Building a Kentucky Rifle

8/11/2019 Building a Kentucky Rifle

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by

Budd Davisson, exclusively for Airbum.com

Getting Started:Tools and other stuff

This section will probably grow as I get the energy to get deeper into specialized tools, but I thought wedget started with the basics.

In the first place you dont need anything exotic although there are a couple of things you cant dowithout and there are a couple that ma!e life a little easier.

Cant Do Without This

The first time you pic! up a loc!, be it a flintloc! or a cap loc!, youll wor! the hammer bac! and forthand immediately realize how it wor!s. Dont let them fool you, however. They can be pretty sophisticatedin their simplicity and there are "uantum leaps between the cheaper loc!s and the better ones and thedifferences are in details you and I cant even see. D#$T B%& #$ '(I)*+ A cheap loc! is li!e doing aheart transplant and getting the heart from the lowest bidder.

ere using -iler loc!s here because they are the standard and because they are close to the style of theancaster rifle were building and right for the period.

'art of the way a loc! can fool you is that youthin! you can get them apart with a screw driver./#(0*T IT+ Ta!e a loo! at the springs. Bothtypes of loc!s have the main spring in the bac! andthe flintloc! has the frizzen spring up front. Thesemay not loo! li!e much but youre sure to damagea loc! if you dont un1tension these springs beforeyou remove any of the screws.

The springs put everything under tension and ifyou try to ta!e a screw out itll bugger up the end

of the threads as you try to get it out. Besides, itllbe a real bitch getting the screw out in the firsttime. To ta!e tension off the cloc!wor!s you need

to compress the spring. This much is obvious even after a cursory examination of the loc!. hat isntobvious is that it isnt easy to compress the spring.

Don2t let anyone !id you, getting that spring offwithout a vice is a bear


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The first thought is to use a little )1clamp. 0ood idea, but the springs are so narrow and have so muchslope to them the clamp cant get a good purchase on the spring.The next thought is the pride of Dewitt,

$ebras!a, the 3ice 0rip 4all true 3ice 0rips come from Dewitt, not far from my hometown5. These6might7 wor!, depending on how you feel about leaving gouges on springs and such8really bad idea andsmac!s of 99 49ic!ey 9ouse5.

*nter the spring vice. This is a little gadget you should buy right along with your :entuc!y parts. It has

rotating ;aws that are specifically made to span the length of a main spring and let you compress it with acouple turns of the thumb screw. 0o to Trac!ofthewolf.com to order tools and parts. They also have !its,

but Dunlaps feature better wood and select parts.

Chisels: dont chintz on these

A surgeon isnt going to wade into a "uadruple bypass with a -wiss Army !nife and you shouldnt try towor! curly maple with anything but topnotch chisels.

They are available from a number of sources but get the best money can buy. &oull use them for the restof your life, so dont screw around with middle of the line stuff. &ou can use 6palm chisels7 if you want,

but Ive always found them too short for general use. Theyre great for fine carving, but we may or may

not be doing any of that on this piece.

&oull need the following blade types=?71straight @>=?71straight =>7, this can be a simple -tanley type tool sinceyoull use it as a scraper.1gouge, >=?, ma!e this a medium radius to get intocorners of curved mortises.

I have probably fifty chisels, but these are the ones usedmost and are all youll need for this pro;ect.

&oullalsoneed

sharpening stuff as follows7 drill but having a drill press ma!es life much,much easier. If you dont have one, dont rush out and buy one for this pro;ect. I can thin! of only onehole that should be done in a press and thats the touchhole and only then if you plan on threading it and

putting a unobtainium liner in it. #therwise, ;ust hand drill it and try really hard to ma!e it a s"uare.

As we get into the different operations and other tools pop up 4since Ive probably forgotten some5 wellget into them at that time.

-o, get a vice, get some chisels, get going.

0o To 'art Three

by

Budd Davisson

$%clusive for &irbum.com

Building Your Own lintloc! "entuc!# $ifle: %art One

#!ay, we2ll admit it< this series is probably a little esoteric for a lot of fol!s. But, if you have the slightest interest in$eat -h1t, hang in there. This is really a fun, relatively easy pro;ect that results in an artifact that even yoursignificant other would li!e to have hanging on the wall. Besides that, they are so much fun to shoot you won2t be
http://airbum.com/NeatShtpix/HainesPart3.htmlhttp://airbum.com/NeatShtpix/HainesPart3.html


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able to stand yourself.

If you haven2t been exposed to blac! powder shooting before, you probably have some "uestions about their safety.The answer is that, yes they are safe. Treat them exactly as you would any other firearm with ;ust a little morecaution attached to handling the raw powder. e2ll get into that in some detail when we get ready to go shooting.

The %ro&ect

hat we are going to build is a 'ennsylvania long rifle 4also called :entuc!y rifle5 similar to what Isaac aines, one

of the more influential gunsmiths in ancaster, 'A would have made around =GGH. In this case, it is a . caliberflint loc! with a swamped @J inch barrel. A swamped barrel tapers from the breech towards the muzzle, then,about a foot from the end, flares bac! out again. Don2t as! why. e don2t !now for sure.

e selected an Isaac aines style because I li!e his crisp architecture and general lines. is butt stoc! is typicalancaster, with straight lines top and bottom, but he rendered them in a tighter style. Also, I li!e the ;ust1barely1pre1(evolutionary ar styling in general, with the flatter, wider butt plate.

This will be the first !it I2ve assembled, as I usually cut my stoc!s from a board, doing all the shaping myself, whichis a long tedious tas!. Kust inletting the barrel is good for H hours plus because each flat of the octagon changesdimension as you move up the barrel channel. %nless you2re really serious about it, the !it loo!s li!e the way to go.

It2s a little more expensive, but won2t drag on nearly as long. As I2m writing this, I2m guessing it2ll ta!e about ?Hhours to finish the rifle, not counting carving. I2ll !eep rough trac! of the time involved and we2ll see how that wor!sout in the end.


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The "it

e decided to use a !it from ayne Dunlap 4Dunlap oodcrafts, =?HH / /lint ee (d, )hantilly, 3A LH==4GH@5?@=1=G, 4GH@5 G@1LGJ5 as he is 9r. ood in the long rifle community. e supplies much of the woodused by the thousands of builders who populate the extensive sub1culture that has built up around the long rifle.

#ne of the primary reasons we decided on a Dunlap !it is that it uses the best components available and Dunlap2sreputation for parts fit is un"uestioned. 9ost of his inlet mortises are so close to being the right size, they re"uireremoving the only tiniest amount of wood. Also, it ma!es no sense to put this amount of effort into a pro;ect and usesecond "uality parts and material. &ou2ll see lots of !its at a much lower cost, but you won2t see any better. Dunlap2s!its run in the M?HH1MJHH range. &ou2ll also see !its in the MLHH range that are usually made in Italy or Kapan. Ignorethose. *very aspect of them is "uestionable yet it ta!es the same amount of time to finish.

)urly maple is available in a wide range of "uality which generally means the more curl and the tighter the curl, themore valuable the wood is. *xpect to pay MLL and up for a premium piece of wood which will be around M@HN bythe time it has been machined into a semi1finished stoc!. A straight grained piece of wood would be about M=HHO it2snot worth saving that amount of money considering the time and "uality of the finished product.


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Incidentally, the wood is nearly white in its natural state, but is stained prior to finishing to bring out the curly grain.The curls are grain reversals so the end grain soa!s up the stain better and the light>dar! stripes stand out. It2s reallycool to watch that happen while you2re staining. Then, when you hit it with the first coat of finish and the grain leapsout at you, you remember why you started this pro;ect in the first place.

Dunlap uses 0etz barrels which are usually the choice of most serious builders, but there are at least a half dozengood barrel ma!ers out there. I2ve never used any other !ind.

The loc! in the !it is a -iler, which is also the standard by which other loc!s are measured. Again, there are probablya dozen or more loc!s available, but the -iler wor!s well so why not use itC Also, the shape of long rifle loc! platesand the hammer changed significantly after =JHH and in different regions. The -iler shape is more or less correct tothe =GGH period in the ancaster, 'A area.

As you2ll see in the pictures, I2m going to set the rifle up to use both flint ignition and the much later 4and historicallyincorrect5 percussion cap ignition. hen the cap loc! was invented in the mid1=J@H2s, a vast ma;ority of the olderflint guns were converted because the newer loc! was so much faster and more reliable.

All of the brass parts 4buttplate, trigger guard, etc.5 are wax cast, rather than sand cast, so they are "uite smooth andonly re"uire minor finishing. The sprue has to be cut off and the edges and ;oint seam dressed down.


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The Tools

hat does it ta!e to build one of these !itsC /or one thing, itta!es no power tools. Although you2ll see me using a drill

press, that isn2t necessary. A hand drill with a fewrudimentary ;igs will do the same thing, ;ust not as easily.

#f critical importance is a set of small carving chiselsincluding a flat chisel around =>J across and a reasonably

small gouge. 9ost of the wor! could be done with a =>chisel, but a gouge is absolutely necessary to wor! theinsides of the loc! recess.

Along with the chisels should come several sharpeningstones, down to the finest grit available. Then ma!e a leatherstrop by gluing some belt leather to a bloc! of wood andwor! some rubbing compound into its surface. There issimply no substitute for sharp tools on a pro;ect li!e this.

$one whatsoever.

&ou2ll also see me using some blac! stuff as a color transferto see where the parts are touching the wood so I !now whathas to be cut away. ip stic! wor!s ;ust as well and is easierto find.

#ne gadget you may want to purchase is a little specially made vice to compress the main spring, in case you wantto disassemble the loc! to better wor! on it. -ee the article on long rifles elsewhere in Airbum.com to get the addressto ;oin the $ational 9uzzle oading Association. Their magazine is full of suppliers.


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The Ste's

The plan of attac! has some flexibility built into it but, at this stage of the game, we expect it to go something li!ethis, and we2ll present lots of pix to illustrate each step@rds of a blade width over and repeat the process.

The goal is to increase the depth of the scribe line a little at a time all the way around. Then we come bac! and

gingerly cut away the material between the scribe line and the mortise.

Incidentally, the Dunlap mortise is so close to the edge of the tang that youll only have a little area to scribe onexcept at the rear.


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0# -# -#& AT TI- '#I$T TAT IT D(I3*- % $%T-. The tang is sitting right there in front of 0odand everybody and its the last place on the rifle you want to have an ugly gap staring up everyone you hand the rifleto.

) *+$ )T !hen a plan comes together- ( 0ote on Shar'ness

hen cutting the vertical faces of the walls, the blade should not only cut cleanly with no tearing of wood, but thesurface left behind should have a slight sheen to it. If youre wor!ing hard to shave a tiny area of the mortise, yourchisel is too dull. -trop it or sharpen it.

AA&- A--%9* %( )I-* I- T## D% A$D -T(#' IT. &oull "uic!ly develop a feel for when itscutting and when youre forcing the issue. There is no place for brute force any where in this pro;ect.

As youre inletting the tang, youll be inletting the bac! of the barrel at the same time. -o, youll be loo!ing forsmudges from about six inches in front of the tang to the bac! of the tang. This is why its usually easier to removethe tang and do the barrel first.

inishing the Tang Surface

&ou dont inlet the entire depth of the tang into the wood. &ou inlet until the top of the bac! of the barrel is slightlybelow the surface of the wood behind it, which will put probably =>J7 of metal into the wood at the very bac! of thetang and at least that much stic!ing out. Then you bring out your files and hand file the tang down to match thewood surface.

D(#' TAT 0(I$D*(+++ I said 6hand7 file it down. &ou dont have much extra wood on the top of the wrist andthe last thing you need is a nasty gouge or groove in it because you got in a hurry and grabbed a power tool.

'*(/*)TI#$ #$& A''*$-, *$ % )(**' %' #$ IT. Dont get in a hurry. This rifle will be handed

down to your grand !ids so use the hand file and slowly wor! it down to shape.

hen you have it barely flush with the wood, ta!e the barrel out and start using et Pr Dri paper wrapped or gluedaround a hard board about six inches long. -and in only one direction, either pulling the sanding stic! toward you or

pushing away. Dont go both directions or youll have more trouble !eeping it flat. -tart out with LLH1grit and wor!your way up to ?HH. In the process of sanding out all the file mar!s, youll ta!e away ;ust enough metal that the tangsurface is slightly below the surface of the wood. This allows you to later sand the wood down for a perfect match.

Drilling for the Tang Bolt+)enter punch the position for the hole and drill the hole appropriate for the size of tang screw youll be using,generally about @>=? 4Q=H screw5. ere going to counter sin! the hole, but not until weve drilled the hole in the

stoc! and we want to have the original hole all the way through the tang to help guide us.hen this is sanded do!n, carved and finished the !ood(to(metal fit !ill be nearly perfect. The pear(shaped tang

looks cool, if nothing else. )'ll replace the buggered bolt at the last minute.


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eve got a bunch more operations to do to the barrel, li!e mounting the sights and the attaching lugs under it, butwell do those in a separate piece of ;ournalistic chaos. %ntil then ma!e haste so slowly that cold molasses is passingyou.

0o To 'art /our

by

udd Davisson, e%clusively for &irbum.com

Part Four: Lockin' it Up

hen building a rifle from a board 4not a !it5 theres always a huge amount of head scratching 4and downright fear5involved in getting the loc!>barrel>ramrod hole relationships right. The problem is that the loc! pan has to have the

proper relationship to the touch hole, which has to have the right relationship with the barrel bore and there has to be

a bolt coming all the way through the stic! from the off side into the loc! plate.

hats the big dealC There wouldnt be one except that there is a @>J7 ramrod running full length under the barrelright behind the loc! and T* /(#$T #): B#T A- T# 'A-- B*T**$ T* B#TT#9 #/ T*BA((* A$D T* T#' #/ T* (A9(#D #*. The space is generally less than @>=?7.


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-how me someone who hasnt had a loc! bolt interfere with the ramrod and Ill show you someone who hasnt builtvery many long rifles from a blan!. $o matter how much you lay it out in full sized on the blan!, sooner or later younic! a barrel or a ramrod. #r worse yet, the loc! is in the wrong position on the barrel.

&ou dont !now the meaning of the phrase 6fearful expectation7 until youve drilled the bolt hole, put a bolt in it andthen slid the ram rod in for the first time literally praying that theres no interference.

But we dont have to worry about all that because the !it manufacturer, Dunlap oodcraft, has wor!ed all that outfor us. The hole is even drilled. That one factor ma!es using a high "uality !it li!e this worth the price of admission.

The 1oc! .ortise

Before we start wor!ing on inletting the loc! put the loc! in your hand and study it. oo! at the two screw headsprotruding out the bac! 4tumbler and trigger spring5 and the way the main spring runs forward, tapers in width and isnearly flush with the bottom of the loc! plate. Its important you remember all the parts bac! there because itllma!e the inletting process ma!e more sense to you.

The front of the main spring and both scre!s are going to be your problem areas. &lso, the area indicated by the

arro!s is supposed to lay flush against the barrel.

hen starting a loc! mortise from scratch on a blan!, traditionally you completely disassemble the loc! and do yourfirst inletting using nothing but the loc! plate. Then, once you get that set to your taste, you start putting one part at atime bac! on the loc! and inlet each in turn. -ome of us have made permanent little guides, or !ey templates, thatgive the depth of each ma;or part so we can approximate them without having them on the loc! plate.

ere's the spring vice again. )t'll become your little buddy during the lock inletting process.

Although disassembling the loc! is over!ill for this pro;ect, were going to do itanyway because it ma!es the pro;ect move ahead a little more orderly with less hassle and with less chance ofmista!es.

irst Scri,e (round the 1oc!

The first thing youll notice is that the loc! mortise is very, very close to an exact fit for the plate. In fact, I wish it

had a little more wood so everything wasnt so critical.

#n my !it there was the tiniest oversized area about a half inch long on the top>rear of the plate that Ill have to gluea sliver into. 9any would ignore it, but if I dont fix it I !now thats all Ill see every time I pic! it up. I mentioned itto Dunlap and he said it must be pattern wear and has fixed it on subse"uent models.


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Be careful scribing around the loc! because in many areas its already the right size and the scribe 4or *xacto !nife5could ding the edge of the mortise.

/nletting the loc! 'late

As you wor! the plate into position there is one factor that isnt obvious from the beginning< besides fitting themortise, the flat bar under the pan area has to lay snug against the barrel. If you dont do this, there will be a gap andevery time you fire it, youll have fire flashing down into the loc! mortise. hat a bummer it would be to entertain

the guys at the range by setting fire to your fancy new bang stic!.0oints of contact as indicated by the transfer medium on the !ood a2 trigger spring scre!, b2 tumbler scre!, c2

front edge of main spring, d2 plate is laying flat and this is okay as long as the bar is laying flat against the barrel at

the same time. e don't !ant to cut a!ay too much !ood on the edges of the mortise and have there not be enough

support !hile the bar is against the barrel or it'll tip the lock, !hich looks bad.

If youre not wor!ing with the Dunlap !it and have a straight barrel, theres another little nuance here worth

mentioning. *arly period flintloc!s, li!e the aines were replicating here, have a lot of subtleness to their lines andif theyre wrong, the rifle doesnt fit you as well as it should. 9ost fol!s get the wrists too fat because the originalshave really s!inny wrists, which means they are also wea! in that area. The swamped barrel, however helps that

because the loc! goes in at an angle, which ma!es the wrist wider and stronger.

#n a straight barrel, the wrist can be too s!inny, so it helps to solder a little wedge1shaped piece of metal on the bac!of the loc! bar under the flash pan that !ic!s the bac! of the loc! plate out a little. The piece doesnt have to be verythic!. If its =>@L 4.H@5 at the bac! and tapers to nothing at the front, thats fine.

)ompared to doing the barrel and tang, finishing the loc! mortise is easy. &oull use the transfer compound and!eep searching out places it touches and scraping them away. Be 3*(& careful at the edges of the mortise so you

dont create gaps.

:eep wor!ing until the plate fits snug against the barrel and lays EH degrees to the plane of the barrel. Dunlap hasdone such a good ;ob in this area its hard to screw it up unless you get in too big of a hurry.

/nletting the mechanism

'ut the tumbler 4the round thing with notches5 and the trigger spring bac! on the loc! and put transfer stuff on theheads. )hances are youll find they touch the bottoms or sides of the holes already inletted in the mortise. In my caseI had to remove wood on the bottom and one side of both screw head inlet areas.

$ow put the main spring bac! in place. The spring needs room to wor!, so inlet it when the mechanism isnt coc!edor the bottom of it wont have room.

The front edge of the spring is "uite wide and in any inletting ;ob drives the rest of it. 'ut the blac! crap on it andslide the loc! into position. $ote where the spring touches and remove ;ust a bit of wood. This becomes the samedrill< scraping, spread out the blac! on the spring, insert, remove, scrape, etc., etc.


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:eep the process up, all the time loo!ing for places where metal is contacting wood too strongly.

hile youre doing all of this chec! to ma!e sure the trigger bar isnt too long and contacting wood on the other sideof the stoc!. (outinely I have to grind =>J1@>=?7 off the end to get wor!ing clearances. Dont over due the trimming.

It has to extend at least @>=?7 past the center of the stoc! to ma!e sure the trigger blade contacts it.

By the way, while you have the loc! apart, polish the bottom of the trigger bar and get it super smooth so the triggerblade doesnt encounter any roughness. Dont mess with the rest of the cloc!wor!s unless you really !now whatyoure doing. If you want to ma!e it slic!er with a crisper trigger brea! 4were not using set triggers so this may beworth the effort5 ta!e it to your loc! pistol smith and have him stone the parts. The reality is, however, this is mostlywasted effort because the loc! wor!s really well the way it comes out of the box. Besides, were not trying to drivetac!s at =HHH yards with this thing.

Drilling the ,olt holes

hile you have the loc! disassembled and the plate inletted and clamped in place, run a @>=? drill bit on your trusty

hand drill through the bolt holes from the off side so it leaves a mar! for both holes on the bac! of the loc! plate.

The bolts are QJ x @Ls so youll need an J>@L tap and tap handle 4if you dont have one5 and a QLE drill bit 4.=@?H5,which should be available at your local A)* hardware store for ;ust a few dollars.

The loc! plate is pretty soft metal, so this isnt brain surgery, but ma!e sure you ma!e a deep center punch mar!exactly where the drill bit left its mar!. e dont want the QLE drifting off center.

This is best drilled in a drill press, but a hand drill will wor! fine as long as you wor! hard at !eeping it EH degreesto the plate.

#nce you have the holes drilled, carefully force the tap in by turning it a full turn or so. &ou ;ust want it to catch athread and stic! in the hole so you can bac! off and see how perpendicular it is from all angles. Then, put a drop ofoil on the tip, put some pressure on it and slowly start turning.

If youve never tapped anything before, the !ey here, li!e everything else is dont be in a hurry. #nce the tap isstarted youre only going to turn it about =JH1LGH degrees before stopping, turning it bac!wards EH degrees or so,and then moving ahead. This is to brea! loose any metal stuc! to the tap and to give it more room to wor!. :eep itoiled.

At the beginning ma!e it a point to chec! every EH degrees of turn to see that youre still vertical. #nce youve cut acouple of threads, however, youre stuc! with the angle youre going in at, so dont rush it.

Cleaning u'

&oull notice when you try to put the hammer on the loc! that it contacts wood. -o, coc! the hammer, mar! where ithits the wood and remove that ridge. Dont, however remove the ridge thats standing above the loc! plate all aroundit. ere going to leave that until were doing our final shaping. This will protect the final surface until were readyto wor! with it.

3ery cool+ This thing is starting to loo! li!e the real thing isnt itC

#n to the butt plate.

To to 'age /ive


19/27

by

udd Davisson, e%clusively for &irbum.com

%art i*e:

Getting in Touch With our Butt

Im not sure how to characterize fitting a butt plate that is as complex as that on a :entuc!y. Im tempted to say itsa pain in the butt, but thats too obvious. hat I will say is that it almost doesnt ma!e any difference whether its a!it or a scratchbuilt because unless its machined turned to a given butt plate, youre going to have about the sameamount of wor! to do regardless.

( cou'le notes a,out "entuc!#2t#'e ,utt 'lates in general

/irst of all, a butt plate is not ;ust a butt plate. They each have their own characteristics and style. #n top of that, the

stylistic progression of butt plates from old to not1so1old is seamless. The flat, wide, good1for1stompin1heads buttplates of the old 0erman Kaegers slowly mutated into the mildly curved, wonderfully graceful, wide plates of the late=GHHs to the s!inny, ridiculously curved and painful1to1shoot units of the =JH R PHs. /or the most part, you canloo! at a butt plate and, with an JHF guarantee of success, place it within L years of its date of origin from the

beginnings right up until muzzleloaders left the scene. In the case of most golden age :entuc!ies, you can evencome within H miles of its location. The pros can nail it down much closer than that.

9ost of the butt plates share a couple of characteristics, however< they are curved to some degree and they feature areturn on the top of the stoc!. hat this means to the wood wor!er is that the plate must be inlet in three directionsat one time. The return has to come down into the stoc! and forward which moves the curve of the plate itself thesame direction. oo! at the geometry of whats going on. Its actually pretty complex.

+n a golden age butt like this, the !idth of the return on the top means it has to be true or it !ill cant the plate in

both directions. &lso, note the !ood in the middle that has to be reduced in si3e, but not completely eliminated.


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Generalities in installing the ,utt 'late

The !ey is to get the B' located correctly vertically so the bottom surface of the return on the top of the stoc! can beset in the right position 4the flat it sits on is trued up in all directions5. This then means from that point on, youreusing that flat as a guide to move the butt plate forward by slowly removing wood on the butt surface of the stoc!until the entire unit moves ahead enough that gaps in all forward surfaces are eliminated.

#n the Dunlap !it, the fit as it comes to us is close but theres no way they can ma!e it perfect because of thevariations in butt plates. The butt plates are cast brass with a good portion of it being pretty thin so they differ fromone to another because of slight amounts of warpeage while they are cooling. -o, were going to have to do our gunma!er thing and ma!e them fit.

Im going to go through the traditional method of fitting one of these little buggers, but at the end of the process Imgoing to give a tip that was ;ust passed along to me that could !noc! a number of hours off the process.

itting 'ro,lems to ,e wor!ed out

The notch for the return on the top of the Dunlap stoc! as it comes is pretty good and needs only a little cleaning upto be true. e can do that with a fine wood rasp.

The protrusion in the middle of the butt plate area has to be removed which, because its end grain, can be a pain.

If you loo! at the photo youll see the biggest problem area in the !it is at the bottom of the stoc! 4toe5 where therewas a gap a solid @>=?7 wide, so the entire unit has to slide that far forward. The little tip passed on to me 4dontcheat and s!ip to the end5 might have solved that much faster than I did using my usual methods. Incidentally, itnormally ta!es me ?1=H hours to fit a butt plate and the tip could have cut that in half.

True up the flat area the return on the top sits on and that becomes the guide for the rest of the inletting. +bviously,

everything here had to move for!ard enough to get ride of the gap at the bottom. Treat the radius at the heel !ith


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special care.

The small gaps and the radius problem at the heel of the stoc! 4top corner5 are no big problem. Theyll disappear inthe course of solving the big gap at the toe.

.ethods of remo*ing wood

(emoving wood on end grain can be problematic because even with a hyper1sharp chisel, its hard to control to anydegree of accuracy. /or that reason, plan on viewing the outer =>1>=?7 of the area where the butt plate actuallyma!es contact as being sacrosanct and were going to treat it very carefully. *verywhere in between its up for grabsas to how carefully you want to do it.

I suppose if you want, you could ta!e a humungous spade bit on a drill and simply under cut it all. The theory here isthat no one is going to see anything but the very outer surface where the metal meets the wood, so anything inside isinvisible and doesnt count. Although it would greatly speed things up, I cant do it that way.

I li!e to wal! into my shop and, regardless of the status of an uncompleted pro;ect, regardless of what it isO I li!e tobe proud of it. ithout getting too fastidious about it 4actually, Im from $ebras!a where few of us even use wordswith that many syllables5, I li!e the insides of my pro;ects to reflect the same care lavished on the outside 4go to The(oadster )hronicles elsewhere in Airbum.com and youll see the same 6problem7 I have in this area5.

If I wal!ed into the shop and saw the area under the butt plate simply hogged down so it would clear with no effortat finishing it, it would depress me. /urther, every time I pic!ed up the finished rifle, Id !eep seeing through the

butt plate to a messy area and I couldnt en;oy the rifle as much. That, however is a 3*(& personal attitude and notone I suggest anyone else follow. This is also why some of my pro;ects ta!e so much longer than they should.

Getting rid of the ,ig clum'

Before we can do anything, we have to get rid of the big lump of wood in the middle of the area butt. Its a lot toremove with hammer and chisel, plus I dont any 6normal7 sized chisels8they are all small. -o, I opted for athoroughly non1traditional approach. I put a ?H1grit sanding dis! on my trusty 7 angle1head 9a!ita grinder andcarefully went after it.


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I use that grinder for so many different operations in so many different mediums 4its my prime cutting tool andmetal remover for heavy steel construction5 that Ive gotten to where Im really comfortable with super close, fineoperations. owever, be advised< that suc!er could easy get away from you in this !ind of operation and put ahelluva gouge in one of the mating surfaces right where you dont want it.

*ven though Im comfortable in the extreme with the tool, I still put three layers of duct tape over the matingsurfaces to protect them. It wouldnt be bulletproof protection, but at least it would !eep the damage to a minimum.

In about five dusty minutes I had the lump reduced to a much more manageable size and I was ready to move on to

my primary wood removal system for butt stoc!s< using a big chisel as a scraper.

True u' the ,utt 'late

Although we can inlet to correct for any irregularities in the casting, its better to true it up as much as we canbecause its much easier to inlet smooth, regular surfaces.

*ife is much better if you use a mill file to even out all the mating surfaces. e careful at the radius in the corners.

et a file they use to sharpen chainsa!s to !ork that area.


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In this case, the inside surface of the butt plate has casting ridges and some areas that arent very even. -o, well ta!ea big mill file and, laying it across the butt plate so were doing both surfaces at one time, gently smooth them down

Be very careful when youre wor!ing up into the small radius at the top that you dont leave some nic!s in thecorner from the file. -tay a little way away from that area and clean it up with a small round file 4a file used forsharpening chain saws wor!s great5.

Be especially critical what youre doing with the bottom of the return. Try your darndest to ma!e the two flatsperpendicular to a line youve drawn on the inside of the plate with a felt tip pen. If the surfaces are off even a little,theyll swing the toe of the plate one way or another. e can easily inlet those surfaces so the plate is s"uare on thestoc!, but its easier if we start out with s"uare surfaces on the butt plate to begin with.

Beginning the 1O0G 'rocess

#ne of the things that ma!es this such a long process is that even though I !now we have to remove @>=?7 of wood,which is a helluva lot of wood, especially when its end grain, Im not crazy about going after it with a band saw orthe grinder thin!ing Ill ta!e off =>J7 fast and the last little bit slowly. /ar too many times Ive ta!en that approach

and realize too late that there was some little nuance I missed and it caused me much more wor!. -o, I start creepingup on it right from the beginning. Im certain the big guys do it differently.

The first thing we want to do is chin the plate on the upper return notch and verify that the angle of the notch holdsthe top of the butt plate at an angle that follows the comb of the stoc!. e want it to be a flowing visual line fromthe nose of the stoc!, right behind the wrist, all the way to the heel. A butt plate thats at an angle to the top line ofthe stoc! stic!s out li!e a third eye.

&ou also want to be critical of that angle because if the front of the butt plate return is down by even a fewthousands, it pivots the plate on the heel of the stoc! and pulls the very bottom of the plate out "uite a bit.

'ut mar!s 4felt tip pen5 in the middle of the butt plate at both ends and have matching centerline mar!s on the stoc!itself. If you have extra wood, flush the plate to the left side of the stoc! to increase the cast1off 4angle the buttslightly towards you to off set the centerline right for better sighting. This is not important.5.

The lines on the bottom of the butt and the butt plate have to be watched carefully while youre truing up the flats for


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the return so the plate remains vertical.

$ow were ready to start with the blac! transfer medium. Brush it on the butt plate, lay the butt plate in position andtap it lightly with a bloc! of wood or mallet. (emove it and locate the high spots. This is where I probably departfrom the ways other guys do it.

e're starting to get little touches of black all the !ay around, including at the front of the return. This is the point

!here !e move slo!ly. The only gaps left are at the very bottom of the stock.

I remove the high spots by using a heavy =>7 chisel as a scraper. Its super stiff and, because its a full sized chiselwith the blade formed as part of the tang that goes clear through the handle, I can really get a good grip on it. &oucan actually remove a lot of wood "uic!ly this way, but thats not the goal. The goal is to remove ;ust the local highspots and the =>7 size helps in that regard.

#ne of the first things youll have to do as the plate moves forward is to 3*(& gingerly form a radius on the upperrear corner 4heel5 of the stoc!. /ight the urge to cut that to what you thin! is the right radius ahead of time. Themar!s made by the butt plate in that area are very clear and very specific. They are also easy to remove ;ust a hair ata time. /or this you use one of your inletting chisels and actually cut the sliver of wood away, going from right toleft.

Because the butt plate will contact the wood for only about =>7 around the edges, youll wind up with what loo!li!e little trails running around the stoc! that are carefully smoothed by scrapping. At the heel, where the small radiiare, the trails will be especially noticeable.

Again, dont rush. This is another of those areas where even the tiniest gaps show so we dont want to chop awaytoo much wood. 'ut a stac! of good )Ds in the player, have a supply of your favorite beverage handy and resolvethat this will be done when it gets done.

It can really be a mind numbing process so figure on doing it in two or three, three1hour sessions to minimize the

brain damage and ensuing mista!es.

Screwing it together

At some point youre going to finally have this thing inletted to the point that youre happy with it and its time toput the screws in.


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i!e everything else, theres a long way to do this thatll save you some grief and shorter ways that may or may notcause you grief.

The problem is that the hole in the top of the stoc! has to be in exactly the right spot and the holes counter sun!correctly or, when you tighten the top screw, it can move the butt plate bac! slightly and undo all of your carefulwood wor!.

The method I use is to drill =>J7 holes, one in the proper location on the mid1line of the return and a distance up fromthe toe. hen drilling these holes remember to try to !eep them vertical to the surface in "uestion. /or the bac! hole,that means going in at an angle that matches the curve of the butt plate.

The final wood screws youll be using are much bigger than =>J7 but we use the smaller size as guide holes.

) ran the countersink in 5ust a hair more than necessary to get the slot in the scre! to line up across the centerline.

!hen ) dress the surface do!n and s6uare up the flats, most of the e%cess countersink !ill disappear 7he says !ith

great hope in his voice2. $ow, position the butt plate inposition and drill the bac! hole into the stoc! using the butt plate as a guide. Dont go very far into the wood withthe bit, we ;ust want it as a place to start a screw, and ma!e sure all centerlines match.

$ow, get a long sheet metal, pan head screw and run it through the bac! butt plate hole and into the wood. -nug itup and ma!e sure it pulls the butt plate forward and tight to the wood both at the bac! of the stoc! and at the front ofthe return. e dont want any gaps showing.

)arefully drill through the top hole and put a sheet metal screw in. $ow we have both screw hole locations in the

wood and the butt plate fixed. $ow its onto the real thing8countersin!ing and drilling out for the full sized screws.

The goals here are to ma!e sure the bigger screws dont ma!e the plate move and to have the screws centered in thecounter sin!s A$D EH degrees to the surface so the heads arent canted. This can sometimes be harder than itsounds. owever, if we screw1up theres always a way to correct it8if we get a hole croo!ed or in the wrong place,we can drill out the hole in the stoc! to @>J7, glue in a piece of dowel, and start over again. The @>J dowel gives a bigenough surface to relocate the hole easily.

Drill the holes in the butt plate out to the proper size, which in the Dunlap !it is @>=?. e want to counter sin! thoseholes ;ust enough that the screws are flush with little or no edge of the counter sin! showing.

The ideal situation is to use a countersin! with a pilot stub on the nose, but since those are nearly impossible to find,youll ;ust have to use what the hardware store has to offer and be careful.

)lamp the butt plate firmly in the vice and proceed to counter sin! ;ust a little at a time, test fitting the screw in the


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hole constantly. The countersin! will be happy to drift off center, if you dont hold it vertical 4a drill press ma!esthis much easier5, so be careful and test fit the screw often. Kust go a little at a time and itll wor! out fine.

$ow, screw the plate in place, doing the bac! screw first. )hec! the top hole to see if it is still in the center of thelarger hole. If it isnt, drill it out, plug it and re1drill it so the screw doesnt sit in the butt plate hole at an angle. Also,don2t be afraid to ta!e a round file to the hole and fudge it one way or the other. It may not be perfect craftsmanship,

but it wor!s.

$ow youve done all the hard wor! and we can move on to trimming the stoc! wood down to size in the shapingoperations. This is the fun part because then you really get to see how well the wood fits the metal. ith any luc!,youll see a seamless fit. owever, if it isnt "uite right, heres the tip that ayne Dunlap passed on to me and Iwish someone had told me about twenty years ago.The pay off to !orking slo! it's hard to see here, but !hen the !ood is dressed do!n and the transfer black

disappears there !on't be a hint of a gap any!here. This is !hen you forget ho! long the process took. o!ever

using the tapping the edge do!n tip !ould have shortened the process considerably.

The Ti'

Assuming youre doing a brass1mounted 4not iron1mounted5 rifle, the brass butt plate is "uite soft and easily bent.-o, get it more or less inletted with gaps still showing and then, screw it down. Then, using something li!e a =7 steel

bar as a hammer, gently pound the edges into position. &oull have to file and sand the outside surface of the buttplate anyway to smooth up the casting, so any hammer mar!s will disappear.

I dont !now if the plate would have deformed enough to ta!e up the entire @>=?7 gap we originally had at the toe ornot. I thin! Id be afraid to move it that far. A disruption in the line of the butt plate 9I0T be noticeable.

Dont use a regular hammer for this operation because the mar!s will be too abrupt. In fact, the bigger the diameterof your hammering instrument the wider and easier to remove the mar!s will be. A piece of L7 pipe would probablyeven wor!. #r maybe hold the pipe in position and tap it with a hammer.

I havent tried this process yet, but its right up there on the top of the 6duh7 scale, its so obvious. -lap+ (ed spot inthe forehead.

ayne says theyve found information that says this is the way some of the ancients did it too. -o, its historicallycorrect cheating. &ouve gotta love it+

There is no 'art -ix, at least not yet. -orry. :eep chec!ing bac!. This ma!ing a living thing is getting in the way.


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In the mean time, wander around elsewhere in airbum.com. If nothing else, you2re a gun guy, so you will en;oy both8obalt lueand The 9tone!all :ile. These are action novels for guys who li!e nuts and bolts detail combined withunexpected plot lines. /or sample chapters, go to$ovels.

The Pennsylvania Rifle--An American Icon

(nd for other reall# cool stuff3 go to 0eat Sh4t+
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Building a Kentucky Rifle

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