Mike, W'by also has problems with stocks splitting. They had to add glassed in cross pins in the wood behind the recoil lug. Their stock design is horribly weak in the wrist resulting in many cracks. They fixed this by adding a 5/16" steel pin about 4" long glassed into the wrist. This allowed them to use poorly laid out (but pretty) wood that was weak in the wrist. Unfortuneately, if you 1) Forget to add the pin; and 2) Don't check for not putting in the pin, and 3) have a poorly laid out piece of wood, and if Saco who makes the metal also doesn't check for the missing pin; the following results. In 1997, their wood was cut and finished in Italy and shipped to W'by for inspection. The inspection was for blemishes only and missed the fact that the hole for the pin was drilled but the pin was not installed. The wood was absolutely perfectly wrong in the wrist. Wood has only 5%-10% of full strength with cut against the angle. In addition, there was a raised metal star with the rear forming a wedge on the rear of the floorplate where the rear screw goes through. This wedge kept beating against the wood until a crack started. It lasted long enough to sight in. When the new owner pulled the trigger on a buck from a tree blind in Texas, the stock split in two at the wrist and the scope hurtled back into his nose and LEFT eye rendering him unconscious for 5 hours and resulting in brain damage. Big lawsuit. I now always check new W'bys for the pin. The older guns do not have the pin, but have better grain flow. It is a good idea to add that pin to older guns anyways. The cross pins, too.

On Mausers and other guns, it is a good idea to glass in the steel cylinder that the rear tang screw enters. This adds strength.