Best if you can get wood bleach into the cracked area first. Over the years a lot of oil gets down by the tang from the rifle standing in a rack. Nothing adheres to oily wood. Pretty much what takes the load on the stock should be the two "Wings" on the front of the stock, and MAYBE the lower tang area. Where the upper tang contacts the stock, there should actually be a small gap between the stock and the back of the tang. I don't know what a "Small gap" means in measurement. You may have the wrong model stock. It is a delicate area and one of the flaws in a truly great designed lever action. A lot of these cracked areas came from trying to remove a stock with the wrong screwdriver set up (I won't ask). I have a special driver I made up. It sounds half @##$#, but an old tire iron also works great to assemble/disassemble the stock. It is fat enough so that you cannot slip off and get wedged between the stock and bolt head. Anyway, good luck with it.