r/r groove

[yip]

  should the ram rod groove run paralell with the bore of the barrel? i'm trying to make this rifle slim looking and read something about using a 6/32" lock bolt on the front the lock.

[rich pierce]

What matters is the distance between barrel and groove at the muzzle and barrel and hole at the lock bolt. Lay the barrel on a table. Get a very long straightedge. I’ve got a 5’ long piece of square steel channel. Snug the straight edge up to the barrel with the gaps you want at the muzzle and front lock bolt. That helps you visualize.

[Not English]

 Yip, Rich's recommendations are good. A straight barrel is pretty straight forward. A swamped barrel you need to do like Rich does. I personally don't like to use a 6-32 front lock screw. I will if necessary to correct something. Your muzzle cap will also determine the web thickness to some extent. I use a milling machine with an 8" rigid backstop   for cutting in the ramrod channel. I would rather have a little more wood in the forestock for strength. You will need at least an 1/8" thickness for pins and adequate thickness of the lug where it goes over the pin. You can do an awful lot with forestock moldings to make a forestock look thinner.

Dave

[flehto]

Perhaps I determined the direction of the RR groove using a more time consuming way {swamped bbl} but it came out as I wanted. After measuring the swamped bbl in a few places, I then determined dims that measured from the top flat to a dowel pin laying in the RR groove.  To really make the RR groove consistent, a size board that was 12" long w/ the desired radius filed on had a sheet of 150 grit sandpaper that was used to make the groove  straight. No guessing w/ this procedure but it did take awhile, so after the 4th LR, began having the work done.

All the Bucks  County LRs I've built have a 1/16" or slightly less web at the breech and 5/32" at the muzzle and used a #6-32 front lock bolt and an #8-32 for the rear. Never had any problems using a #6-32 lockbolt...afterall it only holds the lock in and the inlet does most of the work. The 1/16" web requires a special bbl lug for the 1/16 dia music wire  which I use for all the pins in a LR.......Fred