Billy Jack
Member
I just brought home my new Marlin Guide Gun today. This is an older JM stamped model with the factory ported barrel. It appeared to be in excellent shape.
When I started disassembling it for cleaning and detailed inspection I noticed that one side of the rear stock didn't fit perfectly to the receiver, which was not a really big deal. However, when I pushed on it a little it flushed up perfectly against the receiver. I figured that maybe it was just a little warped and that I might be able to steam it and bend it a little to make it stay down and have that perfect Marlin fit.
I also noticed a very tiny piece of wood broken off on the lower left side of the stock where the wood meets the metal receiver. I mean just a tiny flake.
I removed the tang screw and took the rear stock off and what I found was a couple of cracks. (The small piece of broken wood is possibly the pressure point where the recoil was concentrated into the stock causing the whole problem….I'm guessing).
I am upset that I won't be able to shoot the gun until I fix the stock. The way it is now, if I can get it glued back together and possibly relieve a couple of pressure points that probably caused the cracks, then it will work great and not even be noticable. However, if I shoot it and it gets worse it could become difficult to fix and be an eyesore.
The right side where the chunk has split off and is just hanging on should be no problen to glue and clamp together and make it work fine. There is plenty of room to fill it with glue.
The left side, however, is a deep hairline crack going down into the stock. This crack goes all the way through the narrow part of the stock top to bottom. This crack becomes noticeable by simply applying a little "spreading" pressure to the stock as you see in the photos. This crack is a split that just has not yet been pushed very deep into the stock. If I try to open it up wide enough to get enough glue into it to properly do the job, I may cause the crack to just run deeper into the stock making the situation even worse.
I have 3 issues to resolve:
1. How can I get enough glue into the tight crack to do the job without just spreading the crack way open? (Some kind of injection or something?)(Something akin to a tight copper pipe joint sucking the solder into the joint as it is "sweated in")
2. What is the best glue for gluing a cracked gun stock? (Ideally something thin and watery enough to penetrate into the slightly spread open crack.)
3. Should the fit of the stock to the receiver be slightly relieved?
I am sure the previous owner who rarely used the gun never noticed it. I had looked it over many times before I noticed that the slight misfit of the wood to the receiver was "moveable". I am really dissappointed it had the cracked stock, mainly because of the delay I'll have in being able to start shooting and enjoying the gun. I had planned to clean it tonight, sight it in with my 450gr LFN loads, and go hog hunting this weekend. However, I plan to find a good fix and move on.
Of course if I am unable to get it fixed it will just deteriorate and I'll have to restock it someday with the junk available from Remlin!
I always get some knowledgeable responses here to any question I have ever asked, so I am hoping for a good workable solution.
Thanks,
Jack
When I started disassembling it for cleaning and detailed inspection I noticed that one side of the rear stock didn't fit perfectly to the receiver, which was not a really big deal. However, when I pushed on it a little it flushed up perfectly against the receiver. I figured that maybe it was just a little warped and that I might be able to steam it and bend it a little to make it stay down and have that perfect Marlin fit.
I also noticed a very tiny piece of wood broken off on the lower left side of the stock where the wood meets the metal receiver. I mean just a tiny flake.
I removed the tang screw and took the rear stock off and what I found was a couple of cracks. (The small piece of broken wood is possibly the pressure point where the recoil was concentrated into the stock causing the whole problem….I'm guessing).
I am upset that I won't be able to shoot the gun until I fix the stock. The way it is now, if I can get it glued back together and possibly relieve a couple of pressure points that probably caused the cracks, then it will work great and not even be noticable. However, if I shoot it and it gets worse it could become difficult to fix and be an eyesore.
The right side where the chunk has split off and is just hanging on should be no problen to glue and clamp together and make it work fine. There is plenty of room to fill it with glue.
The left side, however, is a deep hairline crack going down into the stock. This crack goes all the way through the narrow part of the stock top to bottom. This crack becomes noticeable by simply applying a little "spreading" pressure to the stock as you see in the photos. This crack is a split that just has not yet been pushed very deep into the stock. If I try to open it up wide enough to get enough glue into it to properly do the job, I may cause the crack to just run deeper into the stock making the situation even worse.
I have 3 issues to resolve:
1. How can I get enough glue into the tight crack to do the job without just spreading the crack way open? (Some kind of injection or something?)(Something akin to a tight copper pipe joint sucking the solder into the joint as it is "sweated in")
2. What is the best glue for gluing a cracked gun stock? (Ideally something thin and watery enough to penetrate into the slightly spread open crack.)
3. Should the fit of the stock to the receiver be slightly relieved?
I am sure the previous owner who rarely used the gun never noticed it. I had looked it over many times before I noticed that the slight misfit of the wood to the receiver was "moveable". I am really dissappointed it had the cracked stock, mainly because of the delay I'll have in being able to start shooting and enjoying the gun. I had planned to clean it tonight, sight it in with my 450gr LFN loads, and go hog hunting this weekend. However, I plan to find a good fix and move on.
Of course if I am unable to get it fixed it will just deteriorate and I'll have to restock it someday with the junk available from Remlin!
I always get some knowledgeable responses here to any question I have ever asked, so I am hoping for a good workable solution.
Thanks,
Jack