US. Krag

[GunnyUSMC]

It can be scary when drilling into a stock that’s around 100 years old. Looks good. You did a great job. If you feel that there may be some oil in the area where you drilled the holes, just use denatured alcohol to clean out the holes.
You have a small crack at the top right edge of the butt. I would drill there also. Remember to drill just pass the depth of the crack to make sure the repair stops it.
How is the butt stock screw hole at the toe of the stock. A lot of times the wood in the hole will be soft or rotted a little. If it is, I can go over the repair.

 

[TheFlynn01]

It can be scary when drilling into a stock that’s around 100 years old. Looks good. You did a great job. If you feel that there may be some oil in the area where you drilled the holes, just use denatured alcohol to clean out the holes.
You have a small crack at the top right edge of the butt. I would drill there also. Remember to drill just pass the depth of the crack to make sure the repair stops it.
How is the butt stock screw hole at the toe of the stock. A lot of times the wood in the hole will be soft or rotted a little. If it is, I can go over the repair.

Awesome will do. I think they are deep enough but I will make sure today. As for the oil, I feel it is soaked still so I will clean it out and give it time to dry while I wait for the dowels to come in. I will also drill that other hole. As for the screw, it feels tight and dry and not mushy.

 

[TheFlynn01]

I also put the stock back out in the sun today. I feel it is still dark and still weeping (seeping?) oil in the really dark areas around the receiver. Any tips to pull it out faster or is it just a kind of slow process?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

With the holes already drilled, I would just clean with denatured alcohol. A water base cleaner could cause some swelling of the wood where you drilled the holes.
Also, you will never get all the oil out of the stock. Just clean with denatured alcohol and let dry. Once dry, set it in the sun. If oil weeps to the surface and looks wet, more cleaning is needed.
What you are looking for is for color to start coming back without oil coming to the surface.
Can you post pics of the barreled action? I ask this because you don’t want to over clean a stock if the metal shows a lot of age or wear. You don’t want to end up with a pig in a prom dress.

 

[TheFlynn01]

With the holes already drilled, I would just clean with denatured alcohol. A water base cleaner could cause some swelling of the wood where you drilled the holes.
Also, you will never get all the oil out of the stock. Just clean with denatured alcohol and let dry. Once dry, set it in the sun. If oil weeps to the surface and looks wet, more cleaning is needed.
What you are looking for is for color to start coming back without oil coming to the surface.
Can you post pics of the barreled action? I ask this because you don’t want to over clean a stock if the metal shows a lot of age or wear. You don’t want to end up with a pig in a prom dress.

Sure thing! Here’s a picture of it.

Let me know what you think! Sorry about the barrel bands still on it. Didn’t want to risk trying to knock the front sight out. Though I have seen some interesting videos about steaming the parts to bring back the rust that might be interesting to try.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Once you no longer have any oil weeping from the stock give this a try. Wet your stock with denatured alcohol and then set the action in it. The color of the wet wood will be very close to the color when BLO is applied.
If you like the look, just dry out the holes you drilled with denatured alcohol. Then do your repairs.
Before applying your finish, if you bone the stock, it will give it a smooth surface. If you read my post on the road trip to CMP, or the restoration on the Enfield No4, they bought cover Boning and applying a BLO finish.

 

[TheFlynn01]

hmm okay I will pick up some denatured alcohol and then look up boning the stock.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

hmm okay I will pick up some denatured alcohol and then look up boning the stock.

Here’s a link to my road trip to the CMP. There’s a lot of info in the 9 pages, covering repairs, boning, BLO and staining.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/a-little-road-trip-to-the-cmp-south-store.835226/

 

[TheFlynn01]

Thank you Gunny, it was a great read. Got my dowels in today, after work and dinner I will be back in the garage. I am excited to try and bone the wood. Bringing this old rifle back to life and shoot her!

 

[TheFlynn01]

So I am excited to get this fixed and under way, but I am curious if I should try to re blue it? It’s a lot a lot of it’s finish and I don’t want it to deteriorate more. I don’t know if I should go with cold, or rust, or caustic blue. Unless I can just keep it oiled and it will be ok?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

So I am excited to get this fixed and under way, but I am curious if I should try to re blue it? It’s a lot a lot of it’s finish and I don’t want it to deteriorate more. I don’t know if I should go with cold, or rust, or caustic blue. Unless I can just keep it oiled and it will be ok?

Cold blue doesn’t hold up very good.
I would clean and then wax the metal parts and then see what it looks like when it’s back together.

 

[TheFlynn01]

Okay thanks Gunny! What kinda of wax would you recommend? Same for wood or something different?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Mimwax past wax will work.

 

[TheFlynn01]

Thank you!

 

[TheFlynn01]

You Alright I did it! Or at least I did something. Here is the pictures

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Tell me that you didn’t use Gorilla glue?

 

[TheFlynn01]

I did. I saw a tutorial on midwayusa and he used it, I had it on hand so I tried it.

did I mess up bad?

 

[GunnyUSMC]

I did. I saw a tutorial on midwayusa and he used it, I had it on hand so I tried it.

did I mess up bad?

If you had read my post covering the repairs, I advised why glue is not good for gun stock repairs. Glue is used differently then epoxy. Glue joints deep to be very tight, almost to the point that almost all the glue is removed. This is because glue sticks to wood very good, but it does not stick to itself very good. Epoxy sticks to wood very good, but sticks to itself even better.
The types of epoxy I recommend can withstand the harsh recoil from firearms when most will not. The epoxies are also impervious to oils and solvents, but glues are not.
All you can do now is just keep an eye on the repair in the action area. Inspect them before and after each range trip to make sure that they are still holding.

 

[TheFlynn01]

hmmm I might just drill out those dowels and start again then.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

hmmm I might just drill out those dowels and start again then.

The ones at the butt should be fine.

 

[TheFlynn01]

Perfect. Got it on order and drilled the old one out! Takes more time but rather do it right!

 

[TheFlynn01]

So I am waiting for the epoxy to come in. I got that stuff from Brownells. I have been looking over the hand guard. It looks like it had been fixed by someone before me. I feel it might need to get repaired as it has a little bit of missing wood and the crack runs the length of the thing. I would appreciate your guts thoughts on if it’s good enough or needs love. Thank you.



I also saw that Gunny had done a interesting repair with fiberglass and epoxy on his M1Garand, I have all that stuff now. So I will be doing it right, but do you all think i could pull off the same kind of repair? The wood is very thin.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I'd get a piece of a similar color and saw it a bit to produce sawdust and mix that with Acraglas. I'd keep the Acraglas fairly thin, and run it into the crack. It ought to work.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Those hand guards are a little harder to repair due to the rivets that hold the clips in place. But the repair is pretty much the same as on the M1 Garand hand guard.

I'd get a piece of a similar color and saw it a bit to produce sawdust and mix that with Acraglas. I'd keep the Acraglas fairly thin, and run it into the crack. It ought to work.

Vern has it pretty close on filling the gap. You want to use sanding dust. It does not matter what type of wood you us, you just need it for color.
Here’s the hard part when it comes to matching the colors. The epoxy will cause the dust to dry to the color as if it were wet.
Here’s what you do. Get some small cups, different pieces of wood and some sandpaper. I like to use 150 grit.
Sand a piece of wood over a sheet of paper. Then put the dust into a cup. Do this with each piece of wood, putting each in their own cup.
Now wet the tip of your finger with denatured alcohol and then touch the dust in the cup. The wet dust on your fingertip will be the color of the dust when it dries in epoxy. Just find the color that matches the closet. You can mix the dust to try and get a closed match sometimes.
When you do your repair just use a little of the epoxy to mix with your dust to park a paste. Be sure the area you’re going to put the paste is a little wet with epoxy so that the paste will stick very good.
When everything is dry, you just sand or fill to shape.

 

[AlexanderA]

Regarding the handguard, the way the clips are riveted is holding it together despite the longitudinal crack. A repair, then, would be cosmetic rather than structural.