Straightening a warped stock??

[Bigmon]

Helping a fella with a parts kit he bought some 6 yrs or so ago.  It has sat all that time and he did not have the barrel in the precarved stock all that time.  It has quite a twist to it mostly out toward the muzzle.
I had one before like this that was mine and I did not mind taking a chance, so I soaked it in hot water for about a half hr, covered my barrel with saran wrap and just clamped it in there for a week or so.  Worked out ok, not perfect but ok.
But I do not want to ruin this guys investment.  Any other ideas I could try that come to mind??
Appreciated, Thanks

[Jeff Durnell]

I've done a lot of heat straightening on wooden bows with a heat gun and a steam tube setup. Literally hundreds of times. I wouldn't hesitate to use either method on a gun stock of my own, but AM hesitant to encourage someone to try it on the fragile end of a gun stock without any experience doing so. Could it work? Absolutely. Could you ruin it? You bet.

[Eric Krewson]

Like Jeff I have been straightening bow wood for the last 25 years, I use dry heat most of the time.

I sent a barrel to Pecatonica for them to do me a TN rifle precarve, they sent the precarve back less the barrel, it got lost briefly but they sent it to me quickly when they found it. The forend of the stock developed a 20% dogleg downward during the time it was without the barrel in the channel.

I heated the barrel to about 200 degrees with a propane torch then heated the offending doglegged piece of wood with my heat gun with long quick strokes top and bottom until it became pliable. I put the barrel in the channel and gently pulled the forend into place. Once the wood was back into place I zip tied it to the barrel in a number of places while continually heating it and the barrel with my heat gun carefully so as to to not scorch the wood. When the wood and the barrel were at the "just can barely touch" stage in temperature I wrapped the whole deal with several old tee shirts to contain the heat and let things soak.  I left the wrapped barrel overnight, the next day I had a perfect fit that didn't spring back when I removed the barrel.

Proceed at your own risk.....

[Bigmon]

Thanks guys, Eric, you said "let the T shirts soak"  Did you wet them so as to make steam??
Brad

[Eric Krewson]

no, just to contain the heat.