A disaster under the wood?

[Thelionheart777]

I got this No.4 here last year as my first gun and love it. It's a Fazakerly made in 49. I cleaned it when I got it however recently I've taken to scrubbing all the old light surface rust down, and decided to take it out of the stock to make sure everything under the wood was alright.

Well, I took the stock off and it looks pretty messed up. There's a crack right at the rear of the fore-stock, and it appears as if half of the wood has rotted or been eaten away. Perhaps I'm being a little pessimistic, but is this too far gone? I've shot about 100 rounds so far without a hitch, but am worried about it! I was thinking about maybe just getting wood glue and putting it in the crack, as I saw someone suggest for someone else, however I'm not sure if that is the best course of action here!

Thanks!

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[30Three]

Looks to me as if someone has attempted to "bed" the action using some sort of filler; going by whats stuck around the main screw area. Recoil lug's also look dodgy in the photo.
It looks like the rear end where the crack is has been filled at the top edge as well.
I'm sure the crack could be repaired; but filler compound etc may be tricky to sort out.
Probably worth talking to a profesional; such as Brian Dick.

[browningautorifle]

Looks like someone attacked the area with a screwdriver for a chisel to remove whatever was there...not rot.

[RobD]

Where oh where is Peter when we need him....?

[Brian Dick]

Wow! I'm not so sure you'd want to read Peter's comments on that mess. To quote him: "What planet are they on?".

My take is that it might be repairable but considering the time it would take to do it correctly, you might be better off getting a new forend fitted. The draws and reinforce look totally destroyed to me from the pictures and would need to be cut out, replaced and fitted. All that providing the epoxy or whatever unauthorized crap was used to screw it up in the first place.

[Brian Dick]

Sorry, got interrupted. I meant to say it may be fixed after all the crap epoxy is removed. Another look at the pictures leaves me wondering what will be left.

---------- Post added at 02:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:31 PM ----------

Luckily, nos Fazakerley forends are still available. I may have one that's even F49 manufacture.

[pisco]

if it was mine i would spray it with oven cleaner and see what you have to me it is repairable

[Surpmil]

The problem is that this Bisonite or whatever they used had to approximate the dimensions and relative positions of the previous wood surfaces, which meant the wood was often roughly chiselled out to make space for it. Not only because it was easier, but because the stuff bonded better to a rough surface.

[CINDERS]

Two trains of thought pay to have a professional like BD repair it or the better option I think would be to have BD replace the bottom wood as option 1 would be a mountain of work for any one and even then it may get to a point where it cannot be salved in which case a new wood will go on + the work already done to try to repair the old stock.
So I would go with option #2 and put the old stock on the wall to remind you of the total **** bubba's out there.....................

[Thelionheart777]

Thank you everyone so far for your advice! Its a shame the stock is in such poor condition since on the outside I think it looks beautiful. I bought the gun last year as a gift to myself for getting into law school along with 500 rounds.I feel I should also note that the stock doesn't touch the barrel at the front, and when put in place you can rock the stock a little up and down, see -sawing from touching the barrel and not when the main screw isn't screwed in. I've taken a picture of the stock as it is with the gun in it, to sort of see how it sits in there. In the picture it looks like not a lot of contact is being made, unfortunately. I'm currently a law student and don't have a job so I currently have 0 income. My tax return is coming soon however, and depending on how much I get I will likely go with getting a new fore-stock on her. On that front, this is a Fazakerly No.4 Mk1 made in Feb 49, so I'm not sure what stock exactly to get that would match with the rest of the wood, is it just a luck of the draw and I hope with crossed fingers and praying hands that the forestock will match the rest of the wood?



in the meantime, I have about 400 rounds of MEN .303 fmj still to shoot, do you guys think it would be safe for me to shoot the gun with the stock as it is?