New build idea

[Scota4570]

I am ready to start a Kunz half stock flint lock.  I want to be able to take the barrel out of the stock for cleaning.  I was brainstorming a hooked breech idea.  Why not eliminate the sides of the tang mortice?  That would simplify making it.  It would look like a regular tang from the outside.  I don't see how having the tang shaped like an extension of the barrel is necessary. 

Does my idea have merit?

[Elnathan]

Not that I have any idea what I am talking about, but it seems like it has the potential to shift around under recoil and as the wood moves. Not something likely to be good for accuracy.

[smart dog]

Hi Scot,
I do not think it will work very well.  A hook needs to fit snugly into the standing breech so there is no chance that it moves around during recoil and that it always remains in the same place in the stock. To accomplish that, there will almost always be some leverage upward applied to the standing breech as you remove and install the barrel. To keep the breech from lifting up, original standing breeches had either a lug on the bottom for a cross pin through the stock or a threaded hole for a bolt that came up under the trigger guard.  With your design, you would really need 2 tang screws to keep the tang in place as you remove or install a barrel.  One screw would have to be near the barrel breech to keep it snugly down. 

dave

[Scota4570]

I planned on two screws in the tang.

I have noticed that many of the mass market guns have sloppy tang fits.  I have also made them shoot well by glass bedding. 

For my project I would fit the tang and barrel properly so the fit is snug.

The comments made me think.  How about a vertically oriented and tapered pin instead of a 2-dimensional nub on the breech plug-tang interface.  That would eliminate side-side slop. 

[Davemuzz]

I think (and my thoughts and $1.25 will get you a coffee at the corner gas station) the reason T\C's hook breach system is "the way it is" because when the barrel is hooked into it, the separate "extension" locks the barrel for recoil, and requires no screw for keeping it in place.

I think in what you have laid out, your still going to see the "joint" between the barrel and the tang.

FWIW

[Ky-Flinter]

Since a "regular" tang is the width of the top barrel flat, the hook will have to be even narrower.  Also, you will have much less metal surface area for the barrel to seat against.  I'm not saying it couldn't be made to fit snugly, but I think it would be more difficult than the usual hooked breech.

-Ron

[smart dog]

Hi Scot,
The pin would help except it has to be short enough so you can lower the hook sufficiently to detach it from the tang. You are right about most modern made hook breeches being sloppy, which is why they are mostly garbage.  Both the hooks and standing breeches on my 250-year old English fowlers fit snuggly, probably as well as they did when they left the shop.

dave

[bgf]

Could you use a patent breech?  I found that using those, the touch hole location is almost exactly where it would be with a flat breech without hook, because the hole is behind the threaded "plug".  My chunk gun barrels have a tension screw that pushes up from below barrel if needed to adjust slop from wear (not needed it yet).  There is also a screw through the standing breech pulling it down.  One of those screws also serves as the front trigger guard screw, but I'm drawing a blank on which one right now .  I think the tang will flex too much using either of the setups you've proposed.

Even with a flat, hooked breech, I think you could thin the standing breech significantly without losing its benefits.