inletting barrel tang and tang bolster

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

is there a trick to inletting the tang and tang bolster? This seems to be the toughest part of gunbuilding for me, especially the bolster. Keeping the wood tight at the top with the stock and avoiding gaps here seem to be a problem. I'm getting real good at fixing little gaps here after the fact. What I need is advice on how to get it right the first time.

[billd]

Make sure the breech plug is tapered top to bottom.  Compare a Colerain or Getz breech plug to a Rice.  Rice is straight up and down, hard to inlet as is.

Bill

[JB2]

And sharp-
Sharp pencils
sharp chisels (small too)
sharp light
sharp glasses

Oh, and a really good sturdy way to hold the stock.  Holding it in my lap doesn't work for me, and the sharp chisel makes it kinda dangerous!

[Bob Roller]

A shaving here and a chip there will get that job done. I am working on on now and used miniature half round wood rasps and an inshave style chisel I made from some spring steel. there is no really easy way to do this job and only slow and easy and NOT working on it unless you feel like it will work. I made my breech plug from a piece of 8620 with integrated tang but may change it to a modified hook breech with a tang and folding peep sight mount together.I saw this once on a very fine quality Northern Target Rifle and liked the idea and have copied it in the past.
I will make a lock for this one,a 4 screw lock as found on English rifles of the 1860's and may use double set triggers.
Take your time and the job will get done.

Bo Roller

[B.Habermehl]

Make sure you are not pinching the inlet shut with your vise jaws, grip the stock abit lower to prevent this. I use plywood soft jaw inserts to prevent marring the lock pannels on precarved stocks. The stock pinch is the source of alot of tang inletting gaps.  BJH

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

One error I made was not tapering the breech plug. It's a Rice Barrel and I thought I had already tapered the plug and didn't. Should have measured it, AGAIN. Ended up with a small gap that I made a judicial patch for. Won't show in the big scheme, but an annoyance, to say the least, causing rework. I hate inletting breech plug/tangs. I think the whole barrel inlet is easier overall, less things to go wrong.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

One mistake I made when I inlet mine was I did it while it was out of the barrel.  It seemed to make sense at the time, but it really through the allignment off and made the job tougher than it really needed to be. So do all this while it is in the barrel.

Coryjoe