Reinforcing stock wrist - anyone done this?

[Ontario Hunter]

I decided to partially bed the action before installing crossbolts. More glass than needed was cut away inside the stock when trying to make the action fit. I was concerned the drill would try to wander out of alignment so I added enough bedding to ensure its fully buried during drilling.

 

[Boone66]

Thanks. I have already sleeved the rear action screw hole. Had to drive it out to drill for wrist rod. It will go back in as soon as the rod is glued. I always glass bed my rifles forward and aft. I can put the stainless wrist rod in the drill chuck on my Shopsmith and knurl it with cutting blade on my Dremel tool while both are turned on. Thanks for that idea. Trying to thread the skinny stainless rod would probably be an exercise in futility, but this should accomplish the same effect. I will, of course, cut out some relief in stock at end of tangs to avoid possible splitting. Standard practice, especially when stocking thumper guns.

The crossbolts are primarily to keep the stock from spreading during heavy recoil. Given that this stock was trimmed back in many areas, mostly for asthetics I think (e.g. the thin wrist and pistol grip), I decided adding crossbolts was pretty much imperative. The stock had already flexed enough in its previous life to slightly crack the small amount of wood remaining between the trigger slot and magazine box. Someone chiseled (with a dull screwdriver?) a significant amount of wood from the trigger slot, presumably for a custom trigger with safety. I have filled it all in with devcon (JB Weld) and a crossbolt through there should put a stop to any further spreading/cracking.

I thread mine by putting the die in a vise and chucking the rod in a hand drill, some oil on the die and guide the rod with my off hand to prevent whipping, works like a charm.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I thread mine by putting the die in a vise and chucking the rod in a hand drill, some oil on the die and guide the rod with my off hand to prevent whipping, works like a charm.

Thanks. I'll give it a try but need to pick up a 3/16" die first. My tap & die set doesn't include that size.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I made a jig to drill the crossbolts. Started with the forward one between recoil lug and magazine box. I used 1/2" forster for bolt head, then 3/8" forster to drill the pocket for threaded socket behind the bolt head, and 1/4" brad point drill for the through hole for connecting rod. I should have blocked the stock on the jig board. Wood screws through the action screw holes didn't hold it 100% tight. It moved ever so slightly during the drill through. Alignment was off a tiny bit but easily corrected. I felt the Winchester crossbolts were too thick so I cut out the center and connected the ends with 1/4" fine threaded rod. The bolt heads are an odd size. I had to open the 1/2" holes slightly with drum sander attachment for Dremel tool.

 

[Nhoro]

Nice work. I have thought long and hard about bedding crossbones. On the one hand, you would strengthen up the bolt to wood contact and if you colour the epoxy, you can hide the bolts behind a black circle. But then I think their true purpose is to compress across the grain and stop splitting. So I figure they may need tightening if the wood shrinks with humidity changes. Are you going to bed the bolts or maybe cover up the ends to make them look nice ? Maybe a wooden cap glued in with a glue that is easily steamed off like hide glue.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Nice work. I have thought long and hard about bedding crossbones. On the one hand, you would strengthen up the bolt to wood contact and if you colour the epoxy, you can hide the bolts behind a black circle. But then I think their true purpose is to compress across the grain and stop splitting. So I figure they may need tightening if the wood shrinks with humidity changes. Are you going to bed the bolts or maybe cover up the ends to make them look nice ? Maybe a wooden cap glued in with a glue that is easily steamed off like hide glue.

Look closely. The Winchester crossbolt heads are engraved. I may bed the forward crossbolt that's behind the recoil lug. But now that I think about it, I could leave the caps free of bedding so they could be tightened as needed. You're correct, the chief purpose of crossbolts is to keep the stock from spreading during recoil at its thinnest points around the magazine box.

 

[Nhoro]

Look closely. The Winchester crossbolt heads are engraved. I may bed the forward crossbolt that's behind the recoil lug. But now that I think about it, I could leave the caps free of bedding so they could be tightened as needed. You're correct, the chief purpose of crossbolts is to keep the stock from spreading during recoil at its thinnest points around the magazine box.

I Must confess i didnt see the engraving. I think the bolt needs free movement to tighten properly so maybe coat it with release agent and epoxy around it ? I havent really come up with a plan.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I Must confess i didnt see the engraving. I think the bolt needs free movement to tighten properly so maybe coat it with release agent and epoxy around it ? I havent really come up with a plan.

For my adaptation I only need to keep the bolt heads free. The threaded connecting rod between them is best epoxied in place. If using the Winchester bolts as is, I would say yes it is best to have the tube free. Otherwise it will only be possible to tighten one side later.

One mistake I made was assuming the tube is threaded to the bottom. It's not. I cut off the female end a bit too short and had to buy special taps to thread further into the blind cap. That end is glued onto rod because not a lot of thread to hold the rod. So, now that I think about it, the connecting will probably need to be doped so it's free floating. For the trigger guard crossbolt I will cut the female end of tube off longer and give myself more thread to work with.

 

[Nhoro]

Ok it makes sense. My crossbones are Cz from factory which sound like Winchester bolts. I really like the idea of epoxy strengthening the wood and creating an even surface with no chips or splinters. I think it makes a huge difference to the woods strength. I saw a PHs rifle that was showing cracks around the crossbones from many rounds over the years although I suspect it may have been helped by oil or water ingress. He was sending it off to the gunsmith to be stabilised with epoxy.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Ok it makes sense. My crossbones are Cz from factory which sound like Winchester bolts. I really like the idea of epoxy strengthening the wood and creating an even surface with no chips or splinters. I think it makes a huge difference to the woods strength. I saw a PHs rifle that was showing cracks around the crossbones from many rounds over the years although I suspect it may have been helped by oil or water ingress. He was sending it off to the gunsmith to be stabilised with epoxy.

At almost 72 years I don't think I'll have enough time left before punching out to be concerned about wearing out this gun like your PH did his rifle. You're probably right about sealing up the crossbolts. Since this rifle is already dressed in Model 70 safety and iron sights, I just as well complete the image with Model 70 crossbolts.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Rear crossbolt installation went off without a hitch. This time I blocked the stock in the jig to ensure it wouldn't move. This crossbolt had to be dropped lower to stay underneath the Timney trigger box. I also finally finished installing the wrist rod. Threading stainless 3/16" rod didn't work (too hard) so I simply scored it all over with light grooves using my Dremel tool with cutoff disk. Inserted the rod in pre drilled hole, marked where it needed to be cut flush with tang hole, then put the rod in vice and used cutoff disk attachment to almost cut the rod through. Next I inserted devcon glue in hole using a thin square stick. Then pushed the stainless rod in almost to cutoff point, bent it till it snapped off, pushed the rod into place with broken section. Then glue inserted into rear action screw pillar hole, pillar sleeve pushed into place, gun reassembled, and wait for devcon to set up.

Note the curl I shaped into Timney trigger shoe. Necessary to make it fit inside the Swift bottom metal after modifying action screw and magazine box so the receiver and trigger guard would pull together on this slim wristed stock.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Project completed. Maybe. The old Pachmayer trap gun recoil pad that came on this used stock cleaned up okay but I may decide to go with something more traditional. LOP is excellent so it would have to be same thickness. This stock was originally an African style rifle that must have had a barrel band front sling swivel. I'm not particularly enamored with barrel band swivels but it would be difficult to put a swivel stud in the fore end without messing up the checkering. I am considering installing a barrel band swivel if it can be done without rebluing. Then this old Mauser would pretty much become a cloned Model 70 Safari Express: same 3-position safety, same iron sights, same crossbolts, same barrel band swivel. The bolt would be different. Stock was refinished in Linspeed oil.

 

[Grumpy gumpy]

View attachment 600410
Project completed. Maybe. The old Pachmayer trap gun recoil pad that came on this used stock cleaned up okay but I may decide to go with something more traditional. LOP is excellent so it would have to be same thickness. This stock was originally an African style rifle that must have had a barrel band front sling swivel. I'm not particularly enamored with barrel band swivels but it would be difficult to put a swivel stud in the fore end without messing up the checkering. I am considering installing a barrel band swivel if it can be done without rebluing. Then this old Mauser would pretty much become a cloned Model 70 Safari Express: same 3-position safety, same iron sights, same crossbolts, same barrel band swivel. The bolt would be different. Stock was refinished in Linspeed oil.

I’ve got a recoil pad very similar to that on my 308, I don’t mind it on mine but it is just a culling/hunting rifle. You can get clamp on barrel sling swivels,but they would not suit that rifle( I think they are ugly) so the only real way that I know of is a soldered on one which would involve re-blueing, either remove the front sight and slide it on and solder ( then replace sight) or one of those small half round ones that solders on the barrel
gumpy

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I’ve got a recoil pad very similar to that on my 308, I don’t mind it on mine but it is just a culling/hunting rifle. You can get clamp on barrel sling swivels,but they would not suit that rifle( I think they are ugly) so the only real way that I know of is a soldered on one which would involve re-blueing, either remove the front sight and slide it on and solder ( then replace sight) or one of those small half round ones that solders on the barrel
gumpy

I can pull the front sight. Those 1990s Winchester Safari Express sights were attached with screws. I would not go with clamp on barrel band swivel. Agreed, they are ugly.

I seem to recall having a front sight sweated on my Springfield's barrel without rebluing. Have to check into that.