Questions, round barrels, transaction been the barrel breech and stock.

[Rolf]

Not happy with my caving designs for the tang area in front of the cheek  piece on the Beck rifle I'm working on. So I decided to take a break and start looking at the large bore dragoons .  Runar made the barrels and they are the same as the one he used for his pistol. I got a really nice piece of curly english walnut from Dunlop this weekend. I 've started taking a closer look at the stock shape.

The barrels are round with no flats.

1.Please, could anyone post pictures showing the breech end with a stock inletted for a round barrel?

2,Should I file a flat where the lock bolster meets the barrel? If so, how do I get it parallel to the stock side? Do I file the flat after the barrel is inlet? Should I file a flat on both sides of the barrel?

Best regards
Rolf

[Don Getz]

Rolf........I think I would only file a flat on the lock side.  Good example would be to look at a Brown Bess, I think they had the
flat only on the lock side.  I think I would only be concerned about the flat being big enough so that the pan and frizzen were
tight against the flat..........Don

[Keb]

I've done them like D. Getz suggested. I inlet everything and pin the barrel. Then mark where the bolster hits the barrel and file a flat the size of the bolster. This will leave a step on the barrel but that's OK, IMHO. Now you only have to inlet the lock a bit deeper. I'm sure there are other "preferred" ways but this is how I do it.

[Acer Saccharum]

Rolf, round barrels are often given side flats so that they can be inlet straight down into the breech wood.

See the wedding bands at the breech are not carried around the sides of the barrel? There is a flat that is filed on this side so the barrel can drop straight down in. The lock side has a flat filed so the lock bolster can mate up to the barrel without gaps.

[Dave B]

You need to file the flat befor you inlet the barrel other wise you leave a gap in the wood if the lock fence for the pan is flush with the breach. Here is an original Sea service pistol with the flat spot on the barrel showing.






This last shot is from an English trade musket barrel that is round for the most part the only flats on the barrel are where the lock sits against it and the back side of the breach opposite the lock. This is the only photo I have of this particular barrel from the auction photos. I lost the auction for it.

[whetrock]

Here is an old brass barrel with a short flat.
You might also note the low-slung touch hole. This position is lower than the position on Dave B's pistol. The position of the hole needs to be part of your overall planning.



Here are two photos of round fowler barrels. Short flats were filed on some surfaces, but not all the way around. And the one on the right doesn’t have a flat on the left side of the breech.


You do need to give a little thought to how filing a flat into the breech may affect the strength of the breech. As these last photos showed, these fowler barrels had plenty of material in the breech. So we can assume that filing a flat did not weaken the breech in any significant way on these barrels.

If a fellow was using a barrel that didn't have enough material to allow filing a flat, then I supposed he could solder on some material below the mid-line of the barrel if necessary, so as to build up material for a flat. But I have no experience with that.

[whitebear]

An original 3rd model Brown Bess that I used to own had a flat filed on the lock side if the barrel.  I measured the difference in the barrel thickness on the lock side and on the off side and there were only a few .000 difference in the two measurements.  Unless you have an extremely thin barrel you shouldn't have any problem, It's not like you are taking half the thickness of the barrel away in that area.

[Rolf]

Thank you for the pictures and replies. Think I'll go with the brown Bess option and only file a flat on the lock side.

Best regards
Rolf