My Model 21 Skeet: Good news and bad news|Page 2|Winchester Shotguns|Forum|Winchester Collector

Michael,  i agree. The fissure was there all along and I never noticed it ( or maybe confused it with the scattered grain pattern) until i looked at the same image at several diameters of magnification. 

I need to educate myself on the names of the various double shotgun components, in order to appreciate the information you and my other WACA friends are giving me. I’m very interested to understand the change in location of certain forearm components you describe. as soon as I have a grip on what those parts are called, i would like to discuss it futher with you. And with my gunsmith. 

Chuck, as above with Michael, my ignorance of nomenclature is holding me back. Tell me what the forearm cap looks like? Is it the steel escutcheon inletted into the long axis of the convex external surface of the forearm, that houses the forearm latch release?  If so, my answer is I don’t know because I did not attempt to disassemble any part of the forearm. 

To my mind, the recoil force, a rearward vector, is trasmitted though the barrel attachment hook to the mating steel bracket and escutcheon in the forearm, thence to the wood of the forearm at every mating wood-to-steel junction. 

If the steel escutcheon in the forearm is not held immobile by close ineletting, almost the entire force of recoil would eventually be borne by one or more attachment screws, I would think. Again, i need to learn the forearm architecture. 

O.K.  you mean the steel piece at the end.  From the second photo showing the inletted side of the forearm, the cap appears to be of a single piece with the long steel housing containing the latch assembly.  That entire part is going to be removed and eventually re-bedded in glass reinforced epoxy.  Ron will remove additional wood, probably cutting channels and drilling holes to be filled with Acragel (or whatever he uses), perhaps with powdered aluminum for added strength.  I don’t know how he plans to close the visible line of the crack. I would guess with a slow-set epoxy adhesive and elastic bands to close the line. Whether he will add any reinforcing metal or not, i leave to his judgment. From repairs i have seen to very heavily recoiling rifles, the craftsmen seemed to prefer cured bands and columns of glass filled epoxy to additional metal parts that could themselves become problems if they became unbonded.