Drilling once, drilling twice, three times?

[Nordnecker]

I drilled my RR hole a little too low the first time. I didn't come out of the bottom of the stock but I made a plug and filled in that hole. I drilled it out again and I'm, ugh, a little high. I've got just under 1/8th where the lockbolt will be. I'd really like to not gouge out the barrel channel but it sure would be nice to have a little more wiggle room for my lock bolt.
What do you think?

[pbigham]

1/8 of a inch of room is plenty .you can file a groove across  the barrel and could thin the middle of the bolt  should give a nice profile

[Sawatis]

Don't push your luck!  with all those alternating grains from 2 plugs and the stock wood, you will be fighting trying to drill a third....could crack the whole thing.as was mentioned, thin out the section i the middle of the lock bolt...you only need another 32nd or so.
John

[tallbear]

Sounds perfect to me. There are many different strategies you can use for success.

As Paul mentioned you can groove the bottom of the barrel

You can use a 6-32 screw for your front lock bolt

You can thin or notch the front lock bolt so the RR can pass.

I would much rather have the hole a little high rather than a little low!!

Mitch

[flehto]

An 1/8" web is good and I even  prefer 3/32"or slightly less for the Bucks County LR  builds. As was said, use a #6-32 front lock bolt and for the rear bbl lug, I do as pictured below using  a 062 music wire pin.

 

[Nordnecker]

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement. My "inspirational" gun is the Simon Lauk (attributed) gun in the ALR library. I don't know how to paste a picture of it here. It has 2 different size lock bolts, the front one is smaller. I'm not sure but I think having the front bolt this high up going to make the side plate sit at a strange angle. I haven't bought the side plate yet. I was hoping to find one this weekend in Baltimore.

[Mark Elliott]

Lots of original rifles had the ramrod hole break into the barrel channel.   On a heavy breech barrel,  it really should break through.   As the others said, high is better than low.  You almost never get the ramrod hole exactly where you want it.   I am thrilled if it just doesn't come out the bottom of the stock.  I do all the things Mitch mentioned to make it work out.   Also,  you put the screw into the lock plate where you have to in order to make it all work out. 

[flehto]

Hi...Making a sideplate is quite easy and one has a better chance of making a sideplate that looks like it's supposed to be there.  Of course, some originals have sideplates that are mainly used as a washer and don't particularly look well placed .

Buy a sheet of 1/8" thick brass and clamp it to the SP panel  and through the 2 lockbolt holes, use the shank end of the same sized  drill  as the hole and make it into a centerpunch. Tap the drill in each hole and  use the prickpunch to circumscribe  dias on the brass....you can then layout your design from these circles. The tail of the SP should center on the  rear of the lock panel , but the SP "nose" is already located.  In between the 2 holes, an attempt can be made to make it look like it "belongs"....good luck.....Fred

[kaintuck]

I'm always happy if when I'm drilling the front lock bolt....the drill skitters on the barrel bottom flat! Then I clean the trough out with a file. Then the RR is right below it, paper thin wood between that front lock bolt and your RR channel is perfect

Gotta make sure that RR channel is exactly pointing where you want the 48" bit to go down that 12-14" blind hole!.....drill n clean the bit every 1/4" .....measure twice....go slow always!