"Good w/Cracked Stock" at Century Arms

[campergeek]

I just got my C&R license, so please forgive me if this is a naive question.

While reviewing the listings at Century Arms, I notice that a LOT of the listings are graded as "Good w/ Cracked Stock". Because this is used so commonly, it seems that it must cover a wide variety of conditions. Has anyone dealt with Century enough to know what this generally means? Does it mean the Stock has a hairline crack which could be considered normal from the wood aging, or does it mean the thing is beat up and the stock is about to fall into two pieces? Is it like throwing dice to buy one of these, risking whether you'll get a shootable arm with a barely noticeable wood flaw or a piece of junk which is dangerous to put to your shoulder? The truth is surely somewhere in between, but what can a buyer generally expect?

 

[JohnKSa]

I'm guessing that they pull cracked stocks off otherwise nice guns and end up with a lot of rough guns and a lot of cracked stocks that get put together and sold cheap.

The following link describes what "good condition" means.

http://www.manatarmsbooks.com/nra.html

 

[Bill Hook]

You'll find a lot of distributors make up their own conditions, OR they apply the antique NRA guidlines to ALL firearms they sell, which is one heck of a lot of leeway.

 

[Josey]

Shooters. My M-N 44 was one. 0 finish, mismatched numbers and a cracked stock with all screws loose. The loose stock had cracked while being fired was my guess. I simply cleaned it up and tightened or replaced the screws. The result? A beat up shooter. The replacement Monte Carlo stock would be twice what I paid for the M-N.

 

[Bill Hook]

Ultrathin superglue and a fine applicator tip from your local hobby store and, possibly, some rubber surgical tubing to bind it will go a long way toward fixing most cracks, provided they still match up. A razor blade at an oblique angle will clean up overrun, so long as you don't "work" it into the wood.

 

[outdoorman63]

i dont buy

i usually dont buy from century...they seem to sell the lesser quality stuff to the general public..why pay 40 ish dollars for a good with cracked stock when i got a v-good no cracked stock from sog for 39.00...look around there are good deals

 

[Tamara]

Remember: "Hand Selected" means someone used their hands to yank it out of a great big pile at random.

 

[jsalcedo]

I like buying cracked stock stuff from century.

Clamps, wood glue, sanding and tung oil make for a fun project and a decent end result.

When they are selling 5 cracked stock YUGO mausers
for $139 it's hard to pass up.