Remodel

[Micah2]

I want to file a sighting notch in the tang of my fowling piece.  The tang and barrel are browned, can I "brown over" and get the notch browned fairly easily?

Also, I noticed at the end of turkey season that the potent loads have started a small fracture that if left alone will chip the wood on top of the wrist.  The breech sits firmly and square against the wood as it should, I feel like I need to file the rear of the tang and its draft and relieve this before the wood busts out. 

Thoughts?

[Acer Saccharum]

Either relieve the metal or relieve the wood. Without pics, hard to know. but you say a small fracture ie starting; I'd cut some of that away.

I bet you could get the brown to match fairly close.

[Dogshirt]

I always leave 1/16"- behind the tang just because of this.

[Micah2]

Thanks for the reply, I will work on it.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

A groove cut longitudinally along the breech plug tang and breech of the barrel does little if anything to make a smoothie easier to aim.  I've tried a number of things, but have come to realize that your eye will find the centre of the top barrel flat easier without a blemish.  Even on a round barrel, the groove is so close to your eye that it is a blurr, and no help in aiming.

[Habu]

A groove cut longitudinally along the breech plug tang and breech of the barrel does little if anything to make a smoothie easier to aim.  I've tried a number of things, but have come to realize that your eye will find the centre of the top barrel flat easier without a blemish.  Even on a round barrel, the groove is so close to your eye that it is a blurr, and no help in aiming.

I agree with this, if the gun fits the shooter.  The Bess fits me fairly well, and I've shot one enough that I'm comfortable with it.  As a result, a groove cut in the tang would do little to improve my scores. 

I can't always hit the broad side of a barn with a Charleville, the stock just doesn't fit me.  A groove filed in the tang helped me get consistency in positioning my head on the stock, doubling my scores.  I don't recall being consciously aware of the groove in sighting the musket, but it was there in the periphery of my vision. 

That was 20 years ago; I'm not sure if my vision today is such that a simple groove cut in the tang would be useful.   

[Micah2]

Again thank you for the response.  I agree with Taylor and will not file a sight notch. In fact I just recently turned my tang screw perpendicular to line of sight and it disappeared, and I like that.  I will leave it alone, I can shoot very well free handed at thirty with no notch or rear, but missed some game this year because I got excited.  I will learn it though, its only been finished one year, maybe two hundred rounds.