The winter project has arrived... This should keep me busy well into ice out... If not longer.

We'll be modifying parts, etc to model a mid 18th century colonial American Longrifle. Most of which were made up of parts from older guns, new stocks and import parts from Europe.

Hopefully, come next November I can get a couple of deer under her belt. If I manage to get a good load combination developed.

She's 50 Cal, sporting a 42" Green Mountain B weight swamped barrel. Sights will be primitive, filed to size to bring POA on target. Right now it's lit by a Jim Chambers Early Germanic lock, but I am tossing around swapping that for a Jim Chambers English Fowler or Virginia Fowler lock.

If anyone is interested I'll take photos and document this journey...

Yes, I had to stand on a ladder to get the whole thing in the photograph... It's 59 1/2 inches long at the moment... Once LOP is set it'll be an inch or two shorter...

Well that ought to keep your mind off of the cold Rootsy. I like the lines of that stock. Pretty decent piece of wood too. I've never held a swamped barrel gun. Is the balance really that much different?

First swamped gun I've ever had. Compared to my GPR and Hawkens this thing feels like a feather hanging out there in front of my fore hand... Balance is exceptional.

That seems like a wonderful way to keep you busy in the off season. Never owned a swamped barrel either but I hear the balance is quite a bit different.

Looking good...Nothing wrong with that lock...Are you going to install a White Lightning liner???

Of course....

This will be a very interesting project. I hope you keep us updated. That Green Mountain Barrel will be a shooter no doubt.. That is beautiful.

Making progress in light of a few setbacks. First I had to swap the Early Germanic for a Round Faced English lock.. The Germanic just would not fit and allow for a forward lock bolt. Not without bending the nose of the lock plate upward toward the barrel.

Fit the breech plug to the barrel... The plug and threads are 5/8 in length. Ideally as with many originals this dimension should be 1/2" in order to place the barrel / lock in such a manner as to eliminate the small sliver of wood above the lock plate bolster rearward of the pan fence. To fix this I put the plug in the CNC mill and interpolated a C-bore in the face 1/2" in diameter x .135 deep. I also had to take a thread and a half off of the OD since the breech of the barrel was not threaded to the face and doing so with a bottoming tap would still leave you coming up a bit short. After draw filing the rear of the barrel to get the plug indexed with a flat far enough away from the Green Mountain stamps in order to hide it and getting the plug face to seal at the rear of the rifling we ended up like this..



In order to get the barrel into the stock you have to square the breech face of the stock to achieve ideally 75% contact with the wood. The tang, unbent also has to be inlet somewhat to get the barrel to sit to depth. Ideally you fit the barrel into the stock with the breech plug removed. You verify rearward contact as well as even contact over the length of the bottom flat in the stock... You then install the plug and inlet downward until the barrel is again sitting against the bottom flat... Tang still unbent.





You can then see how the lock is going to sit on the blank panel. You must lay out the ramrod and bottom of the barrel channel. This leaves you with the thickness and location of the web between the two channels. This is where your forward lock bolt is going to pass through. The top of the stock at the barrel channel should be no higher than half the thickness of the barrel also. This puts the top edge of the pan even with the center of the barrel for locating the vent / vent liner. Some locks and panels present an issue.. as seen with the Jim Chambers Early Germanic, here... The nose needs to be upswept more than it is... Like many of the original germanic / jeager locks were...



Since this wasn't going to work I swapped it for a Jim Chambers Round Faced English lock... Also period correct but possibly a bit fancy for this type of rifle... We are dating this rifle 1760 or so... Here it is laid out on the stock.



Much better fit...

Now that I know where the lock will go and that it'll fit with the barrel located where it is you can go about bending and inletting the tang. I bend my tangs by using a vise, ball peen hammer, large flat punch and a lot of trial and error. I begin by tracing the profile of the stock at the tang area, as well as a flat portion an inch into the barrel... This gives me a flat to rest against on the barrel when I am checking shape. You are not going to get it perfect. Close is good... You will file the final profile to meet the stock profile once it is inlet. I attempt to get the end of the tang at the correct elevation as well as a gentle curve and as much of the rest of the tang as close to profile as possible. Once done set the barrel and tang in the stock and trace around it. It also helps to put a back bevel on the tang. This way you get a snug fit. BTW, sharp chisels are paramount. Take your time, use inletting black or candle soot... you'll get there eventually..

here is the finished tang, after inletting and filing...



Stock inlet for tang...



Barrel and tang in stock...



Notice the small gap at the end of the tang... This is important... As a tang that bears against that edge of the inlet may split the stock under heavy recoil... Once finished if you fill with some beeswax you'll never know it was there...

Now we can begin to inlet the lock... Start by disassembling the lock (should already be done). Make sure the bolster that is flat and coat with blacking and place it where it needs to go on the stock and give it a tap. Begin to take the blackened area down to the barrel channel. This needs to go all of the way into the barrel channel as the bolster will rest flat against the side barrel flat when finished. There will be an area behind the barrel that will be blind and use blacking to take it away slowly until the lock plate sits against the lock panel. Next step is to begin inletting for the lock plate itself... The bolster is not close to being against the barrel yet...





More to come... this is as far as I am at the moment...

very nice!!

Do you plan on using aquafortis on the maple?

Have not decided yet... I have some... Have used it on other stuff... Lot of work if you don't do it correctly...