Preventing future damage of new stockArchived Message
Posted by Ben on January 2, 2007, 10:10 am
I've had an Elsie 20 FW for a few years now and it's been a great gun for me. I'm in my 20's and see a long future for Elsie and I shooting grouse and woodcock in the Catskills together. I started with the original stock (cracked at time of purchase and filled w/ super glue following the forum's advice)then aquired another beautiful stock last year which I fit to the gun. This stock was also slightly cracked when I got it. After fitting it to the gun I bedded the stock with epoxy in an attempt to prevent future cracking. Everything went well but a cracked stock is a cracked stock. I was lucky enough this Christmas to get an uncracked/mint stock from my father and know I can do all of the work to fit it to the gun and enjoy the challenge. I really want to do this one right since original uncracked stocks are so hard to come by without breaking the bank. It seems that most posts are to fix an already cracked stock, I need to prevent cracking. My main questions are; 1) what is the best bedding material to use epoxy, acraglas or something else? 2) when letting the bedding material harden should I release the hammers using "snap caps" to ensure they have a "path" to travel when all is done? I did not do this before and had to remove a little epoxy which isn't exactly neat/easy as it gets brittle. Thanks in advance and good shooting -- Ben