[Dave Bulla]

If it wasn't for the missing piece it would be easy. What did you do with all the pieces of the butt plate that broke off? More than likely of you swept them up the piece you need is there. I'd be digging through the trash bag until I found it if it was me. Heck, if it happened in your garage or shop is there any chance you haven't swept up yet and it's still on the floor?

It may sound like a crazy point and too much work or too gross but finding that missing sliver really is the only way you will get any sort of repair results you will be satisfied with.

Short of finding the missing piece, there are about two or three options. One is to use a mix of sawdust and glue to fill it in but it will probably still show quite a lot. Best match will be if you sand your stock and use the sawdust from it. You could sand the whole stock down till its gone but it would take a good eye to retain the proper cross section shape without getting a big flat spot or non symmetrical shape. Last would be to fit another piece of wood into the stock but to do that right you need to match not only the color of the wood but the grain and texture and get it all lined up just right. Looking through the trash starts to look more logical at this point....

Good luck!

 

[Dave Bulla]

What Sullivan just posted were my thoughts. Generally, any split or break of a piece of wood will have rough surfaces that interlock. There should be no need for dowels. If you just feel the need to reinforce the area, go ahead and do a proper glue up as already described by several others and clamp securely until cured THEN with clamps still in place, you could run a drill bit about 1/4" in diameter up through where the crack was just like you did for the glue flow holes then glue in a piece of dowel. I really don't think there is any need though.

To give you an idea of the strength of wood glue, years ago I started shooting wood bows and arrows. Due to being a knuckle dragging honorary member of the silveback gorilla club I had difficulty getting wood arrow blanks long enough for my draw. I began splicing my arrows to add length using a simple straight tapered splice about 4 inches long. Picture two dowels cut on a bevel and then the two pieces glued together along that diagonal cut. All I used was Elmers tight bond 3 glue which is supposed to be more water proof than tight bond 2. I'd coat both pieces evenly with glue. [Always paint glue on both pieces thinly rather than putting on one piece thickly.] Then I'd lay the splice together, wrap with thread and set aside to dry. In a day or three, I'd peel off the thread, sand the shaft true and build my arrows. Long story longer, one day I decided to "test" the strength of my splice by deliberately shooting an arrow into a rock wall from about ten yards. When I did, naturally the point broke off but surprisingly to me, the splice held. This was with a 700+ grain arrow moving at about 190 fps. Since the splice started about 1.5" back from the tip that had broken off, I decided to shoot the same arrow into the wall again without even a point on it. Just the busted end of the wood shaft. This time, splinters flew. I looked the arrow over and found that about an inch of the wood at the front had been simply pulverize but again, the glue joint held! . Finally I shot it a third time and the arrow split long ways with the grain. The split ran through the splice but not along the glue line. I was and still am totally convinced that a good glue joint really IS stronger than the wood. Realize too that this was just cheap Elmers wood glue. The good epoxies should work even better. That little piece of wood you need to glue back in place will never see nearly the stain that my arrow did so I'm sure it will be just fine. Also realize that in the case of my arrow splices, the joint was two SMOOTH pieces of wood! There was zero mechanical bond. Your repair chunk with the grain texture that locks back together will be much stronger. Your main concern won't be the strength of the glue joint but rather how well you can hide the glue line. Making dead sure your pieces align perfectly then using proper clamping pressure to force some but NOT ALL of the glue out of the joint will ensure a minimal glue line. From there on out is just detail work.

 

[Dave Bulla]

I understand not wanting to strip the whole stock but odds are it will be easier than trying to just spot repair.

Once you get your next piece spliced in and filed down to the shape you want, (if it were mine) I'd go ahead and strip the whole thing and wipe it with a coat of mineral spirits. That will "wet" the wood and make it look pretty much like what it would after some clear coat was applied. You'll be able to tell a lot at that time as far as how well things match and you might try playing around with a fine artist brush and some stain to try your hand at painting in wood grain or hiding glue lines. If you don't like the results, sand 'em off and try something else. You might be good enough to go straight to clear, you might do the paintbrush/wood grain thing or you might just go with a uniform coat of the stain of your choice. I personally like walnut with minimal or no stain but in this case, it's more about camouflaging a repair than changing the general color of the wood.

A tip on the mineral spirits, price check both the baby sized cans and the gallon. It's been my experience that it's well worth buying a gallon. The price per ounce is way less, it never goes bad and you will probably find a lot of other uses for it around the garage/shop.

 

[Dave Bulla]

Surely someone here has a piece of Walnut or a broken stock that could spare a sliver for this project? Heck, I might have s piece laying around myself. If I can find I'd gladly send you a piece big enough to do what you need to do.