Repair on a Browning Stock

[Ben]

A friend brought this stock to me for repair.
A Browning Bolt rifle, cal. .270 Win.
He knocked it over in a hunting camp and it hit " just right " on a concrete floor, cracking the stock.
He asked me to fix it.
It was repaired with Brownell's Acra Glass.
It has been fired hundreds of times with factory loads since the repair.
No problems at all with the repair, he has hunted with the rifle and shot it for 7 hunting seasons now .

The " Before " :

The " After " :

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

Another masterpiece!

 

[Ben]

Thanks Kevin !

Ben

 

[Pistolero]

That's impressive. I have used Acraglas for bedding, not for a repair. Looks like it
is a proven winner, if done right.

Bill

 

[Ben]

I was fortunate on that one, once the barreled action was removed, I could get plenty of Acra-Glass in the crack from the outside of the stock and from the inside. Made a huge difference in the strength factor once everything hardened.

Once everything was back in alignment, The cracked area was placed in compression. All the surplus glass that came out of the cracked area was cleaned up and allowed to harden.

Most people that will pick that rifle up and handle it will never see the crack.

What a lot of people don't realize is that stock may crack again, BUT IT WON'T CRACK IN THE AREA THAT I REPAIRED, THAT REPAIR IS STRONGER THAN THE WOOD AROUND IT.

Ben

 

[Pistolero]

Yes, I agree on stronger than the wood.

On wooden aircraft construction, a lot has been done testing properly done epoxy glue joints between wood pieces.
In all cases, if done properly, the failure of test pieces is in the wood near the glue joint but the joint never fails.
So you have as much strength as the wood can provide, no compromise for the glue joint.

I dye my Acraglas brown, I imagine if the color is done right, the crack would appear to be another grain
line, if seen at all.

 

[Ben]

Yes, I used a VERY light tan/brown dye in the mix on this repair.
Super hard to see.

Ben

 

[uncle jimbo]

Nice work Ben. I had to look real close at the after picture to find the crack. Had to use both pictures to orient the crack. And I can see where those that didn't know would never see it.