Nate,
I goofed in my earlier post. I meant to say that the current location puts the vent so high relative to the pan that it will probably be an unreliable, slow shooter.
I see your point that you could slab off that lock flat, glue on a fresh piece of wood and re-let in the lock. From the photo the figure in the wood will not be hard to match. If you then strip the stock and re-stain in a much darker color the repair would be less noticeable. The pan of the lock is about 3/8ths of an inch wide so that means the lock must move upward about 3/16ths of an inch. You will probably have to make a new trigger to reach the sear bar of the lock.
You have your work cut out for you!
Best Regards,
JMC
John Cholin
