Hello
I like your DUV44 with DUROFOL Hanguard
I repaired this AC44 stock, I can not put a full picture of the gun because I sold it, the buyer has of course seen these pictures too.
No problem for shooting.
Best regards
Repair looks fantastic, but... I see something. In the last photo -- it looks like the steel crossbolt -- recoil bolt? recoil lug? (Weaver -- "stock reinforcing lug") -- has broken away the two wooden buttresses that support it from the rear. One should not be able to see almost the entire width of the bolt exposed when looking from the rear. Only the center part, where the receiver hooks onto it, should be visible.
As an example, see the images on Lestek Foks' site, images number two, three, and five:
Note the wooden "supports" behind the slot for the crossbolt. I don't see those on your gun.
This is a known failure point, and the reason some later guns (Walther, 1945, according to Weaver, "Hitler's Garands," p. 144) had that crossbolt moved forward and the receiver forging altered and machined accordingly -- to give the wooden buttresses a longer shear surface where they meet the thinner side sections of the stock. They have a tendency to shear off and this was apparent even to the Germans when these guns were near-new. A small area means greater shear stress per unit surface area. It's not a good design.
Missing or damaged wood buttresses are repairable. I've done it. But the way I do it, it involves a special jig, some finicky work on a milling machine, and fitting an appropriate laminate "dutchman" as a replacement.
If not noticed in time, and not repaired, the recoil will quickly damage the main part of the stock, right around and behind the head of that steel crossbolt, and its round nut on the other side. The thin sections of wood on either side of the receiver are all that's taking the recoil, and the crossbolt holes will be beaten out and split the stock very quickly. The crossbolt needs to be held firmly by the counterbored holes and those buttresses behind and in front. In fact that may be why the stock broke in the first place -- the entire receiver being hammered back with each shot. The sides of the stock at the crossbolt are not visible -- were those damaged? If so, that was your problem. The back end of the receiver was hammering the stock. The (missing) wooden buttresses take about 2/3 of the recoil load, I think; the round parts of the crossbolt bearing on the edges of the holes, only about 1/3 total and that's not enough.
A gun with the crossbolt supports gone, is going to spray bullets all over the place. Accuracy "under every sow," as the Germans would say. And the stock will crack again, somewhere.
