Jim Chambers Isaac Haines kit

[davebozell]

From the looks of your touch hole location, I assume you are not planning to use a touch hole liner.   Does the touch hole you have drilled miss the breach plug threads?  Unfortunately with many kits, it is necessary to move the barrel back toward the butt as well as down.  The side flat on your barrel should be more than halfway exposed.  Your lock mortise will also need significant tuning to get the pan flush with the barrel.  With kits, there is usually a significant amount of wood to remove.  If you have not handled an original rifle, or a “new” rifle from a recognized builder, it would be worth your while.  It is really amazing how slim original rifles and well made modern rifles really are.  The best advise I ever received was to go slow.  My first rifle took me 3 1/2 years to finish.  I learned pretty quickly to stop when I ran into an issue, and research a proper solution.

[Craig Wilcox]

Deer Stalker Nick - A:  Welcome indeed!  B:  That lock needs to be tight against the barrel.  Otherwise loose powder can get into that canyon and blow you to smithereens, wherever that is.  IOW, move your lock deeper until that bolster is fair against the barrel.
Glad to see you making such good progress, ours is not an easy past time/hobby.  As you've found, this is the friendliest and most helpful forum in the whole WWW.

[Deer Stalker]

I have not drilled a touch hole yet, that is just some sharpie I put on the barrel. I plan on using the white lightning touch hole liner that came with my kit. I will inlet the lock deeper. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something. Dave can you explain what you mean about the barrel flat being halfway exposed?

Thank you for the reply’s and help!

[smallpatch]

It looks to me like you’ll need to move the barrel back a bit, so your touch hole will miss the breechplug.
Do this first, then finish in letting the lock plate flush with the barrel.
In this particular kit, this is pretty normal. 
The side flat of the barrl should be approximately ½ way exposed on the side of the stock along both sides.

[Karl Kunkel]

If you're planning to use a vent liner, you'll probably have to move the barrel back a little.  Yes, it is common to have to remove some additional wood in the lock inlet to seat the pan tight against the barrel.

[smylee grouch]

Maybe install the breech plug and bring the barrel/plug down into position with a center punch on the side of the barrel so you can coordinate the vent and pan where they should be.

[Eric Krewson]

Looks to me that your lock plate isn't square with the barrel, it could be inletted deeply on the bottom and not enough at the top.

[Birddog6]

Get the barrel inlet where you want it, according to the vent hole location. Then put the tang in the barrel, get it shaped as you want it, get that inlet. Then put the underlugs on & get the barrel pinned to the stock.
  THEN inlet the lock the rest of the way in. I inlet my lock to where a .0015" feeler gauge will stick going in between the barrel & the flashpan.   Note:  The barrel/flashpan fit here should be a easy fit.  If you have to torque the lockscrews to make it a tight fit, it is Not fitted properly.  The lock screws at there to just hold the lock ON, not to make the flashpan fit to the barrel.

Now do some figuring & measuring & inlet the sideplate. Then drill for the lock bolts to the sideplate. Now drill a clearance hole Up TO the lockplate.  Tap the lock THROUGH the sideplate & stock into the lockplate.

Once ya get that done go back to the lock & see if it will cock to full cock. DON"T force it.  If it won't cock then blacken the lock internals, carefully slip it back in the inlet & try again.  Remove & relieve the wood restricting it. Repeat until it works easily.  Put the lock bolts in & retest it, may need a little more.

[smart dog]

Hi,
If you looked at the link I supplied previously, you would see that the barrel and lock positions are common issues with these kits. There usually is plenty of extra wood on the stocks so you can pare them down a lot.  Don't worry about how much wood is removed to bring the lock in to the barrel.  That fit will determine how much wood is left on the stock and make sure the wood is filed flush with the edge of the lock plate not the top of the bevel. I urge you to not drill for the vent hole.  Leave that until the very last task before final finishing and staining.  I also urge you to make a drawing of the gun so you can check how everything fits and where to drill for the lock and tang bolts.

dave   

[t.caster]

Deer Stalker, I started a discussion a while back titled "Thoughts on Kit Guns" to discuss some of these issues. It is back on page 4 now. It is a good read thanks to a all the good responses from the helpful members here.   Check it out.

[BillKilgore]

THEN inlet the lock the rest of the way in. I inlet my lock to where a .0015" feeler gauge will stick going in between the barrel & the flashpan.   Note:  The barrel/flashpan fit here should be a easy fit.  If you have to torque the lockscrews to make it a tight fit, it is Not fitted properly.  The lock screws at there to just hold the lock ON, not to make the flashpan fit to the barrel.

Hi Keith.

What is the advantage of leaving a small gap between the pan and the barrel? Would this not allow small powder grains to get between them?

Thanks.

[smart dog]

Hi,
No, you should have the lock snugged up to the barrel with no gap. Keith is correct in that the fit should be snug just using finger pressure pushing the lock in rather than requiring the lock bolts to draw it against the barrel.

dave

[B.Habermehl]

Please lay out the correct location of your breech face on the side of the barrel that the touch hole will be based on. This will save you tons of trouble. Either use your breech plug and transfer the measurement from the shoulder to the face, to the outside of the barrel. Or install the plug and drop the ram rod down the barrel mark it accurately at the muzzle. The transfer this measurement. This will save you more hassles than you can believe. BJH