Fore end reinforcing

[frogwalking]

I am about 85% finished with a small hunting rifle for my grand daughter.  She is 17, so is probably her adult size.  The barrel is a little .40 cal. swamped Rice 31 inches long, with a small Siler flintlock.  The stock is a small fowler type, although I found a very small Lancaster buttplate on TOW that fit nicely.  I used pistol thimbles and nosecap, also from TOW.  Three keys hold the stock and barrel together, and of course, there are three ramrod thimbles.  ( I don't recommend these thimbles as they are soft soldered together RP-RH-PR-E-5-B.)   (12 3/4 inch LOP).

My question is this:  with three keys and three thimbles, the front key and thimble, and the center key and thimble are each quite close together (3/4"), since this rifle is a hunter, and no attempt has been made to conform to any school , should I drill for and glue in a cross pin of maple or hickory maybe 9/32 diameter between the two sets of linear slots for the aforementioned furniture?  This would be to minimize the chance of a linear crack forming as the web between barrel and ramrod groove is very thin.  (The nose cap is epoxied on, so the crack should not propagate in this direction.

These little guns have challenges not encountered in a regular sized one.

[rich pierce]

There is really no strain on the fore end.  It just clings to the barrel.  It doesn't do any work.  I'd not worry.

[Ric27]

I second what Rich said. The forestock is there to hold the ramrod, that's it. That is all the work it does. You may be worrying about the wood spiting from expansion/contraction. I might happen but not likely. If it does you can practice your restoration skills then instead doing a bunch of unnecessary work now.
Ric

[frogwalking]

Thanks folks.  I have fore and aft slop in the keys so expansion/contraction should not be an issue.  I have a 20 gauge pistol with no nose cap and a thin web crack near the muzzle.  A little epoxy fixed it and since then, no issues.  If it had a fore end cap it would not have cracked, and I will add one if there more problems.

[M. E. Pering]

I agree with Rich and Ric on this... There is virtually no stress in this area, and there should be no problems there.  However, since you know the customer, you can always ask to inspect the rifle, I hope.  If a problem were to develop, you could always use the fix you mentioned.

Matt

[Mark Elliott]

From my experience in working on old guns, it is a barrel inlet that is too tight that causes the forearm to split.   It doesn't require much wood to pin the forearm to the barrel or a thimble to the forearm.  I think you are worrying about the wrong thing.