My son was hunting out back with his bird dog a few days ago and slipped on some hidden ice, falling on his nice old Weatherby 20 ga. O/U Olympian, badly cracking the pistol grip area in several places. He's about 50 and nearly cried, since it's his favorite gun and I passed it down to him about 25 years ago, when he got his first bird dogs.
He came over and showed it to me and I was sure I could salvage it, so ordered a fresh batch of Brownells Acraglas and some 1/4" surgical tubing. We also got a couple of plastic hypodermics for injecting the mixture into cracks. I drilled reinforcing holes from inside the inletted portion and ground some slots to help the epoxy get into cracks, etc.
After setting up for about 6 hours, I removed the wrapped tubing and, using a popsicle stick, scraped away the ridges between tubing ridges, made easier by previously coating the stock's exterior with release compound.
A few hours later, I removed the action from the stock and it looked good, but needed some cleanup, which was done with the Moto Tool. It needed some relief for the firing pin extensions, which go into inletted holes at the rear of the action, but otherwise minimal cleanup was necessary.
Picture shows the worst side of the break, a section that was popped out in the checkered area and which we couldn't get perfectly returned, but pretty close. Fortunately, it's not in the area where he grips the gun with his right hand.
We took it out back and shot clays and it works just as well as it did before the damage! It's his only O/U and he's been the shooter at local field trials, so needs a double gun to do that, for safety reasons.
He came over and showed it to me and I was sure I could salvage it, so ordered a fresh batch of Brownells Acraglas and some 1/4" surgical tubing. We also got a couple of plastic hypodermics for injecting the mixture into cracks. I drilled reinforcing holes from inside the inletted portion and ground some slots to help the epoxy get into cracks, etc.
After setting up for about 6 hours, I removed the wrapped tubing and, using a popsicle stick, scraped away the ridges between tubing ridges, made easier by previously coating the stock's exterior with release compound.
A few hours later, I removed the action from the stock and it looked good, but needed some cleanup, which was done with the Moto Tool. It needed some relief for the firing pin extensions, which go into inletted holes at the rear of the action, but otherwise minimal cleanup was necessary.
Picture shows the worst side of the break, a section that was popped out in the checkered area and which we couldn't get perfectly returned, but pretty close. Fortunately, it's not in the area where he grips the gun with his right hand.
We took it out back and shot clays and it works just as well as it did before the damage! It's his only O/U and he's been the shooter at local field trials, so needs a double gun to do that, for safety reasons.
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