Dickie's Rifle Project **BArrel Tang Update**

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Hello all, this is a project I have been messing around with, but not seriously working on until recently.  It is a mountain style rifle.  Right now it is very roughly cut out.  VERY ROUGHLY.  I stayed well outside the final dimensions so there is a lot more wood to come off.  Dave Keck inlet the barrel for me and drilled the ramrod hole.  I wanted to use all hand tools but had a little trouble with the saw going off my line.  So I used the saw to make stop cuts and went at it with a chisel mostly and a hand plane.  Come payday I am getting a spoke shave. The pattern I am going by was provided by Meteorman and approved by Dickie (my brother in law).  I have been studying the Longrifles of North Carolina, other images of mountain rifles wherever they can be found and Ken's website at tnhogrifle.com.  If I am doing something totally wrong, or heading towards disaster all of you are required to STOP ME! This is my first build from a blank.

  



Coryjoe
PS

What I plan on next is inletting the tang and lock and buttplate before removing more material. I would ofcourse remove the material needed for those items to be inlet.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Lollipop, lollipop, o la la lollipop, um, ba boom boom boom








Coryjoe

[Dennis Glazener]

Looks good, now you have the uh-uh----pleasure of in-letting it. Don't forget to file a slight draft on the sides. Just go slow, I find it best (for me) to bend it (the lower thin part) as I inlet.
Dennis

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Ohhhh Dennis, I forgot to mention studying your work. 

I am not sure yet how I will tackle the inlet.  That tang is an area I struggle with so this should be fun.  I have filed the draft but am nervous.  Will keep you posted.

Coryjoe

[heinz]

CoryJoe, do not give up on the saw yet.  Lay out your profile on the top AND bottom of the stock so you can check that you are staying on line.  Even if you leave an extra 1/8 or 3/16 of an inch, draw the line that you want to stay in with the saw.  Then go slow and keep checking on both the top and bottom to be sure you are straight.  The picture looks like the barrel is swamped.  If it is you can use a 1/4 or 5/16 drill as a spacer to slide along the barrel and mark your lines along the barrel on the top side.  You will have to measure out to the edge of the stock and transfer those measurements to the bottom.  Draw a complete line on the bottom, not just marks.  If you have a line to keep the saw in things will go easier.  An eighth or quarter inch is a lot easier to plane off than 3/4 or an inch.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Thanks heinz,

One issue that I think I was having was that I had the stock horizontal because that is how my bench is set up.  t was causing me to stand at an odd angle and torgue the blade.  The cut on my side was fine, but the other side was dropping down.  I have been looking at my set up and think I can move my vice to set the stock up vertically and that should help.  I will give it another shot on the forearm.

Coryjoe

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I inlet the barrel tang this evening.  Still some clean up to do with a file. I even made use of the play dough trick introduce on the forum a week or so ago.







Coryjoe

[Dennis Glazener]

Looks as if you did a good job with the tang inlet. I always have problems with the "dolls head".

I'll pass this on for what its worth. A friend of mine built his first rifle with one of these tangs. He had thought everything was tightly inletted but evidently the breech was not quite as tight as he thought. He proofs his rifle with a double charge and double ball. When he set that one off the dolls head tang buckled up in the thin section of the tang. You could see daylight under it! He had to straighten out the tang and bed the breech area.
Dennis

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Thanks Dennis,

That actually crossed my mind this morning when I woke up.  I am going to double check everything today, the extended area of the tang will bob up and down a bit, so my plan is to get that seated firm. 

Coryjoe

[JDK]

...He proofs his rifle with a double charge and double ball. When he set that one off the dolls head tang buckled up in the thin section of the tang. You could see daylight under it!

Another reason not to proof barrels while IN THE GUN!  I understand set back can happen when using normal loads but why take the risk with double loads.  The only reason to proof is to determine if the barrel/breech assembly will fail.  Why do it in the stock?  Am I missing something???

J.D.