Butt stock replacement

[ekj]

My original 1860 carbine has three cracks running lengthwise, one beginning at the receiver runs through a hole that provides clearance for a spring, for some reason unknown to me there is a wood screw at the bottom of this hole, this is the serious one as it has progressed half the length of stock.  I'm considering drilling the hole deeper and inserting and glueing a dowel in it.  The other two just seem to be shrinkage from age and pressure from the magazine tube, it's a tight fit, I'm thinking of sanding out the magazine channel a bit.  Both of these had been filled with plastic wood which is now crumbling.

Another solution is to replace the front and rear stocks, would ones from a repro work and are they available?

Thanks to all for your advice

Eric

[Two Flints]

One source for a replacement Spencer Buttstock and a lot of other parts for the Spencer at S&S Firearms.  See this link for Buttstock info - http://www.ssfirearms.com/proddetail.asp?prod=GS131&cat=150   You will still have to do a lot of inletting -for the lock and screw holes as needed, as I remember.

Try to repair the original stock, if you can.  I had a buttstock that was pretty beat up but with the careful use of wood glue (brown) it has held together pretty well so far.  On cracks, I opened them up a bit and inserted the wood glue and then clamped the wood as tight as I could until it dried.

Two Flints

[Jobe Holiday]

Good advice! Always preserve the original wood. If you want to shoot the arm, and you aren't comfortable with the soundness of the original wood, then consider the S&S replacement butt stock. That way you can shoot with comfort and still replace the original any time you want to present it in the original form.

J.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

The S&S replacement stocks are great.  My friend got one for his original 1860.  His was the Spencer that had the stock and magazine blow up at a reenactment when it fell of the horse.  It was written up in the old Camp Chase Gazette with pictures.  He had the rounded follower in it still.