The Armchair Outfitter

Forend cracks are a common problem with Browning Auto-5s. The wood is necessarily thin to accommodate the magazine tube and the recoil spring. The barrel snapping back into battery hits a pretty good lick, and the impact is rough on the tiny ridge that slides into and mates with the front of the receiver. The recoil spring itself can also contact the inside of the forend and set up some pretty vicious vibrations. There is a pin through the forend to reinforce it close to the magazine cap, but running cracks often appear on the receiver end. With some of the heavy loads I prefer for pheasant shooting, it was inevitable that I would develop a similar problem. Although I’m sure a professional could have obtained a cosmetically more acceptable result, I needed the thing working, and fast, for an upcoming shoot. Even with a professional repair, there would be no guarantee that the problem would not present itself again, and none of my guns are museum pieces anyway.

My solution was to spread the crack as far as I could and shoot the thing full of Gorilla Glue. It bonds wood fairly well, and more importantly, it would expand to fill the crack. There is very little bearing surface for gluing, and I wanted as much adhesion between the two halves of the split as possible to prevent the crack from running. Gorilla Glue is also flexible enough when dry that I’m hopeful it won’t act as a wedge to split the piece the rest of the way.

Notice how the glue is foaming and bubbling out of the crack. Because the glue expands quite a bit, I had to use a clamp to make sure it didn’t all run out or force the crack to open wider. Tolerances are pretty close between the receiver and the lip, so any swelling of the forend would cause a fit issue. I found that a champagne cork is just the right size on a 12 gauge forend to hold everything in the proper relationship. Luckily, I happened to have several lying around. I told you I had champagne taste and a beer budget, right? Melody in Orange Beach calls me Champagne Mike. I’ve been called a lot worse.

Here’s the finished result. Notice in the right of the photo how the action of the recoil spring has worn away the factory sticker that describes the placement of the friction rings for 3-inch magnum loads. There’s some pretty serious rockin’ and rollin’ inside that forend when shooting the big boomers. I guess reduced loads would be more gentle on the components, but I’m American: harder, faster, louder, better!

The repair is clearly visible from the outside because the glue is so light in color. I didn’t do any sanding; I put the whole works back together and shot the next day with no ill effects. It certainly wouldn’t pass muster with a professional re-stocker, but it got me back in the field with minimal down time and expense. That’s armchair.