MarkinEllensburg
posted this
26 January 2024
Have you considered making a new butt stock? The wood was a poor choice for a gunstock in the first place. Not exactly a dense piece of walnut. If you're just wanting to repair, squaring it off would be easiest and if you are able to get a good glue joint it should hold for years. Pins or dowels are great for alignment but add little for strength. Most of the strength comes from a glue joint. Adding a loose tenon will add to the surface of the glue joint. A dowel or pin adds little in surface area. I agree with Ric that epoxy is a good adhesive to use. Matching the grain might be hard but you could use India ink and a tooth pick to apply it to mimic grain or pores along the glue line before you stain. different woods will take stain differently, dye might be a better choice. Epoxy can be used to "fix" checkering when the diamonds tear out or lines go stray.
I totally understand wanting to keep a 16 ga. alive and useful. I have a side by side that has a misfire problem in one trigger. I took the easy road and bought a new O/U in 16ga. Still have a Wards Hercules single that resembles what you have here.