I really messed up

[Scota4570]

Regarding my Armstrong build I have posed about,  I am going to use what I have, knock it out and sell it.  I was comparing the rifle I am building to the plans and documentation I have amassed.  The precarved stock is done wrong.  I already inletted the tang, so I own it............unfortunately.  The entry pipe will have to be 2" too far toward the breach.  It looks goofie.   It will be at 12" from the rear edge of the barrel.    Real Armstrongs and the majority of the Emmistburg school I have documents on is more like 14" .  It  apears the the guy who cut the stock used the tang extension of the rear enty pipe as his stopping point when removing wood for the transition of the part of the stock where the rod is hidden and half of it is exposed.  To bad it is a decent piece of wood.  Lesson to me, check out every detail CAREFULLY before I accept the stock.  I am extremely disappointed.  I was a $300 stock, not to mention a huge amount of time to recoupe my costs before I can sell it.  That time will be drudgery because I know my product will never be correct. 

[Mark Elliott]

Been there, done that.         Find something you can build correctly with what you have.    You could just consider this an opportunity to build whatever you want.   If you build a 'Scota4570", no one can tell you are wrong.   Those are the most fun things to build.    I build a S.W. VA type rifle that I tell everybody is a Mark Elliott.   It is built the way I like.     Be creative.   My fantasy guns are the most fun to build.

[flinchrocket]

    Who's stock and what barrel do you have? If its a 54 cal I might be interested. You can keep
     your hardware and get another stock and barrel.

[Scota4570]

It's 45cal 13/16".  I am going to see it trough for practice.  Most folks won't know the difference so, it should sell fine.  I'll do another from a plank later. 

I prefer not to point fingers at the outfit that sold it to me.  Their service has been great.  It is my fault for not checking the stock more carefully. 

That said when somebody cuts a contoured stock they really should do the homework.  A builder can always remove wood but can not put it back!  I scaled a bunch of Armstong rifles from my pictures of several originals.  ALL have the distance from the entry pipe back 14" or more to the back of the barrel. 

[flinchrocket]

   I was Thinking about what some of the stock dimensions might be in case you would be interested
   in selling it, not to criticize the supplier,  I apologize for any confusion. Good luck on your build and
   have a Merry Christmas.

[kaintuck]

just cut off 2" of the end of the barrel....

no really.....it won't be that bad, it's just a rifle, the balance point may be a little further forward than the normal......but it's ok~

marc n tomtom

[galamb]

Ok, since you plan on building this to sell anyhow AND your rear forestock is about 15% LESS than it should be then why not build the entire rifle @ 15% less than the scale of a "full sized" Armstrong and sell it as a youth/women's scaled version of an Armstrong.

You could cut the LOP down to maybe 12 1/2" from the 13 1/2"ish that seems to be typical which would give some symmetry between measurements in both directions from the barrel/tang location - should at least look "balanced" to the eye (instead of a stubby forestock).

You didn't mention the barrel length, but you can really leave it alone if it's 42".

I have specs on almost a dozen original Armstrong's and most were a couple inches longer than 42" (a quick check resulted in 44 1/2" on two rifles and 46" on another on three of the first four that I looked up), so a 42" bbl on a slightly reduced (youth) stock, would actually look "proper" in proportion to an original.

This is how I would consider "fixing" your issue.

[Pete G.]

This is one of the pitfalls in making a copy of someone else's work. If it is not perfect, it is wrong. I much prefer to work on something that is "in the style of". Build a rifle as if you are working in your own shop, but were influenced by Armstrong. Incidentally, most Armstrong era rifles had about a 46" slightly swamped barrel, so a shorter straight profile barrel is just as incorrect as a too short forestock.