Rough barn gun

lbothell · Jan 28, 2023

I’m getting mixed reviews here hahaha

oldwood · Jan 28, 2023

A friend had 10,000 board ft. of curly maple stored for about 15 yr.s in a cow shelter barn. Sure enough , the bottom layer of planks , about 16 planks , were slightly holed, w/ powder post beetle holes. The planks we planed and cut into stock blanks , and used them over the next years. Neither of us ever saw a bug , over a ten yr. period. Also, none of the precarved gunstock wood had any indication , there was a problem. One word of caution , never spray gunstock wood with insect poison , The guy working the wood into stocks , could be made sick from toxic bug spray. This happened to a wood worker running a gunstock copying machine..

wganz · Jan 28, 2023

deerstalkert said:
wood worms die with the temperature above 55*
also you can put the butt stock in a trash bag and give it a good squirt of starting fluid/ether, then tape the bag shut and let the little buggers huff that for a while.

Would vacuum bag the stock, cover with a black lawn sack, and hang in the summer sun for a couple of days work?
It getting up to +100F and in the direct sunlight and the black plastic keeping it hot should put the Kietus on them.

Inquiring minds and all,

deerstalkert · Jan 28, 2023

wganz said:
Would vacuum bag the stock, cover with a black lawn sack, and hang in the summer sun for a couple of days work?
It getting up to +100F and in the direct sunlight and the black plastic keeping it hot should put the Kietus on them.

Inquiring minds and all,

i would imagine that would work.
first it would be necessary to determine if there are active bugs.
when they are active you can hear them. they sound like someone crunching on a carrot.

Martin B. · Jan 29, 2023

Loocking at all these worm holes makes me question how bad the inside of the wrist area looks. That you cannot find out unless you cut into it. Being a professional cabinet maker, I have cut some wood over the years... I could come up with 2 solutions. One, shooting the gun with a proof loaf safely. If it does not break, kill the worms. We were taught that kiln drying will do that. So heat is a good one. Second, and you may get there by default is to use your old stock as a template and make a new stock. Make sure you get rid of the old stock soon after. You do not want to get the worm into your house. All the best!

1971fx · Jan 29, 2023

oldwood said:
Worm hole wood is one of my favorite stock woods , ever since I saw an original Lehigh Valley , Pa. rifle at Dixons ML Shop. Chuck Dixon and I discussed his wormy wood Lehigh Barn gun extensively.. It's a rare gun , and the holes , and longitudinal channels were never filled , and appear cleaned out of the saw dust. I have made guns from wormy ash , and maple. I prefer to clean out the dust , and fill the holes and channels , with black , or brown stained Epoxie , then sand off smooth. It's builders choice. ......oldwood

Original Brown Bess

Dr. Dirt · Jan 29, 2023

1971fx said:
Original Brown Bess

Worm holes in the original Brown Bess appear to be bored from the exterior of the long go finished stock. The barn find stock worm holes appear to be from before the wood was milled and then became apparent when the final shape emerged - worms could not burrow along wood surface. Like another poster, I would worry about worm holes in the wrist area causing weakness.

lbothell · Jan 29, 2023

I’ll be honest the more I’m looking at the stock the holes don’t go deep I can see the end of each one so not sure how they could still be there. Feeling a little better about that!

deerstalkert · Jan 29, 2023

lbothell said:
I’ll be honest the more I’m looking at the stock the holes don’t go deep I can see the end of each one so not sure how they could still be there. Feeling a little better about that!

if all are surface channels you are golden! certainly will be one of a kind!
we pay big money for figure in wood, those bug runs will be sure to attract attention.
i got to thinking (dangerous),about killing those bugs that might be alive. if there are any holes uncovered you could blast the hole with high pressure. likely to do bad things to a bug.
ps. please post progress, this has me enthralled.

Northwoodstrapper · Jan 29, 2023

If the wood that your stock came from was kiln dried it will be okay. Once the moisture comes down to 6-9% the heat in the kiln is turned up to close the cells and kill any bugs and larvae.

Oldbear63 · Jan 30, 2023

Heating the wood to about 150° F (about the temperature of a hot cup of coffee) will kill any and all eggs, larvae and adults present. Heating at about 200° F will also stabilize the wood and make it more insect resistant. Some woods are heat treated to about 210° F, which is about the temperature of kiln drying. Bagging the wood and using a hot hair dryer would probably be adequate.
(The author is a qualified entomologist and music instrument technician)

lbothell · Jan 30, 2023

deerstalkert said:
if all are surface channels you are golden! certainly will be one of a kind!
we pay big money for figure in wood, those bug runs will be sure to attract attention.
i got to thinking (dangerous),about killing those bugs that might be alive. if there are any holes uncovered you could blast the hole with high pressure. likely to do bad things to a bug.
ps. please post progress, this has me enthralled.

I will definitely do that! It’s definitely a neat piece of wood with some good curl, I rubbed a damp cloth on it and was pretty excited to see the curl but these big holes are going to look nice too! The stock came from TVM so I’m assuming it was done properly, but like I said all these holes are surface only snd none seem to go into the wood. Also no crunching sound that I could hear in the wood either

lbothell · Oct 30, 2024

Well this is an old post, but I received so much help with ideas to finish this gun figured I better post some pictures.. it turned out better then expected and I have yet to have an issue with any worms that made the holes I believe they are all gone. I like how it is a working man’s gun and I’m not afraid to use it, but yet it still has parts that really shine. Really shoots a patches round ball very well, 50 yrds no problem but I haven’t shot past that, thanks again for all the help and ideas it is much appreciated

PathfinderNC · Oct 30, 2024

I like it

Gtrubicon · Oct 30, 2024

That turned out great!

Stykbow · Oct 30, 2024

I like it! Definitely one of a kind.

Oldbear63 · Oct 30, 2024

If you were concerned about possible live wood worms you could heat the gun up to about 120° F for a half hour or so to kill any remaining larvae or eggs. That temperature shouldn't cause any damage and it would kill anything left alive.

IanH · Oct 30, 2024

That really did turn out well.

lbothell · Oct 31, 2024

Oldbear63 said:
If you were concerned about possible live wood worms you could heat the gun up to about 120° F for a half hour or so to kill any remaining larvae or eggs. That temperature shouldn't cause any damage and it would kill anything left alive.

Thank you for the idea I will definitely remember that if I do another stock with em in it. This one has sat for over a year with no new holes, sawdust etc… so I feel pretty confident they are not there BUT if that changes I will do the heat

Dusty_Traveler · Oct 31, 2024

GREAT SCOTT!!!! Turned that one into a fantastic piece you did! Great character!

Huzzah!!

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