Ontario Hunter
AH legend
Outward flexing of wood during recoil causes grain to pull apart and start cracking. Thinnest parts of the stock are bound to be at most risk of flexing. That's why we add crossbolts there. The areas around the magazine box and trigger are obviously the thinnest spots. Military rifles of relatively modest recoil were the first to adapt crossbolts ahead of the magazine box. Some early heavy thumper guns had simple pins across the area between box and trigger. Eventually it was determined that was not enough and dual crossbolts became the norm for heavy recoil rifles. Restricting flexing of wood in those areas meant that all the energy formerly absorbed there from flexing was transmitted intact to the next thin area of the stock, the wrist. Putting a bedded rod through the wrist helps conserve that energy for the much thicker comb and butt which are less likely to swell with recoil or succumb to swelling. The other option is to bed a metal rod across the grain in the wrist through the checkering (not very asthetic). Cracks typically start behind the tang on top. I'm sure you have noticed that heavy recoil rifles jump up, not down. Thus more of the recoil energy is transmitted to the top tang. I'm sure that's why most sources advocate drilling the hole for wrist rod down through the end of upper tang slot in the stock.
As to Larry Potterfield's video, I concluded he must have a MUCH steadier hand than me to manually keep an electric hand drill with extra long drill bit on track when drilling out the hole through wrist of very hard walnut stock. That's why I built a jig. If attempting to drill the hole freehand, I suggest first drilling a smaller diameter pilot hole with a short drill bit to start the 1/4" extra long drill bit.
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