Hooked breech fabrication

[Scota4570]

I am working on a pistol. I may want to make a hooked breech.  The material I have for the tang section are massively oversized and will require hours on the mill.  I have large channel and solid stock. 

I thought of welding up a L-shape from two pieces.  Has anyone bent up an L-shape and added a bead of weld to make the sharp corned at the top edge?  I wish I had a forge right now. 

Thanks,
Scot

[jerrywh]

I just used a 2" piece of angle iron.

[Daryl]

I used angle iron for a breech-face for a double rifle I was building back in the late 70's.
It worked very well.

[Bob Roller]

The first real muzzle loader I made was with a Bill Large 58 caliber barrel that
was 34"long and 1" across the octagon.It had no breech plug but was threaded
3/4x16/I bought a bolt to match that thread and cut it of leaving about 1/2"
of it and I altered it with a hacksaw and file to resemble the projection on a
"patent breech".I made a bolster to fit the side of the barrel and had Gene Miller
a local welder to weld it on for me.I then reshaped it to look like a bolster and then
drilled and tapped a nipple seat with a cross hole into the bore just ahead of the
plug.I then made a tang that looked like a common tang and inletted in on top
of the projection from the plug.Visualise this tang as a finger pressing down on
that projection and there is your breech and there is no reason that it won't work
with a flintlock rifle or pistol.I secured the tang with a screw and the barrel with a
flat "key"or wedge and shot the rifle for about 4 years and won a turkey in November
of 1958 using it.There are ways to bypass these building problems and this is one I
used with success when I had almost nothing to work with but an Atlas lathe and]it was
no help at all with this job.
Bob Roller

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Some time ago, someone here posted a thread on making a standing breech for a hooked plug, out of a piece of rifle barrel.  It simply involved sawing and filing the piece of rifle barrel to create the tang and the hole for the bore was filed to accept the hook.  I thought it was ingeneous and very straightforward.

[RAT]

I'm going to need to make a hooked standing tang in the near future, so this thread helps me. I can figure out how to forge the standing portion and tang. What I can't figure out it how to make the cavity in the underside of the tang to receive the hook of the breech plug.

Do you need to file out the radiused cavity before bending the tang portion down? I don't see how this can be done without distorting it while bending. The only other way I can see doing it is to make a punch or stake and drive it in to form the cavity after bending the tang. For someone with welding skills they could make the standing portion, file the cavity, and then weld the tang on top. Unfortunately I have no welding skills or equipment. I do have a forge and anvil.

For the original poster... Google "blacksmithing bumping up", or something to that effect. See what comes up. This is how you push metal to form a better corner. Also, start with stock that is thicker than needed. This gives you extra metal you can remove from the front face and top to give you that corner. I'm not very good at bumping up, I tend to make maximum use of the latter.

[Scota4570]

Normally I would use a piece of channel steel.  It has the correct profile.  On this one I could not locate any channel small enough.

 On the rectangular hole, I just worry it out with drills and files.  I have a safe side square file that I use for this. 

To bend the tang I use a radiused off cold chisel and a ball peen hammer on a lead block.  I do not own a cross peen hammer.  If you wack the underside of the tand while on the lead block it will bend a little with every strike, without bending the standing breech part. 

[eggwelder]

Runastav I believe did a double SXS build and he used angle iron for the hook plate. Not sure how old that thread is, but it is on here somewhere

[eggwelder]

The first real muzzle loader I made was with a Bill Large 58 caliber barrel that
was 34"long and 1" across the octagon.It had no breech plug but was threaded
3/4x16/I bought a bolt to match that thread and cut it of leaving about 1/2"
of it and I altered it with a hacksaw and file to resemble the projection on a
"patent breech".I made a bolster to fit the side of the barrel and had Gene Miller
a local welder to weld it on for me.I then reshaped it to look like a bolster and then
drilled and tapped a nipple seat with a cross hole into the bore just ahead of the
plug.I then made a tang that looked like a common tang and inletted in on top
of the projection from the plug.Visualise this tang as a finger pressing down on
that projection and there is your breech and there is no reason that it won't work
with a flintlock rifle or pistol.I secured the tang with a screw and the barrel with a
flat "key"or wedge and shot the rifle for about 4 years and won a turkey in November
of 1958 using it.There are ways to bypass these building problems and this is one I
used with success when I had almost nothing to work with but an Atlas lathe and]it was
no help at all with this job.
Bob Roller

Bob, would you ever build a muzzleloader in that same fashion again? Ie- welding bolsters onto the barrel etc. You just don`t really hear of anyone doing it these days.  I`m not challenging you by any means, i just find it very interesting. I do have an old British made barrel that apparently has the bolster brazed on, but i can`t tell by looking at it

[sqrldog]

Couple of pictures of the hook breech  Taylor mentioned I've made several times using a short piece of barrel for the standing part of the breech and a bolt used for the breech plug. I've used this method on several rifles including two with interchangeable barrels. I learned this method of breeching a barrel from William Young years ago. May not be what you are looking for but has worked for me. It locks up tight if it is fitted well.. Tim

[Bob Roller]

My decision to have a bolster welded on to the barrel was an easy one
because I knew how skilled Gene Miller was and when I filed it to shape
there was no slag or pitting so I wasn't worried about it blowing off.
Today,I would use my milling machine and select the size of material
that would just barely make the bolster.The last one I made was for a
13/16" barrel and i used a piece of 1018 that was 1"square.A flat surface
and a Vernier height/scribe gauge was used to lay the job out.It's been
62 years since and I made that 58 and methods have  changed,
Bob Roller

[RAT]

Couple of pictures of the hook breech  Taylor mentioned I've made several times using a short piece of barrel for the standing part of the breech and a bolt used for the breech plug. I've used this method on several rifles including two with interchangeable barrels. I learned this method of breeching a barrel from William Young years ago. May not be what you are looking for but has worked for me. It locks up tight if it is fitted well.. Tim

Very interesting. With the engagement further out on the bottom of the tang it simplifies making the notch to receive the hook. That's the biggest hang up in my head... how to make the notch.

[Tim Crosby]

 How about this:

  https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=27959.msg266671#msg266671

 Do a search on Hooked breach, there are more.

  Tim C.