Question on barrel tang

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Hello everyone,

I am working on my mountain rifle and it has a lollipop tang that I cut out of a straight tang.  There is about 2 inches of straight that then tapers sharply all the way down to the Lolli at the end.  When I inlet it I had a hump because of the curve of the stock.  I simply filed it down to meet the profile. 

My concern is this.  The straight part is the full original thickness of the tank.  The extension and the lolli are a little over and 1/8th of an inch thick.  But now that I am getting down to the final work where the hump was is very thin, close to a 1/16th and can be bent with little effort.  It is a section about 1/4 of an inch long. 

Now, my question is, since this is near the section where the straight part of the tang meets the stem of the lolli, do I need to be concerned about it being too thin?  Will recoil be felt in that area? 

If I do need to worry about it, what are the options of fixing it.

Regards,

Coryjoe

[rich pierce]

Bend and solder a piece of sheet steel to the underside.  Then cut and file to match.

[Dennis Glazener]

I feels sure Rich's idea will work but if you don't need the thickness i.e. pulling barrel in/out of stock I suspect that a good tight bedding of the barrel/tang bolster area will take care of the recoil. I had a friend of mine build a rifle with a lolipop tang and when he proof fired the rifle it bent the long lolipop tang right in the middle. The mid part of the tang was raised completely out of the mortise and it was not filed thin. After the breech area was bedded tightly with Devcon steel expoxy it hasn't moved.
Dennis

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Ok, I do plan on bedding the breech after what happened to my first rifle.  What I may do is do both suggestions. 

Thanks fellas.

Coryjoe