Breech plugs and tangs for our Mountain Rifle kits have been a headache for us since we first offered the kit for sale. Until now, we have been using an investment cast tang that is then silver brazed to a machined breech plug. While this has worked pretty well, it's a labor intensive process. Dealing with poor quality and delivery time from foundries has been a real issue as well. Finally I've never been happy with the process of using two piece of material and joining them.
So, we're finally at the point where we're able to machine them from a solid piece of matierial! This is a big deal for us. We've tried to have others machine them, but it's not worked out for various reasons. In reality, these parts are difficult to model and machine and nobody but ourselves can really justify the time required to develope a good process. These are machined just as you see them with draft and all of the complicated 3d geometry.
Now, this is one more aspect we can control quality of and can produce them at will. An added benefit is the precision of the cnc machined product. These are far and away more consistent than the castings we have used in the past. With just a little tweaking of the stock inlets, we should be able to offer a tang and inlet that is pretty much a drop in fit with zero gaps!
Thanks again for all encouragement. We're pushing hard to make progress and your support makes this all worthwhile.
All the best,
Jim and Katherine