Its Done !

[Tim Ault]

I just finished up my buttplate and now I'm gonna move on to the toe plate. The way I am planning to set this combo up is the bottom of the buttplate is gonna wrap around onto/ over the toe plate for the first half inch or so. Normally is the toe plate inlet flush with the wood or does it just mount right on the surface ?

Thanks,Tim

[mongrel]

Toeplates are normally inletted flush with the wood.

[Tim Ault]

thanks, I just finished this up this morning after spending quite a few hours with a hammer and files. Im glad I had this to tinker around with its been a real help taking my mind of of loosing my friend and co worker this past monday .

[flintboomer]

Looks good. 

[Tim Ault]

I got the barrel in and the lock all in . This was a pre inlet stock so after I sanded down the extra wood heres what I got to work with. Now Ive seen some pictures of guns with beaver tails flowing from the tail of the lock and also a simple point form. judging from my poor quality picture what would you all recomend would look good. the rifle is gonna be a nothing fancy working mans Lancaster style .

Thanks,Tim

[mongrel]

Beavertails can be a pain to do and do right. Consider that you're working with the grain, across the grain, and against the grain, carving them out, and they need to match as perfectly as possible. They're one of the numerous small details that have caused me to stick to building plain guns only -- I can do them and do them well but I find them time-consuming and aggravating not only to shape but to sand. If you decide to go for it, keep your cutting tools sharp and take your time, paying VERY close attention to what the wood is trying to tell you as you cut.

A piece of advice written a long time back, in "Muzzle Blasts", that is pretty much posted in my mind -- it's far more satisfying to do a good job of a simple gun than to do a so-so job of a fancier one. Early on in my building I was determined to include every trick, bell, and whistle on my guns, and the results of a couple of details that didn't turn out cause me to recall a line from the movie "The Wild Bunch", in which a railroad manager is reaming an employee a new one: "I don't CARE what you MEANT to do! It's what you DID that I don't like!"

However, the nice thing about details like beavertails and relief carving is that, as long as you don't get too carried away as to how deep you cut and gouge while trying to shape things -- if they don't turn out well they can simply be removed, since done properly they're raised UP from the wood rather than cut down into it.

[Tim Ault]

Getting ready to cut the dovetails for the barrel lugs/ tenons I am going to put three on equally spaced one question I have is how far from the muzzle should the first one be?

Thanks,Tim

[mongrel]

There is no set dimension -- I place that lug about 3" back from the muzzle. This keeps it well away from the area that slims down to the nosecap.

I usually will locate the rear lug about 9" from the breech of the barrel, then center the remaining lug between front and rear -- but this can vary somewhat according to barrel length and the placement of the ramrod pipes. Sometimes it's desireable that the rear lug is much nearer the breech of the barrel and the center one shifts in relation to it.

The location of the entry ramrod pipe is pretty much determined by where the rearmost, thickest portion of the forend terminates. Most new builders tend to place the uppermost pipe too far forward, too near the muzzle. I like the end of that pipe to be a good 6" from the muzzle and sometimes more. Once again, as with the forward and rear lugs, the placement of the forward and entry ramrod pipes determines where the center one is going to be situated.

The reason this is important in relation to the barrel lugs is that iit's surprisingly easy to wind up with the middle lug and middle ramrod pipe crowding one another, and since the ramrod pipes show much more than the pins holding the barrel to the stock, it's important that their location be established and please your sense of proportion at the same time you locate the lugs. If one thing or another needs to be shifted somewhat it ideally ought to be the lugs.

[flintboomer]

One other consideration:
If you ever need/want to shorten and recrown due to wear or simply want to shorten the piece due to loss of arm strength or other health changes the placement of hardware and sights will affect any cutting you are able to do.

[Tim Ault]

Again many thanks , I got them cut in  and lugs set in place and filed off nice and smooth . Gonna cut the slots in the wood tonight if I get enough time after painting the kids room .   Why can't the painting be as much fun as building this rifle!   

[Dogshirt]

If it were fun, everybody would be doing it!

[Tim Ault]

Ok I'm almost done bing a pain in the rear for these questions !  I cut the slots for the thimbles and have them in place for the most part my question is how deep do I set them in the channel ? Should the ID of the thimble be flush with the bottom if the RR channel like I'm thinking it should so the rod is fully in the channel ?

Thanks again , Tim

[mongrel]

You have it right.

Watch the grain of the wood, cutting the inlets for the thimbles. It's MUCH easier than you would imagine to end up with one end of a thimble sitting too deeply in the groove. This can be fixed with a filler patch of either epoxy or a tiny bit of wood (of which you likely have plenty from working the stock) and it won't show, but it's easiest and best to try to avoid the grain direction of the forend causing excess wood removal.

Before drilling for the thimble retaining pins, use a clamp of some sort to anchor the thimbles in their grooves and then verify that your ramrod will slide freely through them. If it won't, you will need to patch in some thin bits of wood or an epoxy bed so that the thimbles don't sit so deeply in their grooves. If they're not fully-seated in their grooves, when the ramrod is removed they will wobble slightly, which will torment you from now till Doomsday -- and it's hard to change the depth of their inletting after they and the forend have been drilled.

[gunmaker]

What mike says.  On long pipes say over 1 1/4" I use 2 1/16" or 5/64" pins in each one to stop the wobblies.  Sometimes if the pipes are thick enough I  drill & tap 'em & screw them in from bbl. chn'l.  6-40 thd.  Less holes in forearm that a way. Where are the Pic's     ....Tom

[Tim Ault]

What mike says.  On long pipes say over 1 1/4" I use 2 1/16" or 5/64" pins in each one to stop the wobblies.  Sometimes if the pipes are thick enough I  drill & tap 'em & screw them in from bbl. chn'l.  6-40 thd.  Less holes in forearm that a way. Where are the Pic's     ....Tom

Well I got two of them in. still cant decide if I want to use the wrong skirted entry thimble I ordered, needed 5/16 but ended up with a 3/8 I could sleeve it to make it work but it might look odd?   just go plain with it and use none ? or fit a thimble unskirted and make it slightly shorter?    Tom I got pictures taken I bolted it all back together just for you and took a few this afternoon. My laptop has no way to size them so I'll have to re send them from my phone at a smaller size as each one was over 1 MB  .  But ya have to promise not to point and giggle at my first debacle.