How many of you acraglas your stocks?

[Jawjadawg]

I have this work done to all of my sidelock shotguns I plan on shooting. Should I be doing the same with a Parker or a Fox to protect the wood?

[chris dawe]

I do it to most every stock I re-finish unless the customer object's.

[Kensal Rise]

From my perspective, only one gun in 10,000 rates a typical acra-glas job. And... slopping this stuff into good inletting is like putting a pig on lipstick.

Best, Kensal

[Andy Kelley]

Hi I have had my gun smith use it where there have been cracks or the potential for cracks........... .I would consider its use a last resort and am really not a big fan of it. Andy

[chris dawe]

Kensal ,I agree wholeheartedly with not putting needless filler into the in-letting ,I should of been more specific ...the mating surfaces,of an old stock to the bearing surface the receiver more often than not are shrunk away ever so slightly,maybe even soft with oil,once this oil is removed there is nothing but good that can come from having an absolutely perfect bearing surface where the recoil could potentially push the action back and cause split's,even a mere fraction of an inch will allow moment and create a problem.I'm not in any way referring to the working innards of an action having anything introduced.

IMHO any vintage gun ,that will be intended for use should have this done,.A collector piece never to be shot ,why would you ?,if the old timers 100 or so years had this product available I have no doubt they would have used it for repair in this area ,because that's exactly what it is a repair to missing material

There is no stock maker alive who can inlet the "machine marks" from this bearing surface into a stock head ...glass/epoxy can

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

I agree with Chris Dawe,

I instructed my gunsmith to "glass" the bearing surface of any of my vintage SxS's whenever he has the stock off for repairs or restoration. Only once did he decline to do this. It concerned the #3 frame DH 12 gauge Damascus which I posted on another thread. While at Brad Bachelder's for a cleaning of the trigger mechanisms, Brad informed me that the stock had never been off the gun and that the inletting was "perfect". Otherwise Brad glasses the head of the stocks on the guns that I shoot. Glassing is simply preventative maintenance just as changing out a car battery after so many years. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound or cure!

Mark