Help figureing drop at heel and comb

[Brian Jordan]

I am laying out my first build on paper, and am not sure about the drop. I am building along the lines of a Jacob Dickert rifle. Number 67 in the RCA #1 book. With this first rifle I am not going to try and do an exact copy of the rifle. I want to concentrate on my in-letting, and architecture for this one. This was the advice given to me by a few builders.

I measured a longrifle I have. The trigger pull is 14", the drop at the heel is 2.750", and comb is 1.750" I have shot this rifle with heavy clothes and the 14" trigger pull is fine. I do feel the drop could be less though. I feel like my cheek needs to crawl up the stock to align the sites proper. This gun also has no cast-off.

If I take a straight edge from heel to comb the line intersects at about the middle of the wrist of the rifle. From the reading I have done I think is right on track for a Lancaster school rifle......is this correct?

Now, if I were to shorten the drop at the heel by say .250"-.375"  I think I would need adjust the drop at the comb less than that to still be able to maintain the proper architecture of a Dickert rifle. Am I on the right track, or am I thinking to deep into this?

[yip]

brian; i just installed my butt plate and its 13 5/8" l.o.p. my drop is about 3 1/4"  the drop my last rifle has a 13 1/2" l.o.p. and it feels comfortable. i hope this helps

[JohnTyg]

This Lancaster (below) had a 13 3/4" pull and about a 3 1/2" drop, about the same as above.
It feels pretty comfortable as well.  Not sure how RCA # 67 measures but any drop in the 3" - 3 1/2" range should be relatively comfortable and not be out of range for that Dickert.  I'm working on another Lancaster and using about the same measurements.

John

[Dphariss]

If you have a printer/scanner scan the original photo from buttplate to front of the lock.
TWO scans that overlap slightly I would make the break just in front of where the comb falls into the wrist. Now scale them up until the buttplate is the proper height when printed.
Tape the two scans together at the overlap point and you have an approximation of the original buttstock.
If you stretch the pull be aware that increasing the length of pull by very much the stock will look different and may require some tweaking to get the look right.

Dan

[Jerry V Lape]

 Drop and heel and comb are not the critical dimension.  What is critical is drop where your face naturally comes to rest on the comb.  You might want to try building up the comb on your existing rifle until you get a comfortable fit - measure that and extend the comb forward and back from that point to get the top line you need.  Since your 14 inch pull seems to work for you otherwise you could use that or perhaps take off a little as most of the rifles seem to be a little shorter to accommodate clothing.  I know I like a little cast off on my shotguns (about 1/8" at my face contact point ).