I posted a thread asking about restoring stocks and received a lot of great information, but mainly on refinishing. I have some target stocks coming that the pictures show missing wood. I'm putting these on shooters, I like the factory target stocks and they fit my hand very well. What do I use to fill the chips and gouges before refinishing the wood.

You can create some filings of a same kind of wood as close to dust as possible and mix with a little glue to make a paste and use that to fill in the chip marks. Let it harden couple days before attempting to file down.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I have done as HRichard suggests and have found it to work fine except that it will not stain very well. I have some stocks on a K38 that had a sizeable chip out of the toe. I sanded the stock flat in the area of wood loss and glued in a piece of similar walnut wood. When it was dressed down to proper shape it was then stained and it cannot be detected as repaired. Don't know if this is practical with very small areas of wood loss so HRichard's method would probably work better in those situations. Ron

well chips are hard to fix without being seen...BibleronKJV is correct...if u are able to glue a larger piece in and blend it with sanding...it will be like a invisible repair...the trick is not to over work it...i have repaired stocks and grips and what i find myself doing too much...one way to tell if it is to your liking...use some mineral spirits or water...and also try to find grain that matches the area u are working on...H Richard's method for smaller stuff is spot on..but i find that is u use good glue it might not take stain well either...i find that Titebond work well..and i find myself using that glue with just about every wood repair now...some pics of what u are dealing with will help too...how big is a area are we talking about?...and where is the damage?....God Bless,John

It's not easy. Small chips or dents can be filled in with a mixture of sawdust and Super Glue, the sawdust coming from wood of similar type and color, then shaped. Larger areas of missing wood must be filled by gluing larger wood pieces in place, then shaping to the correct profile. Even though some craftsmen are pretty good at such match-up work, it can nearly always be seen. I once had a pair of Colt Gen 1 full checkered target grips restored that way. The damage was so bad it was difficult to imagine that repair was even possible, yet when I got them back, they looked much like new. Except when you looked at them closely, the repaired areas were evident, especially when viewed from the back side. I still liked them, as they did look good.

Super glue will always show as a shiny spot, especially when finished over. A better glue is Duco Cement a rubber based product that can also be stained, unlike SG.
Available at the hardware store.

My best results came with Brownell's Acraglas , left over from a rifle stock bedding project. I just mixed up the epoxy , no fiberglass , and matched the walnut grips color with the brown tint that comes with the kit.
Did a beautiful repair and matched the walnut color perfectly.
Gary

So do I, but you have to be very careful in filling larger areas. It is relatively slow to cure and can run away unless confined. I sometimes use putty, and I have used chewing gum. And it also can look glossy when it cures. You can roughen it a little with fine sandpaper to blend in better. As it has no grain, the filled area will stand out sometimes.