first Hawken build. should front tang of trigger plate be on same plane as tang off entry thimble? mine appears to be about .100" different. a straight edge placed on trigger plate along for end shows trigger plate parallel to entry thimble tang but shows a gap between straight edge and thimble. deepen inlet on trigger plate? Blend the wood between trigger and entry thimble?
Working to shape a hawken style stock you have likely discovered, as I have, that they are sculpture from one end to the other, that in every case the various elements, the defining architectural features, flow from one area to the next all along the stock very gracefully. There is nothing to "stop the eye" from one end to the other.
There are two areas that "are there, but not there," that are quite subtle, but that aid in defining the hawken brothers work. One is the very slight step along the bottom of the butt of the stock beginning at the rear trigger guard tang. another is the line along the bottom of the fore end that you have defined in your question. From the front trigger tang (actually it begins under the triggers) to the entry pipe. According to the very experienced ALR member, who is helping me with my build, that line is
not straight, that there is a
very gradual swelling that peaks about two-thirds along the way from the trigger plate tang, then begins a very subtle downward curve to the entry thimble.
I am not trying to be ambiguous but that is the way it was explained to me. Good luck with your build.
dp
