Years...ago I put a laminate thumbhole stock on my 870. When i took the original walnut stock off the gun, obviously the bearing plate came off right after. When i fit the laminate stock to the receiver with the bearing plate i couldn't help but notice the excessive gap. At the time i knew nothing of the purpose of the bearing plate, as i said this was years ago. I fit my old stock back up with the bearing plate and noticed essentially no gap maybe a paper thin one but it was obvious it worked well with the bearing plate installed compared to the laminate which was pushing almost 1/8" gap....so i installed the laminated stock without the bearing plate. Ive hunted with this gun for years with no bearing plate. The stock has never split on me...however if im hard on the gun and bump the stock on trees a good bit or knock it over a lot during the season the stock will ever so slightly loosen up. this has happened every year since the first year it was installed. I always just simply kept an allen wrench and snugged it. Eventually i even put some blue Loctite on it assuming between recoil and bumping it around the bolt may have been backing out. Well eventually i realized that the purpose of that bearing plate all this time was to prevent stock splitting possibly even the loosening issue which really isn't a big issue because if i notice it i simply snug it up. At this point in the game being that my stock isn't damaged yet that i can see, should i go ahead and reinstall the bearing plate??? OR....do you think over the years and the recoil ive probably warped and strained the stock to the point of no return and just keep shooting it until it splits.? Might seem like a dumb question....had the gap not been so large when i originally installed this stock i probably wouldn't have thought twice about installing it. I guess i could have sanded the stock and made the fit a little better but i was basically a kid at the time, and never even considered it. Also ....is there a possibility that thinner bearing plates for 870s vs the stock thickness actually exist. Any help would be appreciated
