I keep asking questions, and swear that I will answer some someday too. I picked up a Rossi 92 in 454 Casull recently. Other than feeding issues and a gritty action, the biggest criticism of these carbines is that the stock splits under heavy recoil. It seems that Rossi made some efforts to correct that by placing a plastic insert into the stock on later models. Mine does not have that insert, but I am thinking about adding one. I plan to "JB Weld bed" the receiver soon and would like to add the insert beforehand.
I am planning to stick with plastic. The stock screw is tapered, so the easiest way I can think to make a close fit with the insert would be to drill it out a little small, heat the screw up and jam into place, melting out the offending plastic as it goes. I could also try to replace the screw with a non-tapered one, and get a plastic spacer from McMaster-Carr that would be a close fit. If I did it that way, I could even replace the plastic with aluminum or brass for greater strength.
I would like to know if anyone else has tried this. Of course, I also hear that the forearm splits as much or even more than the buttstock. How does one glassbed that? Do the 'smiths actually bore out the entirety and fill it with epoxy around the mag tube? Would widening the barrel band screw-hole through the wood part help? Is there any way to tell if mine has the threaded in mag. tube that is supposed to be less prone to splitting the forearm?
