Tennessee Rifle Build

[LuVerne Schumann]

I've been out of black powder shooting for years and had put together a few CVA kits. I decided to get back into it and went with a kit from Jack Garner at Tennessee Valley Manufacturing. It's a Tennessee iron mounted rifle in the po' boy style.

Jack shipped it 7 days after my order. It was well packed with the barrel was taped to what appears to be a board sawn from my blank, so I have something to practice on.









I think the wood is quite pretty for "plain" maple.







upload images

I installed the breech plug and it clocked "ok" but not great. Hopefully the engraving wont show. I'm not going with a lollipop tang, I'm going to do a long oval like I've seen in some pictures of original guns.

[mountainman70]

Hot Dog!! and welcome to the forum. A lotta love here for the style rifle you are building, with an occasional side trip to Hawken Land.
I love em both. Looks like a good start, and please do not hesitate to ask questions and help. Plenty of it rite 'cheer! Sorry, my Hillbilly be sneaking out. Best regards, Dave F in WV

[Daryl]

Hot Dog in deed!

[Bob McBride]

Looks like fun! I just picked up a kit from Brad Emig! Keep us updated with pics on this thread as you progress, and ask any questions here as well!!

[AsMs]

Bob,

What kit you get from Brad?

AsMs

[LuVerne Schumann]

Like Bill Raby in his videos says, I am taking this on one small job at a time.

Tonight I almost got my flats filed.

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't really thrilled where the breech plug decided to clock, but figured I'd look at how much of the manufacturers marks would be showing after the barrel was filed. I can just barely make out the "40" but everything else is gone.

Before:



After:



You'll note that the only engraving that survived my Dad's TRW mill file was the "40" and that should be mostly obscured by wood once the barrel is inlet.



I am halfway through filing the flats. I'm amazed at how much better the barrel looks, and how uneven each flat was prior to hitting it with the file.

My Dad prepared me for this by forcing me to sharpen tools with a file when I was a kid. I can't wait to get this bit done and move on to the next.

[Bob McBride]

Bob,

What kit you get from Brad?

AsMs

I called to get him check on a Lady/Boys for me to build my wife for the Friendship woods walk in the Fall and picked up a Colonial Pistol he had in stock.

[LuVerne Schumann]

I also posted this build to Facebook, and folks there convinced me to reclock my breech plug. Evidently, some manufacturers put their makers marks on the flat with the most runout, and putting those on the side are a big no-no.

Not knowing any better, I did just that. Now the "40" is on the bottom flat. I also finished filing the barrel.

[LuVerne Schumann]

Did some good honest work yesterday and today. Got the barrel inleted and the breech and tang partly inleted.

I see some folks do the barrel and breech/tang all at once, but since this stock was already partly inleted, I wanted to make sure the barrel was in proper, first, then worry about getting everything else lined up.

To me, the toughest part was deciding how the lock, trigger and breech all related to each other in the 3D world of plain maple. It's not as simple as I thought when first considering it. But I found a general placement that I think will ensure success. I hope.

Here's a couple more pics.






Now on to inleting the breech and tang.

[pjmcdonald]

LuVerne,

A couple tips, albeit from an amateur.

Did Jack drill the RR hole for you? If so, you might check the thickness of the web between barrel channel and RR channel. I try for 1/8” or even 3/32”. Slimmer is better. If Jack drilled it, you can bring the barrel down at this point before going further.

If the RR hole is not drilled, then leave the barrel channel alone and scrape the RR channel to get desired web thickness. Then you can drill.

If you like the web thickness as is, ignore the above!

If you haven’t got them already, couple of recommended books like Gunsmith of Grenville County and Art of Building the Pennsylvania Longrifle. Check out Mike Brooks’ tutorial here on ALR. Those, along with some excellent instructions from people like Jim Parker, helped me understand relation of breech, lock, and trigger.

Breech face determines touch hole. Touch hole determines lock pan. Lock pan and to a lesser extent web determine lock position and orientation. Lock sear determines triggers. After that, blood sacrifice, lit candles, incantations (read swearing - goldarn thing rat frazzing son of a biscuit eating....), and magic makes the rest.

Enjoy the journey and please share!

Regards,

Paul

[LuVerne Schumann]

It came with the RR drilled.

It has 5/32nd web between the barrel and the ramrod, and I have concerns about where the heck the inlets for the barrel pins and the ramrod thimbles go.

I think I'm not going to make it any thinner, as this is my first build, and I'm trying out different basic concepts. My next build or builds down the road I'll definitely try it, since slimmer is better.

Here I've inlet the breech and tang. Was an interesting experience.

My biggest mistake was continuously forgetting to reorient the work piece instead of the tool. There were chips made where I didn't want chips. Go with the grain and get smooth curls instead.

[mountainman70]

That's how we learn. BTW, whats the hot rod under the cover? Inquiring minds want to know. lol, Dave.I have a 70 Pontiac Catalina under the cover in my shop/garage

[LuVerne Schumann]

1967 Mustang convertible. My first car, I bought at the age of 13.

38,000 actual, all original interior, paint and top.

1995 5.0 roller GT motor

[mountainman70]

Sweet. That 'stang oughta scoot. I like the stangs, your vintage and up. Had a svt Cobra new in 2004. man,what a Beast. Was worth the price of admission. Lookin good on the build. I am gonna tell you what I told another newbie several years ago----betcha cant build JUST ONE !!!hahaha. you probably already got something in mind. Happens regular here. Best regards, dave F

[pjmcdonald]

LuVerne,

Mustang fan myself. Problem is, I don’t fit. My knees wrap around the steering wheel. So I stick to my F150’s.

Back to your build, understand about the chip outs around the tang inlet. Good practice correcting those. My last build, I started calling “patches” for all the chip outs and miscues on my part! Carefully done, most will never be noticed. Unfortunately, I had two pieces really get away from me and I didn’t hide them very well. Still turned out to be a good rifle and my best thus far.

You have plenty of room for barrel pins and pipes. Trim or file down the tabs on the pipes. They come way too long. Web thickness or less in height. Same with barrel lugs. Measure carefully and barrel pin should just skim bottom barrel flat. Likewise, ramrod pipe (thimble) pin should just skim top of pipe. At least, that is what I aim for.

Looks like you are well on your way!

Regards,

Paul

[LuVerne Schumann]

Sweet. That 'stang oughta scoot. I like the stangs, your vintage and up. Had a svt Cobra new in 2004. man,what a Beast. Was worth the price of admission. Lookin good on the build. I am gonna tell you what I told another newbie several years ago----betcha cant build JUST ONE !!!hahaha. you probably already got something in mind. Happens regular here. Best regards, dave F

You have no idea about not building just one. I have no less than five more builds planned; I've already sold two of them (at the cost of materials) to friends who just want a rifle I built, sight unseen.

I need to do an Early Lancaster and a Jakob Dickert, for sure. Otherwise, I'm kind of fixated on these barn or plain guns.

[LuVerne Schumann]

LuVerne,

Mustang fan myself. Problem is, I don’t fit. My knees wrap around the steering wheel. So I stick to my F150’s.

Back to your build, understand about the chip outs around the tang inlet. Good practice correcting those. My last build, I started calling “patches” for all the chip outs and miscues on my part! Carefully done, most will never be noticed. Unfortunately, I had two pieces really get away from me and I didn’t hide them very well. Still turned out to be a good rifle and my best thus far.

You have plenty of room for barrel pins and pipes. Trim or file down the tabs on the pipes. They come way too long. Web thickness or less in height. Same with barrel lugs. Measure carefully and barrel pin should just skim bottom barrel flat. Likewise, ramrod pipe (thimble) pin should just skim top of pipe. At least, that is what I aim for.

Looks like you are well on your way!

Regards,

Paul

The thing I've found about chip outs, is that in most areas, if you are careful, they go away as you inlet deeper into the wood. Of course, if you look at original guns, most makers didn't appear to care much about how tight their seams were on inlets.

Modern standards have much higher expectations, though.

[LuVerne Schumann]

Red letter day today. Made lots of mistakes, corrected for them, and got lots done.

First, I finished dovetailing the tabs on the bottom flat of the barrel and pinned the barrel to the stock.



My mistakes? I free-handed drilling the pin holes with a cheap Harbor Freight bit, which was easily deflected by the maple. The first pin went in fine, but the second and third holes were progressively worse. I plugged the holes with toothpicks, and bought a high quality bit from the local hardware store and redrilled new holes. The third hole was made worse by the cheap drill breaking off, and then my drift broke off trying to drive it out. After much head scratching, I eventually figured a way to extract both. My wife's tweezers came to the rescue, and she really doesn't need to know, now does she?



I started inleting the lock plate.

At this point, I've become disenchanted with inleting black. Frankly, the stuff migrates enough to be its own enemy. Instead, I started really thinking about how the wood needs to be removed in order to allow the lock to go where it needs to. Caveat - I used to be a wooden boat builder, so I understand the dynamics of "try and fit." I haven't given up completely on inleting black, but I quit using it as much when the inlet is obvious, or when it requires judgment. I am really happy with the progress so far.

But that is only until the next self-induced rifle building crisis....

[Chowmi]

I don't really like inletting black either, as you say, it seems to get everywhere.  Most of the time when that happens, it is because you are using way way too much.  That tiny little jar of inletting black should last nearly forever.  In other words, get some on a brush and then wipe nearly all of it off on the side of the jar, or on a paper towel.

Even better, ditch it and use candle soot.  It's much less messy.  You can just buy a big candle and hold the piece just at the top of the flame and get decent soot.  I does take a while. 

I now use a little lamp that I bought at the BX on base in the outdoor section.  5 bucks or so.  It's meant to burn citronella oil to ward off mosquitos, but works great.  I use lamp oil and a bit of motor oil to increase the soot.  It creates so much smoke that I snuff it in between using it to blacken my parts, otherwise I have a smoky haze in the shop. 


Hope that helps,

Norm

[sdilts]

Try Prussian Blue instead of inletting black. It cleans up real easy. You can find it at NAPA auto parts stores.

[Dennis Glazener]

I have tried about everything and I prefer the Prussian blue to anything I have used.
Dennis

[mountainman70]

I use an old kerosene lamp burner, with mix of lamp oil and tranny fluid. Not too much smoke and does what I need. Easy wipe off.No skeeters in shop, a real plus. LOL. Dave

[LuVerne Schumann]

I gotta admit, yesterday wasn't my best day in making my first rifle.

Somewhere along the rifle building process, the barrel shifted forward, leaving a gap at the breech.



Of course this is after I'd pinned the barrel.



The reason for the shifting forward, as far as I can tell, is a combination of the breech plug hitting a slight ridge on the bottom (with zero inleting black transfer) and the tang having a slightly incorrect arch. I fought it for a couple hours, stabbed myself in the wrist with my small chisel (farmer bandage and some pressure stopped the bleeding) and finally it went back into place. Of course, I did the toothpick trick again and plugged the holes. Will redrill the barrel pins when I work up the courage to do so.





I finished up inleting the lock plate, and started working on lock reassembly to inlet the guts.

At this point, I am figuring out the things I didn't know that I didn't know.

As I worked on the breech inleting mistake, the gap between the tang and barrel grew in my brain. I've cut dovetails for the barrel pins, so correcting this isn't as simple as it might be. I've also seen original rifles with gaps like this, but am wondering whether I should try to correct it or just live with it.

[Eric Krewson]

I have had this happen on almost every rifle I build. For me it is drilling my tang bolt hole and getting the countersink just slightly off which pushes the barrel forward when I tighten the bolt. It is best to drill the hole for your tang bolt and countersink at exactly the same angle.

I can't tell if you have your tang bolt in from the pictures, I may have missed something. You don't drill for your barrel pins until you have the tang correctly bent, bolt in place, the tang countersunk and bolt tapped into your trigger plate and everything tightened.

You may be able to slot your underlugs and work around the holes being a little off.

[LuVerne Schumann]

Yeah, I pinned the barrel first.

But toothpicks and glue made it all better.

I'm getting the full lock plate inleted, which is going much easier than the rest