HOW TO CRACK A STOCK
 

My 1878 10 lifter had 2 5/8" chambers and I debated whether to shoot the longer shells like one would in 12 gauge or to get the chambers lengthened. Finally I sent the barrels to Mike Orlen who within a week had them back to me with lengthened chambers and lengthened forcing cones. Very good work.

Since it is a number two frame I wondered what would happen now with my heavy loads. Would the lengthened chambers cause the barrels, which are not the greatest, to take my hand off? Well I put up the turkey targets and with low pressure but heavy 1 1/2 ounces of sixes right and fours left, I took two shots at targets. Great! The barrels held and my hand was still there! Dead turkeys at thirty-five steps! Took the gun inside to discover that the loads had cracked both sides of the recently refinished stock head (I had soaked all of the oil out of it so I did not expect this). It appears the locks cracked both sides and there is no crack internally in the stock. Was taking it after geese Saturday but now it needs to be fixed again. The stock is tight and with no internal cracks and everything fits perfectly. Have you seen this?

Not a happy day.

That is sad.





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Wow, that is beyond disappointing..

Jerry there was movement or potential for it somewhere in the head inletting ,giving the receiver the opportunity to come back under recoil ,you'll see sometimes in old wood that the top tang screw can turn past its original timing ,that's a sign ,too much finish around the edges can give a false indication that everything it tight and even start a crack during reassembly before you even see it ,those are just a couple thoughts ...it's always an idea to glass the head ,on a hard used gun it can give a nice tight fit where you cant see.

get some thinned epoxy into those cracks ,glass the head and touch up your finish .

Good luck!

Any old gun that I am going to shoot a lot, or shoot heavy loads, I bed with epoxy. It doesn't show on the outside but it helps prevent damage.

I would consider 1 1/2 ounces heavy, even in an old 10.

Did you coat the inside of the stock with a dilute cynoacrylate glue? I do that to seal all of the little cracks in the stock after it has had the oil removed. I believe that epoxy will not get into the little cracks.

I know the 1.5 ounce loads are heavy but the gun will barely throw a killing pattern at 35 with them and with 1.25 ounces a turkey can stand there and keep looking at you for some reason. There is only .030 choke in each barrel. I had shot over two boxes of one ounce loads through it in dove season with no problem. The reason I soaked out the oil was there was a small crack in the right side to start with. So I am also thinking that there had to be movement somewhere, even though all screws time correctly and there is no finish build up. But with the crack visible on the right side I quit using it until it could be repaired last year. So it may have been built up finish that made the locks start the crack upon assembly before it was shot.

In order to understand what happened here, and in many other attempts to revive classic double guns, certain truths must be accepted and allowed for:

1) Wood is a natural product of carbon-based life. It is not immortal. It also dries out with age. This cannot be changed.

2) The wood used in the gunstocks of old doubles is often more than 100 years old, as it was formed into a stock. Not including the time it took to grow. Some of that wood is Black Walnut, which was barely suitable going in.

3) The wood used in old gunstocks has been subjected to perhaps thousands of impact shocks. There is a limit to the number of such shocks each piece can withstand under the circumstances of its age and treatment.

4) The wood of old gunstocks is often oil soaked. This weakens the wood. Attempts to “remove” this oil most often make the wood more brittle and less able to resist shock. Leaving the oil in is bad, too. It’s Catch 22.

5) Shock loading such old wood to more than its limits often results in failure. Why? Because the wood is old. It’s been abused. And has reached a threshold in its application past which it cannot continue to hold up. And it splits, cracks and fails.

6) The design of old doubles provides a number to “wedge Points” that work to split the stocks. The top tang and rear curves of the lockplates are only a few. They drive back into old, brittle shrunken wood with every shot. There are few ways around this.

7) Moral: You can draw out oil and refinish old stocks. You can glass bed the stock head. But don’t expect such stocks to be as strong as they were when new. It’s still OLD wood. Respect that. Use light loads and be glad they still hold up for now.

Once repaired, I'm retiring it from turkey hunting as I did when I saw the original crack. Just wanted to say I had killed one with it. I have a set of 12 ga. barrels for it that are IC and IC that will get the one ounce like last fall. If I shoot the 10s it will be no more than 1 1/8 oz. from now on.

Kinda like our bones ! When we were young fall down get up nothing wrong , later in life brake and fall down and not get up .