Stock breakage

[B. Dudley]

Usually a stock breaking from recoil is due to the wood shrinking over time and screws loosening up causing the action to be somewhat loose on the stock. This causes uneven stress upon recoil on the stock head. That is how you can loose the top of the side of a stock. But this can also happen just from opening and closing the gun if the action is loose enough in the wood.

I have a few times seen stock heads blow apart from ruptured primers on hot loads that send pressure back into the action and the wood cheek ends up being the weak link.