Stock Repair On A Brand New Rifle

[Roger Payne]

And the repair itself is a beautiful piece of workmanship.

[browningautorifle]

I think it's just a typical minor repair of slight damage, perhaps a nick. It wasn't to make numbers go away though. They get linished out.

[LowSpeed]

I'm assuming it was damage, I will never get why you'd "repair" a new rifle instead of just sticking a new stock on it and using the "repaired" one on a rifle already being refurbished. Not my place to make such decisions though. The only other reason I could think of is if they struck the wrong stamp on it for whatever reason. In any event it give it character even if it hasn't been used.

[browningautorifle]

if they struck the wrong stamp on it

They linish it out.

why you'd "repair" a new rifle instead of just sticking a new stock on it

Economy as Peter has stated many times. Save money.

[Peter Laidler]

Low Speed....... I know what the forum flock are saying but believe me, it's a bog standard common repair that every real Armourer has been doing at the factories, as apprentices and out in the army world for the past 100 years. It's a knuckle patch and the butt would split down the grain there as BAR has mentioned. We used to do these day in, day out. You can tell that it's been done by an Armourer by a); the two strengthening dowels (made from tapered oak usually), glued and knocked in tightly and b); the fact that it is well done. New butts came like that too and with heel, toe and cheek patches to boot

[Flying10uk]

Some stock patches are so well done that you can hardly see them. My East India Company musket has several that are almost invisible and these would, most likely, have been done in India or Nepal because it was never in service with the British army.

[browningautorifle]

New butts came like that too and with heel, toe and cheek patches to boot

I've seen woodwork come on US carbines more than anything else that had a knot I would have thought was a reject. In the case of these guys, a patch would have been demanded...

[LowSpeed]

I've done a little cabinetry ( don't have the patience) and agree it's an excellent repair. If I wasn't happy with it I wouldn't have put my hard earned in it.

I'm not complaining about the rifle or the repair. If that was within the parameters of the contract of organization that originally contracted for the rifles then who am I to question it. At the same time if I was the organization paying for new rifles, 1 or 100,000 I would want new rifles in every sense of the word, not a new rifle with a new repair, cosmetic or not. If you were buying a new rifle for yourself would you buy a "new repaired" one over an unblemished on sitting beside of it? You wouldn't because there is no such thing when selling to individuals spending their own money. I don't believe contract stuff should be any different in appearance or function than any commercial item. It was peacetime after all, no rush to supply a fighting army.

[Flying10uk]

It was peacetime after all, no rush to supply a fighting army.

The thing is the U.K. was completely bankrupt following WW2 and was in dire straights financially because it for many years afterwards. I believe that we made our last lend-lease repayment to the U.S.A. around 2006. We still haven't finished paying for WW1; we probably never will because it is said that it is not in our best interests to repay WW1 "War Loans", don't ask me why. Things were done on a tight budget following WW2, food was still rationed and the emphasis was on exporting goods to earn the country money.

When I need a plank of wood for a project I go to the builders merchant to buy it. I like to get a plank that has no splits and the minimal number of knots; I may need to get 8 or more planks off the racking before I find a plank that suits my requirements. Wood is a natural product and there may be flaws in it.

[Brian Dick]

These rifles were built well before the "throw away" society we live in now came to exist. If a new stock had a minor defect in it, it wasn't thrown away but repaired and used anyhow. I have a beautiful 1945 Long Branch that has a large patch on the side of the butt where it attaches to the butt socket. Same thing, different patch. It was obviously done at the factory prior to assembly. If these rifles were coming down a commercial production line for civilian sales, what the OP states would probably be true but it isn't the case. They were military rifles intended for military use and produced by the thousands.