Aaaargh! Broken Remington Sportsman 58

[ReadyontheRight]

I broke out the old Remington Sportsman 58 today for one of my last rounds of trap for the year. I had put it away about 10 years ago after a trigger-removal cleaning ... with a little handling and silicon cloth rubbed on it every few months.

Unfortunately BROKE was the right word.

Very windy, temp in the 30s and a little snow.

I got off 5 shots from the first station, hitting only two. I then moved to station #2 and put a round in the magazine. I could not pull the bolt back. Oh well, it's done this to me before. I can figure it out, but not now. I switched to a 20-ga Rem LT-1100 and still only got a 13 while my bare fingers got numb.

Starting off my second round (another 13:banghead, I found a chunk of wood at the first station.

My camera is broken, so I can't post a pic. It is a triangle of wood off the bottom side of the butt of the stock about 1 inch wide and 2 inches tall. It broke off the end of the stock starting at the bottom buttstock screw.

This is a cherished gun from my father. I know for a fact that it has not had any sort of banging around in the past 20 years, but it also had not been shot more than a few times at ducks or grouse since 1980.

Am I drying the wood out? I keep dessicant packs in my safe and I have a smaller chunk out of the same place on an old 870.

I am planning to get some good wood glue and use a padded vice to put it back in place. Any glue recommendations or any reason I should do anything differently?

 

[rcmodel]

I would use a Brownell's AcraGlas kit to glue the stock.

Very likely you have your safe too dry and the stocks are shrinking up and the stock bolts getting loose. That causes them to take a beating at the receiver joint, and break.

About 50% humidity at 70F temp is considered ideal storage conditions in a firearms museum.
Rust cannot form under those conditions.

Less then that and the wood will shrink up & dry out.


rcmodel

 

[308win]

Yellow carpenters glue works well on wood. You can get it at any home improvement store. Apply sparingly to both sides with a brush and allow to dry to just tacky before mating surfaces. Clean off excess with a wet cloth and check periodically for a couple of hours to get any more that has been squeezed out. You should get a joint that is stronger than the surrounding wood and it should be almost invisible if the surfaces mate up correctly.

Edited to add: This will be an odd shaped piece that will be difficult to clamp with a regular clamp so use a strap clamp.

I had problems with my Sportsman58 not feeding the next round. Turns out a stud in the bolt had sheared; fortunately I found a gunsmith who was aware of this and knew exactly what to look for.

 

[Texasred51]

I would use Titebond III, it has the added benefit of being waterproof, having better open time and having a browner stain in it. I am more wood worker than hunter! I am called the glue lady by my friends. I have bottle of Titebond II as well, but I like III better. Fine woodworking just ran tests on types of glues, the polyurethanes failed, epoxies were not as good as plain old yellow glue. Don't clamp it so hard you squeeze all the glue out.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

Thanks everyone. I'll check out the glues and hopefully have time to do this over the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

[Hank Zudd]

anyone know who has barrels for one of these? I know there was a shop in Yuba City, Ca. that had parts for most any old auto ever made, but don't remember the name. Who else has barrels or other parts? thnks

 

[Dave McCracken]

Try Jack First and Numrich for parts....

 

[Capstick1]

You probably can't find one for the 58 but whenever I get a chance I usually replace all my woodstocked shotguns with synthetic stocks. They're a little ugly looking but I've seen too many wood stocks crack and break from heavy use.

 

[Tag]

Use some West System Epoxy. It'll be good as new.