Last week we were shooting some C&R weapons.

I was shooting my old Lithgow SMLE. Here's a picture of it from a couple of years ago.

As you can see, the wood didn't match too well, but the metal was sound and it shot well.

I fired a few magazines full and laid it on the bench.

Tman said, "Look at that. Your stock has split."

And, sure enough, it had.

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It had never even shown a warning, but a crack about 1/4 inch wide now ran from the rear of the fore stock to up past the trigger guard, about 9 inches long. It was a mess.

I really hated to see the crack as this had been a very nice example of a Lithgow SMLE and now it was unshootable.

We looked at what it would cost to buy a replacement stock, but in the meantime, I looked at the possibility of repairing the stock.

We decided that we didn't have anything to lose and went to work.

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I started by mixing up a two-part epoxy that I have used before with excellent results.

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I then used a toothpick to work it into the crack, which I held open with a screwdriver.

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And here. I then closed it up and used woodworking clamps to clamp it tight.

I let it set overnight. The next morning, it looked pretty good.
It would have to be sanded, but that didn't bother me.

We decided to also put a little insurance on the job, by adding a couple of Ishapore Indian brass screws through the stock.

This is not a problem with these rifles, as mine already had several in the stock from past reworks at the factory that the Brits called FTR or Factory Thorough Repairs.

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We went to a hardware store and bought a couple of course threaded brass screws.

I used the drill press to drill a couple of holes through the areas of the stock that had split.

You don't want the screw holes to be too tight, as that would only encourage more splitting problems.

I then filled the holes with the epoxy and covered the threads of the screws with the epoxy and screwed them into place.

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We placed two screws in the most critical places.

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We let these dry and then sawed them off close to the stock with a hacksaw.

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Here's the cuts.

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Tman then used a Dremel tool to grind them flush with the stock.

This makes a very tough repair.

I do not expect it to split again in these areas.

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We also noted that the recoil lug was not seated properly and decided to bed the action. We used two-part JB Weld to fill the area and Johnson's Floor Wax on the action as a release agent.

It came out fine.

And I bet it improves the accuracy of this fine rifle.

Since we needed to do some sanding, I got Tman to work his magic with some Rit dye and he refinished the wood for me.

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The metal parts of the rifle had been painted during the FTR and were painted an olive drab color.

The Brits and Australians felt that a painted finish on a battle rifle was more durable than bluing and often painted rifles.

Here's some of the original paint that was covered by the wood.

I decided to repaint it to factory condition again.

I used DuraCoat and sprayed all metal parts to original color.

I even polished the brass butt plate.

Here's the finished product.

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Paint on the bore end.



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Receiver.

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Other side.

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And the finished rifle.

I'm going to let it cure for a couple of weeks before I shoot it to be sure the paint is completely dry.

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Conclusion:
Maybe I can get another 100 years out of it.
Or at least my Grandson will.