A few pics of the squirrel rifle I'm building.

[Sidney Smith]

Hoping this works. I don't have the best luck posting pictures. Just a couple quick pics I took yesterday of my .32 cal squirrel rifle that I'm building. Stock is an Andrew Verner style from Pecatonica river. Its one step below their premium curly maple. Barrel is a Rice, straight octagon 13/16 across the flats. Standard Chambers Siler lock. I'm still finishing the lock mortice, and at the time of the photo only the lock plate was inlet. Today I got the bridle, tumbler, fly and sear bar inlet. The stock has alot of wood on the sides. Had to go pretty deep to get the bolster to meet up with the barrel. I'll post some more as I get further along.

 

[rich pierce]

You’re on your way!

 

[tenngun]

Looks great

 

[Feist Hunter]

Great start. .32 cals are a blast to shoot.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I've got the complete lock almost fully inlet. All I can say is what a PIA....I think the next one will have the lock mortice done by the stock makers like my previous two ML's. Don';t know what I was thinking buying a stock without the mortice having already been done. A lot of inletting.

 

[Zonie]

No doubt about it, your right. Inletting a lock is a lot of work.

On the other side of the coin is, quite often the company that makes the rough stocks are set up to make a mortise for one style of lock.
An example of this is Pecatonica River often inlays a Germanic style Siler lock in their roughed out blanks. Their Tennessee Classic and Tennessee Mountain rifle kits are examples of this even though the real Tennessee rifles almost never used locks of this type.

If that style isn't correct for the gun you want to build, the only choice is to buy the stock without the lock mortise and inlet the lock you want to use.

I've done this a number of times and as you said, it's a LOT of work but in the end, it's often worth doing.

 

[billraby]

Its a lot less work than inletting the barrel. Neat thing is that it gets a lot easier every time that you do it. If you have someone else do the next one, you will become dependent on others and never develop this skill yourself.

 

[Eric Krewson]

You may get the lock mortise cut and get something like this, I bought the kit second hand so I can't send it back. I have always done my own lock inletting because I can put one where it is supposed to be. The only perfectly cut lock mortise I have fooled with is on my Kibler SMR.

 

[Sidney Smith]

That lock needs to go in a little deeper my friend. Not good if you can see wood in between lock and barrel.

 

[Eric Krewson]

You missed it, the lock is tight to the barrel, the factory inlet is so low that the pan isn't even on the barrel plus I had to move the barrel back 1/4" just to line up the pan. The precarve inlet is way off, too far forward and way too low.

I dropped the barrel and still didn't like the lock position so I glued in a piece and reinletted the lock. I haven't worked on the gun in a while. The precarve goof up took the wind out of my sails, I didn't want to trash the stock as it is the finest piece of wood I have built a rifle out of so far, spectacular.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I glued in a piece and reinletted the lock

Looks like a good fix. Another example of why the word "kit" can be very misleading for a beginner. Only someone with advanced skills could repair that inlet. Looking forward to seeing the finished rifle.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Oh I see it now. From the wood showing in the pan, to me it appeared the bolster wasn't all the way down to the barrel.....Yeah with the way that lock was positioned, you'd have a tough time drilling the barrel for a proper touch hole.....Yeah maybe I am better off having inlet the lock myself. But, the last two flintlocks I built had the lock mortises preinlet and they both were right on the money.

 

[Grenadier1758]

On one kit, my 1803 Harper's Ferry, the stock was inlet for the lock so the fence on the lock was at the end of the barrel. That was fine but the breech plug was 1/8" longer than the desired touch hole position. With an octagon to round barrel that couldn't be moved back and no wood to fill the lock mortise, I had to notch the breech face to get the touch hole in the proper place. While I agree, notching the breech face isn't the most ideal solution, it is something that was done historically. I also had several very experienced builders tell me that there would be little harm if the breech face was notched. I was advised that a touch hole liner would not be a good idea. I was able to make an internal cone in the barrel. It is very fast.

Listen to Eric, get the stock without a lock mortise. You will be happier in the end.

 

[Eric Krewson]

That little piece of wood you see is the product of half a day cutting pieces of wood to insert and test fitting them. I went through 3 or 4 before I found a way to match the the stock and the shim with a perfect gap free fit. It looks like there is a gap in the nose and tail of the lock but the wood is above the lock bevel and these two areas are very tight a little lower in the inlet. I also mocked up a system of wood blocks that would let me apply c clamp pressure vertically to pull the shim very tightly into the mortise.

I fit the exterior perfectly but having already inletted for the lock internals it was impossible to do a neat shim fitting job inside the mortise, it looks pretty sloppy but won't show.

 

[CapnJack]

Cudos on your tenaciousness. Sometimes it's easy to get frustrated by others mistakes.
Especially when you buy a product that's supposed to be correct.

 

[Pete G]

But, the last two flintlocks I built had the lock mortises preinlet and they both were right on the money.

You have probably used up all of your luck

 

[Sidney Smith]

Knowing my luck, You're probably right!

 

[MSW]

now, however, you must have used up all the potential FUABR there is to be had in this project, so everything else should go smoothly...

 

[Sidney Smith]

I sincerely hope so.

BTW - I posted some more recent pictures of the rifle in the Flintlock section. Have the barrel pinned in place and the lock fully inletted. Next stop is to inlet the trigger assy.