Multiple cracks in Rem Mod 7 stock

To me, a former furniture-maker, that looks like improperly seasoned lumber, aka "case hardening". Not the same as metal work, but the cause is too-rapid drying of the lumber in a kiln, resulting in internal stresses in the wood. Which eventually appear, and are not repairable. Just trash it, because the problem will never disappear. I have pieces of oak with the same which are 20-plus years old and are only good for kindling. A shame that Remington actually used it.

I tend to agree that it is a total loss.

I suppose some time could be bought with some very thin very slow curing epoxy (West System comes to mind), something to spread the cracks out to get the epoxy to work into the cracks, and some surgical tubing to wrap everything back up and hopefully smush all the cracks back together.

Or work on one crack at a time. Care must be taken to be sure all of the same crack is done at the same time though since if one is done partially, the rest of it wont be able to be done properly. It would appear many of the cracks run together though. One crack at a time would be challenging.

After all is said and done a good bedding job with JB weld or Acraglas would go along way to keeping it together longer term.

If it is as @beag_nut claims, that is wood that will continue to crack and fragment, then you are out of luck repairing that. I have an older Fajen stock, the wood is brittle, can break it like peanut brittle. Nothing glue wise will fix such a thing.

I am frustrated as the era of the $40.00 laminated stock is over!. Just looked a ebay, the Model 7 stock is not abundant, which is too bad. From what I have read, the M7 is a smaller action than a M700 action, so you are going to have to search the web. Richards Microfit can make you a stock, I have a couple of their stocks, and they are fine. I wish I could have cheeked them before ordering, but such is life. I am impressed with the strength and durability of laminated stocks, so for a user rifle, I think that is the way to go.

Nothing to do with your stock, but best wishes to Gunny. That storm ripped a path all the way up.

Looks like it was a nice stock. Maybe here you can find a new one. They had a new fore stock for my Remington 31.
https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/remington/rifles-rem

Looks like the rifle was shot repeatedly with loose action screws in addition to lack of care.

Hey there everyone. I’m still camping out at my house, still don’t have power. But I do have a generator to run some fans at night and change my phone and iPad.
That’s enough about me, let’s talk about this stock.
First take a look at the cracks on the left side. They all run with the grain. Now look at the grain pattern, on the left, coming back to the wrist area. You can see that most of it ends right at the top of the wrist and just in front of the checking. The stock was just a bad cut of wood and was prone to breaking the day it left the factory. I have a filling that the left side of the butt took a sharp blow at some time that got this damage started.
These cracks are what I call running cracks. They start at the wrist and tang area and then run along the wood grain to the front.
The good news is that the stock can be repaired. But first the front recoil area needs to be looked at. Once that are is good to go the running cracks can be addressed.
Get some good pics of the inside of the stock at both action screw areas and some nice ones of the recoil lug area. I’ll break the repair down into step that will be easy to follow.
But here’s the basics of the repair.
Make sure that the recoil lug area is solid and not pushed back. Repair any damage in the area and glass bed. Glass bedding can be done after all other repairs are completed.
Next, stabilize the running cracks. This is done by working epoxy resins into the cracks and clamping everything up tight. At the same time holes with need to be drilled from top to bottom on the inside of the stock to cross the cracks. This will need to be done from the rear of the action to just past where the cracks run to the front. Bamboo dowels will need to be put into the holes when the epoxy is put into the cracks.
The inside of the action area may need to be reinforced with fiberglass cloth or mesh. If so, about an 1/8 of an inch of wood will need to be removed and filled with the fiberglass. Then the area will need to be reshaped to fit the action. This can also be done at the same time the action is bedded.
Once the repairs are done the stock will need to be refinished. Saving the checkering and making the stock look good should not be hard.

Blue68f100 said:

Like I said in my original post I've already replaced the stock with a syn one. This being a truck gun here in Texas means it's been exposed to extreme heat from being stored inside a locked up truck with the sun beating down on it repeatedly, 130F+ temps.

I have the West system epoxy with fast and slow set hardner, left over from my boat repair. I also have most of the fillers for it too.

Click to expand...

Ain't Gunny the survivor? Sending you messages even though the Apocalypse hit! His advice is excellent, the real question, how much time do you want to spend on this stock as the number of times you will have to inlet, wait for glue to cure, remove action, then inlet, wait for glue to cure, remove action, etc, etc.

If you use thick enough epoxy layers, you can create a "cradle" for the action. This is more or less what I did for a Rem M700

First, created Bisonite pillars to keep the action true.



then routed out a god awful amount of wood with a Dremel tool





Given long drill bits, a two part epoxy that flows like honey, which Bisonite does, you can hollow out a pistol grip from the inside and pour epoxy down the hole, and let cure. But, this assumes the wood on the outside still does not shatter.

Marine stores have some of the best two part epoxies around. Used to haunt the ones around Port Clinton during down periods at the National Matches. I have used a lot of Marine Tex. Devcon makes incredibly hard steel, aluminum, titanium filled two part epoxies, and the Devcon I have used has a peanut butter consistency for the first 20 minutes. Once it hardens, you have to grind it out! The only real downside, is the cost! Bisonite was popular with the Garand and M1a gunsmiths, it poured into the side channels and then, it got thicker, and was still usable a little after that. I think Bisonite was steel filled. It cures glass hard.

West System is the best!

We assemble/vacuum-bag F3B sailplane wings together using West Systems.
If you've ever seen the stresses of a winch launch of an F3B... you'll believe.

Ok. I don’t see any damage in the recoil lug area that would have caused the stock to crack. And there’s no damage to the tang area that would show that the action was moving around in the stock while it was being fired.
Basically the stock was just cut bad in which the wood grain had no support just forward of the wrist.
I need a couple of pic to mark for repairs. Two from each side. One from the outside and inside of the action area. This will allow me to mark where to drill the holes to help stabilize the stock.
Here are some pics of a similar repair.

Well, at the very least you will learn from your efforts. Me, I would simply trash the wood. If the case hardening is extensive enough, other areas will fail when they take up the strain. Then again, you could sell it before subjecting to further firings. One learns from both successes and failures.

Alright. I got power back up last night, so everything is good here.
The first step in the repair is to stabilize the cracks. This is done by getting epoxy into the cracks and clamping everything up tight. You want to set up your clamps and test them to make sure that they will hold. Surgical tubing does work but not in all applications. Cut you some strips of wood about 1/4” thick 1” wide and 4” long. These are used to lay across the top and bottom, and sometimes sides, of the stock to give you a place to put your clamps. Wax paper is wrapped on the wood strips so that they don’t get stuck to the stock.
Here are a few examples of using strips of wood to clamp a stock.



Once you have you clamps set up the way you will use them, it’s time to drill some holes in the stock.
This will allow for two things. One is to get epoxy into some areas and the other is to place reinforcement dowels into the stock. Some areas you will not be able to just drill straight into. As in this pic. Here you start drilling at an angle and slowly straighten the drill as you drill. You can see that there’s a clamp holding the crack closed. This is to keep wood chips out of the crack.


Choosing drill bit size. This is easy, choice the largest drill bit that will work for the area.
I have to take care of a few things around here and go get my grandson. I’ll try and post pics of where you should drill into your stock later today.

Applying a paste wax to the surface of the stock does make cleanup a lot easier. Use an old toothbrush to apply wax in the checkering. Just be careful, you don’t want to get wax in the cracks.