doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com High Tang

Rabbit it happens on old guns. I figure severe wood shrinkage is more than likely caused by long term storage conditions on an older gun. Maybe in hot attics. I'm not saying this is for sure what we are looking at but it could be.

I looked at the photo again. Jim the checkering looks pretty good you figure a guy that is smart enough to do that good a job would still be stupid enough to sand a stock away ?

This does not look like the classic botched sanding job, and this is too much gap to be shrinkage. The rest of the workmanship is too good to go along with such horrid sanding damage...

I think that the stock was replaced with one that was originally fitted to another gun.

Jeff

I couldn't live with it.

The stock needs to come off the gun to answer this riddle. Could the tang be bent? Screws not tight? Does everything else work flawlessly? If not, other issues could be related to the tang. I tend to aggree with other posters in that the work looks very good, its odd to see good work combined with that much over sanding. My guess is the gun is not over sanded that much and that there is another issue, possibly small, that is causing the tang to be raised up so much. Just a educated guess though.
Steve

I believe the checkering and sanding quality are concomitant.

I'd only buy the gun with restocking in mind.

I've waited a while to see if one of my Clients would post a"Final Soultion" to your Problem of Exposed Top-Strap. He had the same problem on a Westly Richards"De Lux" 375 H&H DB Rifle.Both sides of the Strap had been snapped off, who knows how? It had been in a Indian Prince's Collection since the 1920's. When I examined the Rifle it had been Doctored-Up with Plastic wood, not a bad job as plastic wood repairs go!!The O/A condition of the Cased Rifle was a good 85%(That was stated by the'Dealer' who cashed the Cheque for $30k plus.) I removed the Ironwork from the Stock, cut away all the P/W.Dovetailed new wood to both sides, Had to look Long& Hard for French to blend in with the Orig, Stock Grain Texture & Colour, Re Inletted action and top-tang, shaped to conform with balance of =Head of Stock, Wet & Dried 7 or 8 times finished at 600 grit using "Slacum" to fill the Grain as I sanded down for the last time,(I had used 'Colour gradually' each time I sanded-down so It blended in, I dont like to use the word"Perfect".......but I was "Chuffed"...London Gunmaker's Slang for thr'P'word!!!!So was the Client! and I'm sure the 3 Cape Buffs he Killed on two African trips were 'Happy that I had Repaired the Stock on the Rifle that had Killed them!!!! I have also repaired a VHE 12b Parker stock the same way, for a 80yr old'Gent'in exchange for 6 Heinekens..Hope this method will work on the stock in the photo. ..CC/dt

I'd think Jeff is on to something with the replacement angle except that I can't imagine how width, length, radius of tangs could remain the same on two examples of a modern production gun and their stocks allowing a simple take-off and put-on except for a major dimension change on distance between tangs.

jack

Just based on that picture I would also say it was oversanded, with the checkering cleaned up. The wrist checkering looks much cleaner/sharper than the checkering in the chevron. Remove the stock and make sure there is no bedding material or wood chips holding the tang up. Give us a bigger view!

Thank you all very much for your help with the decision. After much debate I elected not to purchase the shotgun (as so many of you advised)--in sum it would have been something for me to live with or to have repaired and in this instance, I elected not to live with it or have it repaired. It was a very difficult decision because save for this issue, the shotgun was very nice. I suspect (and hope) the seller will likely resolve the issue with a good stock maker and he will sell the shotgun for more money.

Doug