another thought-
I drilled out the plug in my heavy PH 10's stock today-
about 3.5 ounces of lead in there, not sure I could save enough of it for a decoy anchor after the little pieces came flying out
I figured a way to clamp the stock up so that I can glue it -
but- possibly part of the cause- the hole was not completely centered - just a little off - and it split on the slightly thinner side
also - the lead did not fill the hole all the way to the butt plate - there was a wooden plug on top of it - about a half inch deep at the back end - i saw no evidence of glue- but even with the crack - the wood plug was so tight it had to be drilled out- i wonder if that expanded as much or more than the oxided lead
the lead plug had no play - in there very tight
next thing is to figure out how to re-add the weight
a PS added
I glued this up just now- as bad as the crack looked (about 3") on the outside - the only place it was clean through to the hole was about an 1/8th of an inch at the butt- the rest was superficial along the grain - so I am leaning even more to blaming the wooden plug not the lead