My 9th grade daughter started using my wife's Benelli Super 90 Montefeltro for her school trap shooting team. My wife bought the gun new back in 2002 and never really used it.

Anyway, while my daughter was shooting a round last weekend, a chunk came out of the stock directly behind the receiver.

My plan was to buy a replacement and swap out the stock myself, but the pre-2005 version of the stocks are very hard to come by. I found one for $377 at Numerich, but that seems pretty steep.

I've also sent an email to Benelli customer service asking for repair/replacement authorization at my expense. It's been 5 days and no response from them.

I've attached a photo of the damage and hope it's not too far gone. I'm hoping someone here can point me in the direction of a quality stock repair business.

If you have the chunk, you can acraglass it back on after drilling a few holes to allow the glass to help anchor it. The acraglass should be dyed black with a few scrapings of candle black (soot) and mixed into the epoxy.

My dad would have just glued it back on and fixed it with an ugly brass screw.

My guess is it wasn't properly fitted to begin with. Give the gun to the daughter and $500.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
If you have the chunk, you can acraglass it back on

I wish I did...I noticed it after she returned home from the range. No clue where it went. Had it not been for a snow storm that night, I would've went back to look for it.

I had a Benelli Super 90 Montefeltro like this which was purchased around the same time frame. I had another parts breakage that required the gun be returned to the factory for repair and it took a year to get it back. When it did arrive, I immediately noticed that the stock had broken (in about the same place as yours) during shipping. I learned that this particular model of shotgun was no longer being produced, so rather than deal with the factory again, my dealer agreed to take the Benelli back and give me full credit towards a new Beretta A400 (they'd just hit the market). I've been very pleased with Beretta and that company's customer service since.

Sometime in 2005 the design of the receiver was changed so the trigger guard wasn't recessed into the stock. During my quest to find a pre-2005 stock, I've read several formum posts about broken stocks like mine.

I'm coming to terms with the fact that this poor Benelli is going to be out of service for quite a while...oh well, Browning has a $100 rebate for BT-99's if purchased for use in youth league.

First Acraglass is a great product and the kit comes packaged with black and brown die packs. The problem is finding it due to typical "supply shortage" issues. If you can find some buy the shop out. Because the day is coming when it will be listed on Gunbroker at 10 to 20 times it's retail price.

Second that stock can be repaired using Walnut from a wood working supply store either locally or on the Net. Basically you use a rasp and then a file to form a flat surface to bond a block of wood to the stock and clamp or rubber band it tightly in place. BTW the force generated by 20 or 50 rubber bands can be considerable. once the acraglass or plain old Epoxy has fully set you can then take a wood rasp and start shaving off all of the excess wood. Note you can also use a coping saw to remove a large chunk or 3 to get a lot of the roughing in done quickly. Just take car to not go too deep. Once you get close you can use finder half round files to start working toward the final profile and when it's close you change to sandpapers and work up to a 400 grit for the final shape in. Once it's all looking good you then fill in the finish with Trueoil one tiny drop at a time.

Third, if you don't want to take up furniture grade wood working you can take your stock to a local furniture or cabinet maker and pay them to repair the cost. At a guess it's about 3 hours of labor spread over 2 or 3 days. Trueoil is a very easy to use finish so I would suggest that you pick up a bottle and do the final finish yourself. The key with Trueoil is to place a small drop on the wood with a Tranfer Syringe (A over the counter pharmacy item) and then spread that drop as far as you can with your thumb. Plan on about 10-15 layers applied twice a day. Note Trueoil takes roughly 6-8 hours to dry if you put it on thin. So it will take about a week to do the finishing but one you see the result you'll understand why I suggest you avoid a furniture grade urethane finish.

4) The patch will be visible but you will have a good functional stock.

Final note, I think that 377 dollars for a NOS stock that is an exact fit is actually a bit of a bargain. After seeing the cause for this stock failure if you do purchase a new stock I would suggest having a good shotgun gunsmith properly fit this stock to your action. Basically the stock needs to be relieved around that trigger guard recess so there is room to slide a piece of paper between the stock and that trigger bulge.

Thank you for the very helpful info Scooter! I hadn't thought of a cabinet maker and I know of a couple that are local to me. I don't mind if the patch is visible, that's not a big deal. As long as it's functional, I'm good with it.