Acraglass

I removed to much wood from my stock where the barrel meets the stock. About 1/8 of an inch. I have some Brownells a acraglass and wondering If Acraglass can handle the recoil? 45 caliber SRM, What say you?

Acraglass was designed to bed high power unmentionables so you should have no problem using it with your .45 SMR. I used it to bed the barrel in a .40 flintlock some 40 years ago and it is still in like new condition inside the barrel channel.

It will work. Add some brown dye (burnt umber oil paint works well) and a bit of very fine sawdust to give it some body and cut the plastic sheen.

It will hold up to anything you throw at it. I used it to repair shotgun stocks. Sounds like you won’t need this tip but if you hit it with a heat gun it thins and runs like water. Great for crack repair as it will run in until it hits solid wood.

Hopefully you'll carefully fit a piece of matching wood into the gap. A 1/8" gap filled with acraglass will look bad forever.

It will work. Almost too well and it redefines the word permanent. Stronger yet is Devcon steel epoxy. Forgetting the release agent is always fun.

The Crisco Kid said:

Hopefully you'll carefully fit a piece of matching wood into the gap. A 1/8" gap filled with acraglass will look bad forever.

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I agree with this! Properly fitted/finished, it will be un-noticeable, and have comparable strength and compression characteristics.

Mark E. Prickett said:

I removed to much wood from my stock where the barrel meets the stock. About 1/8 of an inch. I have some Brownells a acraglass and wondering If Acraglass can handle the recoil? 45 caliber SRM, What say you?

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Yes! I have used it in "unmentionables" to bed actions, including recoil lugs. It is a well known and respected product, been around a long time.. Once it sets, it is bullet proof! IMHO

I have seen both ML bench and field rifles purposely inletted 1/8" or so all around breech, Barrel inlet and wedge/pin points and then glassed in. The glas outline looks good when done right. Some routinely drill back thru wrist and glas in a 3/8" all thread rod to add further stiffness. On one hunt this worked when a member rolled his horse with a hawken in the scabbard.

This gun will be used in competition so I'm after strength vs looks. I plan on putting thousands of rounds through this gun. Wouldn't a 1/8 in slice of wood be weak?

Mark E. Prickett said:

This gun will be used in competition so I'm after strength vs looks. I plan on putting thousands of rounds through this gun. Wouldn't a 1/8 in slice of wood be weak?

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More trouble than its worth IMHO. The AcraGlas will do the job, and it was designed to do it.

I would make a wood filler strip first. As far as strength, think plywood.

When using Acraglas/Acragel, you are better off using the black dye. It isn't nearly as obvious as the brown on a finished gun.

Mark E. Prickett said:

I removed to much wood from my stock where the barrel meets the stock. About 1/8 of an inch. I have some Brownells a acraglass and wondering If Acraglass can handle the recoil? 45 caliber SRM, What say you?

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I've used it a lot for decades and it has never failed me in magnum centerfire stocks as well as Muzzle loading stocks.

Ive bedded actions in stock and take down pillars etc with both JB Weld and aluminum tape

I've used it in several ml guns and moderns too. It will be strong and reliable. Prep is important and as previously mentioned planning the release agent is paramount!!

One thing that you mentioned deserves consideration and that is use in competition. Guns used in international competition don’t allow non period materials in the bedding. There may be other venues where it's not allowed too.

I cannot tell you the number of customers who came in complaining that they could not remove parts after glassing. We would quote a flat fee to access situation as long it was clear we were not liable for damages. Often stocks were ruined an lots of shop time needed to remove stuck glas. Tricks included heat guns and a big old turn of century solder "copper" type iron. The latter was heated red hot and touched to glassed screws or other parts to try to break stuff loose. Seen conducted electricity used as well with poor results. All for the want of a little johnson paste wax.

All I can add is this-

A few years ago I acquired a T/C Seneca .45 for free. Mine was a later example that had the typical horrendous inletting around the tang. The later T/c's were not known for quality fitment of parts. The rifle was well used but taken care of properly. No rust or pitting anywhere, BUT it had plenty of dings and scratches. I disassembled the rifle to see what I had to work with. What little wood actually contacted the tang had been deformed over the years. I'm amazed that the stock had not split.

I set about fixing the tang to stock fit. The rifle was free. I had no idea as to it's accuracy. The rifle had plenty of 'character'. So I wanted a cheap fix. T/C had used some sort of a soft brown wood filler to fix their mistakes. I've heard that this was common in the later years. I scraped all of this away to bare wood. I scrubbed the area with acetone and q-tips. When the tang was re-installed without the filler, the hooked breech on the barrel would not fit the tang correctly. That's how bad T/C screwed this up. There was NO wood behind the tang touching the tang! All the recoil was being directed to the tang bolt! I used a few slivers of toothpick pieces to shim up and out the tang. Once I was satisfied with the fit, I mixed up some of the 24hr cure JB Weld and mixed a touch of inletting black into it to darken the mixture. I slopped the inletted area for the tang with this mixture. I installed the degreased tang. I permanently secured the tang to the stock. I cleaned up the excess before it set up. You can not tell this was ever done other than not being able to remove the tang. The rifle now is one of my most accurate rifles. This may not of been the 'right' way but it worked. I've shot this rifle quite a bit. If JB Weld can hold up, the better quality epoxy of Brownells Acraglas ought to be just fine.

Then there's the use of glas to mount those long tasco brass ML scopes due to fears of DT'ing thin barrels. These seem to hold well if done right and can be removed with heat. In one case the installer glassed on mounts and then glassed in ground down screws to look the part. Had us going for a while but heat took care of both and revealed the little deception.. (yes been doing this a looooonnnng time). IMHO epoxy. flat surfaces and shear stress aren't the best for long term success. I do see super glue (CA) being used with some success lately.

vintovka said:

Then there's the use of glas to mount those long tasco brass ML scopes due to fears of DT'ing thin barrels. These seem to hold well if done right and can be removed with heat. In one case the installer glassed on mounts and then glassed in ground down screws to look the part. Had us going for a while but heat took care of both and revealed the little deception.. (yes been doing this a looooonnnng time). IMHO epoxy. flat surfaces and shear stress aren't the best for long term success. I do see super glue (CA) being used with some success lately.

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I've come to rely on Force 44 low temp silver solder for sight and scope base mounting. This solder melts around 400 degrees and has 2/3rds the strength of high temp silver solder which is about 3 times more than the best Epoxy.
I have tried Micro bed several times but Agraglass is superior in both strength and hardness. Now days I have found one even better than Agraglass, it's called "Bedrock" by Wheeler Engineering "Miles and Gilbert series.
Reinforcing and sealing out oil and water in the lock and tang area, on muzzle loaders that have had so much of the stock wood removed by the convergence of tang, loading rod, lock and barrel will benefit from bedding enormously.
Also one wants to use release agent on all metal parts so that they can be removed "when not if" the need arises. The close mold fit provided by glass bedding and release agent along with the use of a good gun grease film will protect all metal from corrosion from now on !

Mark E. Prickett said:

I removed to much wood from my stock where the barrel meets the stock. About 1/8 of an inch. I have some Brownells a acraglass and wondering If Acraglass can handle the recoil? 45 caliber SRM, What say you?

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I"VE used it for years on many different caliber center fire rifles including 300 Rem Ultra Mag. no problems. you will be fine. be sure to follow directions closely on applying release agent.