starting to see your point about pre-carves

[Joe S.]

filed down tang to match hooked breech and started fitting it into stock.Squared the end of barrel channel and am noticing that a little oops on their part or mine could make  things interesting.To much cutting on either part could mean a gap in the lock plate or rear of tang or the touch hole being to far forward.Worse case scenario I'd be taking the tang to the anvil for a little stretching.Really liking this project and still asking myself why  didn't you do this sooner........

[greybeard]

I would never consider a precarve  with the lock inletted. I prefer to do the lock inlet after the barrel is inletted and pinned to the stock.
        Bob

[KLMoors]

Yup.

[Joe S.]

exactly my point, no room for error. My next build I would go a different route,a little more wiggle room.

[Turtle]

 I built a gun with a stock the customer supplied that had the lock already inlet. No way I could get the touchhole anywhere near where it should be. he had a terrible time with the supplier to get the stock replaced. Learned a lesson-never again.
                                                             Turtle

[Pete G.]

The lock should ALWAYS be fit to the inlet first on these things, then the barrel set to where it needs to be in relation to the lock. Most pre-carves seem to leave a lot of wood to be removed on the sides but are usually pretty close in profile, leaving less room for corrections.

[Joe S.]

theres the problem,the lock doesn't have much wiggle room.After squaring up the rear of the barrel channel the barrel still needed to go back farther as not to end up with a gap in the rear of the tang.Things appear to be OK but was worried about the touch hole being to far forward.Like I said before if I was going to end up with a gap I would have it in the rear of the tang,I could pound it out a little and gain the little metal needed to tighten it up.Things should be fine.