Repairing a cut hand guard.

Don’t ask me why people do these sort of things. But if it weren’t for Bubba, I wouldn’t get to repair things like this.
This is the hand guard for the 03A3 stock that I repaired a few weeks ago that had been cutout for a turned down bolt handle. It had also been duffle cut. For some reason the hand guard had been cut also.
The stock belongs to Joe over at Aklys Defense.
It was on a rifle he has four sale. Joe asked me to repair the bolt cutout. When we took the rifle apart is when we found the poor attempt at repairing the duffle cut and hand guard.
Joe asked me if I could save it and I told him I would see what I could do.


The first thing was to decide on how the repair would be made. Basically clean it up, get it back together and reinforce it and hide the repair I decided to do the repair in three steps.
#1 Get it back together and straight. This includes making up for the saw cut.
#2 Reinforce the repair from inside.
#3 Blend the outside to hide the repair.

But first we need to clean it up.
The glue pretty much lost it’s grip due to the oil in the wood. ( Remember this. Wood glue on stock repairs = Bad Juju. ) The glue pretty much just flaked off.
I then soaked the ends in denatured alcohol to remove the oil from the area.
Here it is after the cleanup.



Found a small crack just to the right of the pin on the left.


Stand by for more.
Please forgive the mess in the background. I’ve been busy and my work bench is in a mess.

I decided to keep the wood pegs from the original repair.
I’m using the stock to lineup the hand guard and make sure the shoulder for the rear band and the front edge are correct. This will give me the correct gap for the saw cut.


I used wax paper between the hand guard and stock to keep the epoxy resin from getting on the stock.







After the resin was applied, I taped the hand guard in place and set the stock upside down.




The resin is curing right now so, it will be a few hours before I can do the next step. I should be able to post more later.

Well, I got tied up last night ad wasn’t able to get back to it. I just got home from running some errands and got back to it.
Here it is after removing the tape.


And after a little dressing up.


At this point the repair is good enough and will hold. It will also be hidden by the rear band, but, I have never been happy with just good enough when it comes to repairs.
Here’s step #2 of the repair, reinforcement.
What I did was mark the inside of the hand guard where I will remove just enough wood so that I can add some fiberglass cloth. It doesn’t need to be more then 1/32” deep.


Here’s a tip for when cutting small pieces of fiberglass cloth. If you fold and hold the cloth over the scissors you will get a smooth cut.


Here’s the cloth cut to fit the area.


You want to apply the resin to the area first to wet the wood.


Then put your cloth in place.


Next apply resin on top of the cloth. This doesn’t have to be very thick, just enough to cover the cloth. Remember, the more resin you apply, the more you will have to clean up.
Now to let it cure so that I can start on step #3.

maxxhavoc said:

So Gunny, you seem to be a stock wizard. Let me ask you a question:
What is the purpose of this cutting down of 1903 stocks? I assume it is to accommodate a curved bolt. But there were several in the racks at the CMP, and the 2 armorers present had no idea. All had similar (although different in depth) sandings or cuts that all appeared to have decades of oil and wear.

And I an curious to see how that repair comes out, as always.
View attachment 934265

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Looks like the area had broken off and it was sanded smooth. What country did it come from. The US Military would have just replaced the stock.
I have a Spanish Civil War M91 Mosin that had similar damage. I repaired it about 12 years ago.

Here it is after the Epoxy has cured. Now to dress it up.



The tools used to dress it up was a Dremel with a sanding drum to remove the bulk. The a half round file ad a dowel wrapped with sandpaper to finish it off. I’ll blend the area after I finish the repair.


Now for Step #3, hiding the outside of the repair.


First is to clean up the area. Elle kept a close eye on me while I was working.


I just used a half round file to clean things up.


With a light behind it, you can see the gap for the saw cut. In step #3 I’ll show you how to help hide the saw cut gap.

To help hide the repair I used a small mill bit to remove some of the epoxy from the top of the saw cut.


I mix sanding dust with epoxy to make a paste the will closely match the wood. I keep different colors of sanding dust in small cups for this. What you have to do is wet the dust and then see if the color matches.



You then mix the dust with resin



You have to let the epoxy completely cure before dressing it up.
I did this with a half round file. It only took about 10 minutes.


The color is not as dark as I would have liked, but it’s darker then before.
Know to blend the finish so that it doesn’t look like it was just repaired. Most old stocks have a build up of oil and dirt on the surface. I’m not going to add the dirt, but I’m going to try and get the look of built up oil. For this I use an old can of BLO. You can use any BLO but I find that I get better results with older BLO.
What you have to do is apply the BLO to the area and let it soak in and let it sit. You want it to get sticky. Once it is sticking, use a clean cloth to buff the area. You may have to do this two or three times, and it can take a day or two for each coat of BLO to get sticky.
I just applied the first coat. Now it’s time to wait.

I6turbo said:

Great work, Gunny.

A question for you related to the reinforcement that you did with the fiberglass cloth and resin: Have you ever done a similar type of reinforcement as a preemptive measure on a Browning Auto 5 forearm?

I have an Auto 5 that I love and have been thinking of reinforcing the inside of the forearm to help insure that it doesn't crack in the future in the event that someone doesn't keep the magazine cap properly tightened or some such thing that might lead to cracking. Would you do the preemptive reinforcement, and if so, would you use fiberglass with cloth, Arcaglas, or what?
Thanks.

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Cracks at the base of the Browning A5 forearm are very common. They come reinforced from the factory. The older ones had a wood laminate that was glued in place. The later ones used a type of epoxy with fiberglass cloth or something similar.
The older ones with the wood laminate would come apart after years of exposure to oil. I have replaced many using Acraglas and fiberglass cloth.
I have repaired several of the ones that had fiberglass Type that were cracked. I pretty much cut my teeth doing repairs on Browning A5 and Remington 1100 forearms.
If your forearm is not cracked, check to make sure that the factory reinforcement is in good shape. If it’s in good shape but shows some gaps. You can clean the area and then coat the area with Acraglas.
If the reimbursement is coming out or breaking, use a sanding drum on a Dremel tool to remove it. Then use Acraglas and fiberglass cloth to replace it. You will need to put about three layers of cloth.

I6turbo said:

Thanks for the insight. The factory reinforcement on mine (1954 model) looks to be in great condition, no cracks or separation, hard to even tell where it starts except for the different texture. The forearm seems to fit perfectly top and bottom - drops into place and seems to sit flat and flush. Based upon your experience, would you just leave it as is, or do you think a proper Arcaglas reinforcement is better than an intact factory reinforcement?

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I would leave it as is. Original is best when it comes to value.