Thread: Stock Doctor

Originally Posted by Hunter_Nick

Unfortunately no longer in the stock making game. Turns out that a dealers license is required, and that’s too much admin for what it’s worth. Shame really, but it is what it is….

A real shame. Nothing stopping you carrying on as a hobby, as long as you don't make a business out of it....

Section 5 of the Arms Act is a very broad catch all for repair and manufacture of arms items as a business activity that's for sure! It's a weird piece of legislation that the activity themselves are not prohibited at all just making money doing so.
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/....html#DLM72687

Because I like the odd deep dive into legislation I've found a bit confusing that while you require a dealers licence to repair and modify arms items as a business these activities don't seem to show up anywhere in the offences under the arms act while manufacture does.
The offences under the Arms act are Section 42-59 with Section 55 (1)(c)&(d) being the most relevant.

A lawyer might be able to clarify what the situation is there but from a layman's perspective it seems to be a weird legal limbo of not being compliant with the act but there is no offence you can be charged with?

A bit more on topic.
The advice above for repairing the split is reasonably sound. I would add that you should try and include a mechanical fastener across the grain at the split. This can be a small bolt with a nut on the end carefully inletted across the grain from the action inletting or butt plate. Done right it shouldn't be seen once assembled.

However, you do need to investigate the cause of the split. Just drying out is a potential but I find it being the sole cause unlikely.

A very often common of cracks, aside from physical damage/impact, is a failure or fault in the bedding surfaces of the stock. This results in recoil forces going somewhere they were not intended. You can repair the crack in this situation but it will reappear.
If the crack is through the middle of the stock on the tang most likely the metalwork is climbing up out of the bedding and acting against the stock like a wedge in the action screws or at the rear of the inletting.

Lots of old military rifles are terrible at doing this and they'll literally shoot themselves apart if the bedding is not addressed. Modern firearms are not much better and when stored barrel up and oil soaks the stock in the bedding surfaces and weakens the wood.

Post a picture of the split and associated surfaces.

Originally Posted by Makros

A real shame. Nothing stopping you carrying on as a hobby, as long as you don't make a business out of it....

Section 5 of the Arms Act is a very broad catch all for repair and manufacture of arms items as a business activity that's for sure! It's a weird piece of legislation that the activity themselves are not prohibited at all just making money doing so.
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/....html#DLM72687

Because I like the odd deep dive into legislation I've found a bit confusing that while you require a dealers licence to repair and modify arms items as a business these activities don't seem to show up anywhere in the offences under the arms act while manufacture does.
The offences under the Arms act are Section 42-59 with Section 55 (1)(c)&(d) being the most relevant.

A lawyer might be able to clarify what the situation is there but from a layman's perspective it seems to be a weird legal limbo of not being compliant with the act but there is no offence you can be charged with?

Consequence of people with no specific knowledge making up legislation quickly and not listening to the submissions most likely. It ends up with piss poor legislation that then needs to be redone and corrected at huge cost and runctions in the affected industries - not just a firearms thing unfortunately.

As far as the stock repair, a very thin epoxy (specialist product like one of the timber coating/sealing epoxies that is thinner than water) and mix it with sawdust scraped of a matching piece of timber or somewhere you can't see on the piece of timber that needs repair. Masking tape each side of the crack, spread the crack slightly and prepare the epoxy. Mix the sawdust in to a thin paste and push it into the crack with a plastic spatula or flexible scraper - not a putty knife as you risk marking the wood surface. You can force a suprising amount of material into the gap using this technique, and the wood surface on each side of the crack will absorb and bond with the epoxy never to split again. It probably isn't likely that you'll get the split clamped correctly without marking the rest of the wood, and this way fills stabilises and colour matches the repair as close as can be done.

PVC glue is not the right product for this, as certain things can make it fall apart and it isn't a tough product being very soft in itself. Another option is one of the superglue type slow drying thin adhesives which you can mix with sawdust but they are bloody difficult to work with (force glue, sticks light to dark) and don't have the working times and workability of the thinned epoxy products.

Edit for afterthought: if the area of wood is oil soaked - this needs to be addressed before any repair attempt as well.

Have found rear tang cracks can be secured with a bit of internal drill work and the use of bedding compound, find this method creates permanent fix in conjunction with gluing.

@PeteD I could take a look at it for you mate. It could be as simple as a quick bit of epoxy and clamp. If it’s a double, it may need a quick bedding of the receiver to stock joint. Sometimes the wood can get soft with oil an the recoil can get concentrated in the wrong place causing splitting. Won’t know till we get eyes on it.
You know where to find me.

I talked to the central district firearms office, and the (actually quite pleasant firearms enthusiast) on the other end told me that yes, I can make as many as I want for a hobby. I can make for others, but I would have to ‘gift’ them. Any exchange of money = dealers licence.

It’s a tough one, as I’d love to keep the art form alive but I’m not altruistic enough to give away 150 hours of my toil for nothing. I’m contemplating running a workshop tuition series to show others how it’s done.

Nothing to stop people putting a envelope with a bitta green in it into your mailbox....' how the he'll did that get there....must be my lucky day...'

Sent from my SM-T225 using Tapatalk

@Hunter_Nick I guess that would also include checkering. I was contemplating getting a stock of mine checkered when I had the funds to do so. would love to do it myself but not worth the investment in tools for what would most likely be an average result.