Lengthening a Sporterized '03A3 "C" Stock

[Parashooter]

The screw holes will simply weaken the joint by cutting across wood fibers that would otherwise remain intact. Make a close-fitting dovetail and there's no need for them.

[Emri]

Gents,

Thanks for all the replies. My new plan is:

Drill and fit 2 brass all-thread rods since I've already got dowel holes drilled. I'll make them deeper so the all thread has a better bite.

Glue all- thread rods in with Acraglas being sure there's some play so I can fine tune the alignment of the fore end to the buttstock while glue is drying. Also make sure there's plenty of glue between fore end and buttstock so there's plenty of strength.

Once glue is dried and everything is good I'll route a channel that extends between the two parts. The routed grove will be a dove tail as suggested.

Make a dove tail piece from walnut or another hard wood and glue / clamp this into the pre-cut groove. Clamp it down to make sure there's a good bond and let it cure.

Once the dove tail is cured I'll sand it down as required to match the contour of the stock under the barrel.

From there I'll drill one counter sunk hole at each end of the dove tail and insert a small brass wood screw making sure not to drill through the bottom and done.

All this is based off suggestions above. Any thoughts?

Thanks again,

Stretch

I see no fault with your plan except the added screws as a final touch. Like Parashooter said, not needed.

Good Luck !!

Emri

[Stretch32]

Thanks again Gents.

I'll delete the screws and build this up with everything else. We'll see how it does once I get it together. Either way, I'll try and post an update once I get it together for future reference.

Thanks again.

Stretch

[Stretch32]

An update to this project.

I was able to get the fore end reattached a few weeks ago using your recommendations and some ideas from a friend of mine who is very good at wood working.

What we ended up doing was drilling the pilot holes for the all-thread much deeper in to both the buttstock and the fore end so there would be more surface area. We then cut a groove between the two pieces with the original plan of making a bridge, as suggested, for a tight fitting piece of hard wood. Instead, we taped everything up really well and filled the pilot holes with a high quality 2-part marine epoxy and inserted the all-thread then generously coated to 2 mating surfaces and pushed everything together. From there, with help from my buddy, we poured epoxy into the previously cut groove and used this to form the bridge instead of the using a piece of cut hard wood (since epoxy is significantly tougher than wood). With the rifle now on a stand that allowed my to work on it without tipping it over I installed the action and upper hand guard along with some of the barrel bands to get everything lined up. Lastly I used zip ties on the end of the fore end and barrel to give the 5-10 lbs of upward pressure required with a 1903.

Once everything was dry I removed the tape and cleaned up the seam between the two parts. I then used a sanding drum on my Dremel and cleaned the barrel groove so it was smooth and no dried epoxy touched the barrel.

I took it out and shot about 50 rds through it and everything appears to be good so far.

I understand this would probably be a less than ideal solution for somebody looking to restore a rifle but, from a shooter stand point, it appears to be a pretty solid fix that doesn't have any effect on overall shootablity.

Stretch

[sprg03]

One of the reasons joints in a stock fail is they often have Cosmoline or grease soaked into the stock as a preservative. Before applying glue to any stock joint, use a liberal amount of Acetone to remove any oil or grease on the surface to be bonded. Allow the acetone to dry, then apply the adhesive. For alignment, clamp the stock using a wooden dowel, the size of the barrel channel, wrapped in wax paper to prevent the dowel from adhering to the adhesive. I Use an old, junk barrel for this purpose and several clamps down the length of the stock. After the clamps on the barrel are in place, I use a long clamp attached from the butt stock to the fore end. This adds a slight amount of tension to the joint, ensuring the stock and the added fore end are clamped tightly together. The long clamp does not require any great force, just enough to ensure the joint is tight. Too much tension on the long clamp will put a bow in the stock/fore end. Leave the stock in the clamps overnight before removing them.