, the angles fit Goldilocks :wink: , and from 6' away, you can't really tell that any re-work has been done.

...the repair is now for my own ego, as the end user is actually okay with an ugly but functional piece of wood.

Mission accomplished.

 

Saved another one!

Mike

 

That looks great. I think if you did a little checkering pattern over the joint you would blend the two sections even more and most people would not even notice.

Next time consider finding Rockler or some other wood working store around. You can usually find a piece of walnut for bowl turning or something like that that will cost $10 to $20 and then the two woods would be easier to match.

I'm guessing the 870 express is not walnut based on the pictures prior to finishing.

That kind of fix is a great one because it took a some ingenuity but in the end its a great story.

 

You didnt do bad at all. I was waiting to see some kind of abomination and that is far from it. Well done, you have a funtional stock.

 

With a little checkering, your repair, which is amazing by the way, would be even less noticable, IMHO.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Congratulations! You accomplished a very nice repair and should be quite proud of it.

Someone suggested that some judicious checkering might help - that's a wonderful idea. Even if the pattern is unconventional it will disguise the interface.

Anyway, show it off at the range!

 

Thank you, gentlemen.

As I said, the end user would have been happy with the gun (chips and all). The fix ended up being more for my ego than anything else.

On a related note, the second test-firing of this gun went swimmingly, with no damage whatsoever, despite almost a box of magnum loads. The stock has not been bedded to the action (yet), but the recv'r plate had been installed.

Since I've now gotten at least three suggestions of checkering, where might I be able to get that done? Keep in mind that I'm on a budget, the stock thins at the joint, and I'd want to replicate the original style Remmy factory job.

Edit: Evidently I can't count. Also, I truly appreciate the "not an abomination", given the work you do, Chic. Thanks!

 

FMD, after all the work I saw you putting into the 11-48 I opted not to send you the 870 parts, but had our machinist burn off a single unit machined to .844", its on the way :wink:

 

FMD, after all the work I saw you putting into the 11-48 I opted not to send you the 870 parts, but had our machinist burn off a single unit machined to .844", its on the way :wink:

Joe, you {RO

Will get it installed, and have how-to photos, a review, and maybe even some video as soon as I'm able.