Laying out a stock pattern

[FrankG]

 A friend of mine ,Steve Zihn emailed these to me when I asked how he layed out a pattern. I had been going the difficult route before reverse engineering a rifle making patterns. This method sure simplifies things. You can also draw all this out on the blank if you want to I have ,both work very well.

Butcher wrap works very well !

1. Trace out your barrel on a large piece of paper.

2. Trace out the lock plate over the breach end of the barrel. Note that you will often have to tip the lock plate slightly downward in the back, so it will follow the line of the wrist later

3. Mark where the sear bar will go and make a pencil line downward at that point on the paper

4. Trace a line under the barrel 3/16" of an inch at both the muzzle and the breach. This is the top of your rod hole and channel, come down from that line 5/16, 3/8 or 7/16 to outline your rod. (depending on how big around your ramrod is going to be)

5. Come down about another 7/16" from the bottom of the rod tracing and draw in your bottom line of the hand rail section. It will be various lengths depending on what style of gun you are making. If for example, you are making a Lancaster/ York style rifle, you'd come forward from the breach about 11" + or - some, to look right for longer or shorter barrels.
At the end of your "hand rail" section, dogleg the line sharply up, and draw it right down the middle of the rod you drew. This long line will be the underside of your forestock. It is "cutting the rod in half" so that it makes a channel where the rod will rest.

6. Draw a line 3/16" over the top of the barrel to represent the line of sight (LOS).

7. Draw a line down from the Line of Sight (LOS) that will be as long as your Length of Pull. (The length of pull is the distance from the place on your trigger finger where you press the trigger, to the inside of your elbow joint when your arm is bent 90 degrees. ) Let's say it was 13 1/2" to illustrate. At this point, draw in all the lines of your butt stock, but make sure that butt will be 13 1/2" long. Trace the buttplate onto the paper, so the lines will come to the correct toe and heel of that buttplate. Next you will draw in the drop you want for your own gun, both at the heel and at the comb. Take your time with this, and get the shape you really want.

8 Draw a radiused line down from the top edge of the breach of the barrel to the center of the barrel, and then draw that line all the way out to the end of the barrel, so the line goes right down the middle of the barrel. This will be the top edge of your fore stock.
At this point take a red pen or pencil, and draw over the actual stock lines you have made. That way you don't confuse your eye later when you saw, and cut the wrong line.

9. Put glue on your stock blank and glue down this tracing. Be sure the top edge of the stock to straight. When the glue is dry (I use spray on adhesive like that used for counter tops) cut out your stock on a bandsaw. Go slow and make the cuts precise.

[bull frog]

Good post.  Articles like these are always a help.   Will give it a try......Bullfrog

[Ranger]

Great guide, Frank. I have some work ahead of me.