Dropped rifle from the deerstand

[Ward1987]

Was a fun opening weekend deer hunting in MN, though one downer was that my brother's rifle fell out of his ladder stand, causing a surprising amount of damage (IMO at least). The stand is probably 12ft up, at the edge of a swamp (fairly soft ground) and it didn't hit anything on the way down. Ended up breaking the butt stock and even bent the barrel a little. The rifle is a Mark V Ultralightweight, so it's a thin barrel and light stock, but I'm pretty surprised, looks like someone ran it over with a fourwheeler. The good news is it wasn't him that fell, the gun can be fixed.

I guess I always thought of these fiberglass stocks as pretty tough, but this has me thinking of looking at something else to fix this thing and maybe a thicker barrel. Not that we plan on chucking guns outta deerstands, but I feel like it should take a little more than that to mess up a gun this much. Any thoughts?

 

[EastHumboldt]

Usually, super light does not equal super strong. I’ll be interested to hear how the barrel turns out if you get it fixed. Seems like it would be hard to ever get it rreally straight again. Now I’m going to Google” barrel straightening”.

 

[kpk]

That's pretty surprising. I once had my bow rope break as soon as I started lowering it to the ground. It must've fallen about 20 feet and landed directly on the stabilizer and sight. Other than cleaning the mud out of the spot-hogg there was no damage at all.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

I’m not really surprised the stock broke, but a bent barrel from a 12’ fall is pretty hard to do. Are you sure it’s bent? If so how are you determining that.

If it was hard enough to bend the barrel then there’s no way I would rebarrel that rifle. There’s a good chance that there’s stress fractures in the action with that kind of leverage required to bend a barrel. You could have it inspected (not by your local gunsmith) but the cost of that plus stock and rebarreling will exceed the cost of the rifle.

 

[Ward1987]

You can and lots of people do rebarrel after a bent barrel. Typically these thin #1 or #2 barrels, especially fluted aren't all that hard to bend. That said, still really surprises me. Looking down the bore it looks fine, but you can pick up an ever so slight bend looking down the length of the outside.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

You can and lots of people do rebarrel after a bent barrel. Typically these thin #1 or #2 barrels, especially fluted aren't all that hard to bend. That said, still really surprises me. Looking down the bore it looks fine, but you can pick up an ever so slight bend looking down the length of the outside.

Lots of people go to used tire shops and buy tires that are worn out too, doesn’t mean something is a good idea just because there’s some dumb people that do it.

I have a hard time believing it’s bent, especially from looking down the side of a contoured barrel. The bore is a much better means of eyeballing a bent barrel. It takes a shitload of pressure to bend a barrel, even a thin fluted sported barrel.

 

[three5x5s]

I gota know, did the scope hold zero ?

 

[Ward1987]

Ha, my guess is it'll hit about 10inches right by looking at the barrel

 

[hflier]

A year or two ago they found a guy dead in Oklahoma because of this. Dropped his rifle and it discharged and killed him in his stand.


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[S-3 ranch]

I had a hired hand , forget about some rifles in a rifle rack and ran over them
with a suburban, bent the barrels and broke the stocks , running them forever

 

[rayporter]

i would shoot it before i put a new barrel on--it may have been like that for a while.

if it looks straight looking down the bore i bet it will shoot ok.

let us know the outcome.

 

[huntsman22]

A dab or two of epoxy and it'll be good as new......

 

[wyosteve]

On my Rem. 11-87 waterfowl gun, I intentionally bent the barrel to make it hit dead on at 40 yds. with steel shot. Put it in the receiver hitch and gave it a good hoist! Has shot great like that for 25 years!

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

Relevant

 

[GAHunterJim]

Contact Weatherby, see how they respond, they are a good company, maybe they can help.

 

[BCsteve]

Contact Weatherby, see how they respond, they are a good company, maybe they can help.

I’d check with them first too. Worst they can say is tuff luck!

 

[Ward1987]

Yeah, my brother is going to get in contact with Weatherby. Between him and my parents there are 4 Mark V's in the family and have been really happy with all of them, and have heard good things about their customer service. I recently bought my mom a Camilla in 6.5CM that shoots absolutely lights out, let alone for a ultra light gun with a thin barrel.

But I do think the barrel is a little tweaked, the chip on the forend lines up right with how it appears bent and where the barrel would've contacted the stock. Mainly surprised though in how badly the stock held up, think those came with a bell and carlson? It must have landed just right to put the maximum amount of force into the thing.

 

[GAHunterJim]

Yeah, my brother is going to get in contact with Weatherby. Between him and my parents there are 4 Mark V's in the family and have been really happy with all of them, and have heard good things about their customer service. I recently bought my mom a Camilla in 6.5CM that shoots absolutely lights out, let alone for a ultra light gun with a thin barrel.

But I do think the barrel is a little tweaked, the chip on the forend lines up right with how it appears bent and where the barrel would've contacted the stock. Mainly surprised though in how badly the stock held up, think those came with a bell and carlson? It must have landed just right to put the maximum amount of force into the thing.

They post a lot on FB, they have a pretty high profile, I'm sure they don't want to let anyone down. Put them in the position to say no! I really do think they can help.

 

[dieselchessy]

I bought a Bell and Carlson stock for one of my kids rifles (Alaskan Sporter is the model). I modified it quite a bit to add magpul bottom plastic and magazine. The entire stock is that type of odd plastic foam with fiberglass fibers in it. Looks like they added glass fibers to some pretty dense pour foam. Its not very strong at all.
My kids stock warped because he put it too close to the stove in the tent to dry. I used a heat gun to heat it up and reshape it. Once hot it was like a wet noodle. Not even very hot, like your car dash gets hotter on a sunny day.
I'm not surprised that one broke like that from a 12 foot fall.

 

[Ward1987]

I bought a Bell and Carlson stock for one of my kids rifles (Alaskan Sporter is the model). I modified it quite a bit to add magpul bottom plastic and magazine. The entire stock is that type of odd plastic foam with fiberglass fibers in it. Looks like they added glass fibers to some pretty dense pour foam. Its not very strong at all.
My kids stock warped because he put it too close to the stove in the tent to dry. I used a heat gun to heat it up and reshape it. Once hot it was like a wet noodle. Not even very hot, like your car dash gets hotter on a sunny day.
I'm not surprised that one broke like that from a 12 foot fall.

This is exactly what I was hoping someone would chime in with. And yeah, the whole thing looked pretty weak, I was expecting the outer shell to be a thin layer of fiberglass of something, but it looks like a hard paint that's coated over foam/fiber stuff. My dads old Mark V 300 Wby (1980's fibermark I think) took a ride on the fourwheeler when he rolled it trying to get an elk out in Idaho in the 90's, ended up bending the barrel (he had it straightened) but the stock it was completely fine.