I've never been burnt

[Kiwishooter]

I have bought a number of items off forums and Ebay and while I came close to being burnt a couple of times I managed to recoup most of my money or get the item I purchased.

My mate in the USA has just bought a rifle, the story goes, someone wanted a 20 Killer Bee and ended up purchasing this rifle off someone who said they had grown tired of the project. The stock is an awesome piece of English Walnut and the buyer got the seller to send it to a person who was going to finish the stock.
When it was unpacked it was found to have a crack in the wrist, the buyer went round and round with the seller for 6 months before getting a major refund, UPS fought the claim because the rifle was well wrapped and there was no damage to the package.
The stock maker sat on the rifle and said it would be a bit.h to fix and thought the stock was broken before it was shipped.
The buyer finally got tired of trying to get the rifle finished by the stock maker and had it shipped to my mate who has a real good stockmaker friend who agreed to look at it.
When it arrived the metalwork was taken out of the stock and it was found that a dowel had been glued into the wrist and the action had been glass bedded.
The original seller also claimed it had a Jewell trigger, it was found to still have the original Cooper trigger.

By this stage the buyer of the rifle had become disillusioned with the rifle as the crack was going to always be there and even though checkering would disguise it, he would know it was there.

I have heard of people being scammed, usually not by someone in the sport of hunting/shooting, therefore I'm a bit shocked to think that people involved in shooting and hunting would knowingly do this to a guy participating in the same sport.

If this happens quite often I have to think I must be one of the luckiest guys alive to have carried out all the trades, purchases and sales that I have and only come close a couple of times.
Pics of the rifle below

Kiwi

[ben lurkin]

Wow, that’s a beautiful piece of wood! When you say wrapped, do you mean as in bubble wrap inside a cardboard box? I would expect something like this to be shipped in a padded hard case. I have a plain jane uncracked Cooper stock if he wants to trade - just trying to help

[Kiwishooter]

Originally Posted by ben lurkin

Wow, that’s a beautiful piece of wood! When you say wrapped, do you mean as in bubble wrap inside a cardboard box? I would expect something like this to be shipped in a padded hard case. I have a plain jane uncracked Cooper stock if he wants to trade - just trying to help

I don't know what container it was shipped in but it wasn't damaged in anyway and the rifle was well contained inside so couldn't move/bounce around inside the container, which is why UPS declined the claim, and so would I if I was the insurer.

Lol my mate isn't so worried about the crack in the wrist so I'm guessing he will get his stockmaker friend to do his best to hide/camouflage the crack.
I haven't seen a photo of the crack but do know his stockmaker friend does some awesome work.........Kiwi

[ray h]

Beautiful wood but is it my imagination or is the grain running thru the grip is wrong.

[wombat]

I’m not a wood expert, as Ray said above, but looking at the grain at the wrist, that would seem it’s weakest spot,,,,,,?
Jay

[georgeld]

Too thin a wrist and grain is WRONG,

Seeing that I would bet big bucks on it breaking there.

Whoever turned that blank is to blame first off. That dowel is a tipoff.

I've been reading Gunsmith Kinks lately after buying the first three books.

There's been a lot of info and suggestions to use Acra glass for stock fixings.

Kiwi, pass that info along to the guy and his stock maker. Tell them to
contact Brownell's and share these pictures with them asking for assistance.
and advice.

It very well may be cheaper and better to just have another stock made for it as sooner or later no matter how it's repaired it's going to fail.

Getting ripped off isn't any fun. We can do our dealings on a good board like this one and Accurate Reloading.com. Like you, most of us long timers just send a personal check and never have a problem, even across the ponds.

Best wishes on the results and collecting from the seller. Sharing the sellers name publicly on these boards is one way to enforce honesty.

[Kiwishooter]

Originally Posted by georgeld

Too thin a wrist and grain is WRONG,

Seeing that I would bet big bucks on it breaking there.

Whoever turned that blank is to blame first off. That dowel is a tipoff.

I've been reading Gunsmith Kinks lately after buying the first three books.

There's been a lot of info and suggestions to use Acra glass for stock fixings.

Kiwi, pass that info along to the guy and his stock maker. Tell them to
contact Brownell's and share these pictures with them asking for assistance.
and advice.

It very well may be cheaper and better to just have another stock made for it as sooner or later no matter how it's repaired it's going to fail.

Getting ripped off isn't any fun. We can do our dealings on a good board like this one and Accurate Reloading.com. Like you, most of us long timers just send a personal check and never have a problem, even across the ponds.

Best wishes on the results and collecting from the seller. Sharing the sellers name publicly on these boards is one way to enforce honesty.

I agree that the grain looks like it is running the wrong way in the photo's and it was obviously running that way when the stock was turned.
In the past I have had sellers go to great pains to bring all faults to my attention, so I was fully informed when making a decision to purchase.

It seems when the seller sold the rifle and used the reason of having grown tired of the project, they failed to mention "the wrist was cracked and someone tried to repair it by boring the wrist and inserting a wooden dowel, and there is still a crack visible in the wrist".

If it didn't have the dowel in the wrist and it was cracked when it arrived then it may have happened after being shipped.
Having a dowel already glued into the wrist and the action glass bedded means that the fault was known and someone tried to repair it.

The stock would most likely be destroyed trying to remove the dowel so it could be repaired, which means either you accept the crack and do your best to mask the fault, or you do as you say George and get another stock.

Boring and inserting a dowel is quite a common repair for a cracked wrist on a stock, and I have seen a number of stocks repaired in that way where it is virtually invisible from the outside of the stock.

I'm not going to name names publicly, but the person who bought the blank and had the stock done and sold the rifle will most likely see this post.

Kiwi

[JDHasty]

Originally Posted by ray h

Beautiful wood but is it my imagination or is the grain running thru the grip is wrong.

Just my opinion, but if I were a betting man: With the grain running through the stock the way it does, it was never going to not break at the wrist, even if it were a mild kicker if it were to be transported to the range in a soft case in the trunk of a car.

I have a couple stocks that came my way as blanks that are much the same. I could have sent both back, but liked everything else about them. We drilled them before I did anything else from under the tang down to a half inch short of the grip cap using a 5/8 Forstner after getting them all lined up and clamped in place. I have an advantage in that I have an old Rockwell Radial Drill Press that helps me get everything lined up.

Then I set a piece of 5/8 oak dowel in Devcon High Strength Epoxy in the hole. At that point it will never crack at the wrist. I saw the same thing done using a steel pin on a Weatherby Laser Mark stock a friend gave me. Gee, thanks?!? My buddy and I wondered what to do with that flamboyant monstrosity and decided to cut it right down the middle on the band saw and then epoxy six 460 cases in holes we drilled in each side and make a couple coat racks out of it.

I tried out the oak dowel instead of the steel pin on a junk stock and beat the stock until failure on my chopping block. It never failed at the wrist.

[JDHasty]

Boy, before I put anything more into it, I’d have to let that stock season for a few years to see if it had been carved while green too. Whoever carved that beautiful piece of walnut into a stock was clueless.

[BAM]

15 years ago.....

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/threa...t-wood.178564/