Big chip out at the front of the lock mortise. Best way to fix?

[Roger B]

Hi guys;
I have a J. Henry & Son "scroll guard"/new English copy that has lost some wood (again) at the front of the lock mortise.  It came out the first time when the rifle was getting a new trigger & the chip was saved & put back in with Titebond.  It then did it again while being shot in a cow pasture & only The Lord knows where the chip is.  I think the problem is that I used a modified Chambers late Ketland which is actually a little too small for the rifle, & wasn't long enough for the side plate.  I made a dummy lock screw for the front of the side plate, reasoning that one lock screw is all I needed.  However the stock (maple) seems to vibrate a lot when the cock drops.  The inlet itself is tight but not too tight, so I think I have a stress point at a weak place in the wood. I think that some of that forward kinetic energy is being transmitted to the front of the lock inlet when fired.  My questions are:

I obviously have to make a patch to fit the chip.  That's no biggie, but is there anything better than Titebond to glue it in with?  Titebond has always been pretty good stuff for me.  I think a patch job covered with some rawhide Indian style would be great, but then I couldn't get the lock out

Should I try to put a forward lock bolt in under the side plate to stabilize the lock better?  Given how short the lock is compared to the lock plate, I might be able to pull that off & make it invisible.

So any good ideas?  I only want good ideas because I have enough bad ones myself & don't need to look for trouble. .

Many thanks,
Roger B.

[Daryl]

Oh, I won't comment, then.

[Robby]

I have put the front lock screw under the lock plate. No problem.
Robby

[rich pierce]

Titebond works great but must be clamped in my experience. I’m not understanding how or why a chip should pop out of a lock mortise while shooting the gun. Is the rear (only) lock bolt free of the breechplug lug?

[Roger B]

Yep. The lock bolt is free from the breech plug.
Roger B.

[rich pierce]

Just bad luck then it seems. If you don’t have scraps that might match let me know and I will see what I can find.

[bob in the woods]

My experience with Titebond is that if you have good contact, with a clean wood surface, and you clamp [ not too tight ]
in place,  the bond will be stronger than the surrounding wood.  It's not a gap filler.  Perhaps you had some finish penetrate /permeate the wood.  That would affect the adhesion. 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

In lieu of a forward lock bolt, you could install a lug on the lock plate to catch a screwturned into the wood inside the forward part of the mortise, as the English sometimes did.  The picture is the one from my Ketland fowling piece...someone else may have other images ...

[Roger B]

I like that, Taylor. Many thanks for all the information,  guys.
Roger B.

[heinz]

Roger, you may also want to check the inletting at the breech of the barrel.  If the barrel is coming back in the stock breeching on recoil it may transmit motion to the lock screws.  I think those Henry copies have a hook breech?

[Old Ford2]

My 2 cents worth & that doesn't say much.
With Tite Bond 11 with both areas clean and free of oil, a lite application of Tite Bond 11 clamped, not too tight to squeeze out any glue, but just tight enough to keep the wood in place. The bond will be so great you will pull the wood apart elsewhere before you break the glued piece.
If you lose the chip, make a perfectly square of wood slightly larger than the chip was, then cut a square hole out of the stock, then carefully fit the square piece of wood previously mentioned into the missing area on the stock.
Match your wood as close to the stock as possible.
After the glued stock has set for at least one hour, then reset the lock back into the lock mortice. Carefully sand the wood to fit the contour of the area where the chip jumped out.
Stain the stock as needed and only you will know where it was amiss.
I have used the milling machine to do the above wood inletting with success. I don't recommend this method to everybody, but it does beat a shaky hand.
PS: you are better to stain the scrap pieces of wood prior to the above work to match the end product better.
Fred

[Roger B]

Thanks, Fred. I hadn't thought about staining the patch first.
Roger B