Slotted Lugs or Not?

[Mike Brooks]

You must have an awfully thick forestock if it can bend your barrel.

You'd be surprised. I built a buccaneer with a 5' barrel some time ago that was shooting to the right. Pulled the barrel and noticed the stock was warped to the right. Bent the barrel to counter the warp and she shot dead center. Thin forestock as usual, 1/16" wood at either side of the barrel max.

[Bill-52]

FWIW, below are photos of a Dauphin County John Shell barrel.  It's a 42.5", .40 caliber smoothbore with a very slight (1/16th") straight taper. Only three barrel lugs.

This is the breech barrel lug, stapled not dovetailed, but clearly slotted:




This is the missing muzzle lug. A bit of an oops! on the pin placement. Makes me feel better about my work. Or, could be a very thin forestock.

[Levy]

The week before Thanksgiving, some of my muzzle loading friends and I camped for a week squirrel hunting on the local river.  It rained       3 1/2" one night and we had to hang everything out to dry the next day.  Two of the hunters complained that their rifles (both .32 cal. with 13/16" barrels) were shooting about 2" high at 25 yds.   Both rifles (one a perc. and the other a flintlock) shot accurately and where aimed before the rain.  neither of them had slotted the lugs for the pins.  One was a fullstock with a 38" in barrel and the other was a halfstock with a 42" barrel.  Both rifles returned to the original zero in a couple of days.  All we could figure was the intense humidity/wet situation caused the change.

James Levy

[Acer Saccharum]

I don't fit my lugs tightly into the stock, so I didn't think of it that way, that there has to be room ahead and behind the lug. Yes, indeed!