A disaster under the wood?

[pisco]

that’s a nice repair job

[Brian Dick]

The earliest No.4Mk.2 rifles were produced in April 1949 if memory serves. Fazakerley built lots of No.4Mk.1 in 1949 also which is what the OP's rifle is.

[Thelionheart777]

Wow, again, thanks so much for the response!

To Englishman_ca

I have only really shot the rifle once with a friend at a range, and it was actually the first time I have ever shot a rifle. In the process I finally accepted the fact that my right eye was not good vision wise. I could barely make my targets out at 75ish yards (100 yards was even too far!) I went to the eye doctor and got some glasses so that I can shoot. My group of about 25ish rounds all seemed to fit in the 12" target though. I would like to take the rifle out again soon though, maybe during my break as right now I have a brief and job interviews to do. Very stressful! I hope to come back in a few weeks and report back!

to Mr. Clark
I am certainly willing to at least attempt to fix it, however I'll see if I can find good resources that I can understand. If I don't think I can do it I'll be buying a new stock.

To Cinders
Wow, that looks like a nice repair job! It certainly seems like you get what you pay for! A masterful job!

to Bindi2
That certainly makes it sound easy, but I'm worried that I would mess it up way more than it currently is. Do you know of any tutorials or articles on that method?

To browningautorifle
If I do get a new stock, do you know how they hand stamped the stock?

to Daan Kemp
Thanks for the info! Mine was in the very last runs of mk1s before they transitioned over to mk2s. The trigger is hung from the guard and it does have mk1 on the side of the receiver.

to Brian Dick
Thank you for the information again! I may be contacting you soon to ask about stock prices!

Again, thank you everyone for the advice!

[30Three]

Obviously if your new to rifle shooting you will probably take a while to become proficient. But this rifle when it's properly set up should be able to place those 25 shots within a 2" or 3" group at 100 yards.

[Sunray]

"...spray it with oven cleaner..." Oven cleaner is caustic and can chemically burn wood.
It looks like somebody refinished the rifle without bothering to remove the stock. Fixing it will depend on where in N. America you are.
"...safe for me to shoot..." The fore stock is cracked. That won't cause the thing to burst from shooting, but you might end up with wood bits in your hand.

[browningautorifle]

If I do get a new stock, do you know how they hand stamped the stock?

A hand stamp set...just don't get over zealous or smack too hard. Test on another piece until you have it right.

[pisco]

i don’t want to be smart but i have cleaned a lot of stocks with oven cleaner and you wash them in water to clean up i have never had a problem with any of them after the clean up
i have had a couple of others say you can’t no one has ever proved anything
i read it in one of the brownells gunsmith kinks and have used the idea ever since
you only leave it on the wood for about 15 minutes then wash off and let dry
so if my idea is not right what is ,how does every body clean up there wood work

[RobD]

I've used oven cleaner once, on a very poor condition stock; it cleaned the stock OK, but it's a strong alkali and I found the wood behaved like litmus paper and went a strange colour [blue-grey, if I recall correctly] and so after I had washed it off I neutralised it with vinegar and thankfully it went back to a normal colour.
I now favour paint or varnish stripper - gets rid of surface gunk as well as de-greasing.
Also, for a finish personally I prefer Danish oil to linseed oil.

[mrclark303]

It all depends how bad it is, if it's a clean (black with grime and grease) in preparation for refinishing, I use 3M red scotchbrite, in conjunction with clean water. It's not aggressive, so it doesn't affect markings etc, but it effectively removes all the grime from the fibre of the woodwork.

When it's completely dry, I go over again with a dry scotchbrite, then use liberon spirit based colour, followed by a first coat of raw linseed oil cut 50% with turpentine, (gives great depth to the final finish) followed by neat raw linseed oil applications as required, i.e, until it stops soaking in.

If the woods really dry, or a NOS replacement, I put the stock in a plastic bag and keep applying for a week.

That's my approach anyway.

[splicenut]

Lionheart,
Yes, that's a mess. I sympathize, having been a starving college student with a bad shooting/hunting/backpacking/fishing habit. It took years of "therapy" and a regular paycheck to get me over that. (The starving student part, I mean.)
One question nobody has asked is: How does it shoot? What kind of groups are you getting, and with what ammo? While, in the long term, I agree that you will probably need to fit (or have fitted) a new forend, in the meantime, you may be able to get away with injecting some epoxy into the crack and clamping it together as a TEMPORARY fix. It IS broken, and you WILL have to do a more permanent repair, eventually.
I get the feeling that you don't shoot it that often, but that you'd like to. If you get acceptable accuracy with the quick fix, that may serve you for a while. It's not really a safety issue. If the accuracy is not good, then just put it up for now and save up for a replacement forend (They're getting pricier as we speak, so don't waste any time.) and either hone your woodworking skills (on scrap!) or save up for BD or another good LE smith to do the work.
Just my 2c.
Cheers!
Splice