Unless you have a plug cutter to cut plugs across the grain, the sling hole repair will show. I usually elongate the holes and fit an oval shaped plug that I cut from walnut that matches the grain. A perfectly round hole is tough to hide, but an elongated irregular shape blends in better.

While Marlinguy's method certainly works and and a grain-faced plug is absolutely necessary, I've found that irregular-shaped plugs work best of all.

However, in this case, a tapered round plug in a matching tapered hole should work well enough.  The tricks are that edges of the hole are sharp while the top of your plug is just oh-so-slightly bigger than your hole.  Apply the glue to the hole rather than the plug, orient the plug, and tap it - gently - into place.  After the plug's been trimmed off, it should only be noticeable at very close inspection.  If you want to hide it further before touching up the finish, a needle-pointed x-acto knife and the finest-tipped permanent ink pens that your art supply store sells can make the grain seem to flow over the join almost perfectly.

But however you do it, remember that casual eyes tend to see what they expect to see.  So as long as your plug fits tightly and the grain and color match, the repair will meet with approval.

Bill Lawrence

Good detective work, Redsetter; I'd forgotten about "butt rests".  But playing devil's advocate, wouldn't it have left some marks on the stock?

Bill Lawrence

Bill Lawrence wrote on Aug 15^th, 2018 at 8:03pm:


No idea--only seen them in old photos. Maybe something like a leather washer was used between the metal cross-piece & the wood. But aside from the unavoidable loss of CC on the rcvr., this gun has been VERY well cared for.

Not to disparage Stevens work, but some over runs on the checkering aren't that surprising from the ones I've seen.

Well, after a few delays I finally got out to the range today to test fire a few rounds through the .32-40 Stevens.  A bit of a tricky rear sight and the adjustments are extremely fine and not very well marked for old eyes.  It took me quite a few rounds to finally get it onto the target and then some very fine "guestimation" adjustments to get it shooting into the centre of the target.  In all I fired about 50 rounds at 100 yards just getting used to the gun, the sights, and the trigger.  That trigger is absolutely feather light!  I've shot lots of guns with set triggers before, but this one makes sure that you are REALLY paying attention.  I'm not complaining at all, you just have to make sure you keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.  My choice of targets wasn't the best either as the front globe insert almost covers the entire outer black ring at 100 yards, so I'll try some different targets next time.
One of the other club members was at the range today and he was hosting his massage therapist and her 11 year old son to a day of shooting.  She had shot a little bit before, but it was her son's very first day behind the trigger of a rifle.  After he had a bit of practice with a .22 rimfire we let him fire about 5 rounds out of my Stevens.  He loved it and was very excited about it all.  The best part was that even at 11 years of age he was a real little gentleman, paid attention, did as he was told, and thanked us afterwards with a handshake.  Nice to see at least one of the younger generation who is growing up right ...

Here are the last 10 rounds of the day.  Pulled one high (there always has to be one flyer doesn't there?) and the vertical stringing on the rest of them is likely just me with a hazy sight picture.

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Bullets may be tipping, but this kind of stringing is also one of the usual symptoms of inconsistent velocity and/or a bedding problem with the forearm. 

Beautiful Rifle!

JLouis