Am I installing this nose cap right?

[Trapper1993]

There is a noticeable gap between the wood and the iron on the bottom. I had to sand down the top of the barrel channel so now about 1/2 or 2/3s of the side flat is showing, which looks ok but i dont want to sand it down anymore. I'm trying to slip the nosecap on to the wood that is small enough for it to fit around, tap it with a mallet and then sand down the parts that are preventing it from sitting further down the stock, I dont know if this is the right way.

 

[Buckskinn]

I think you got too aggressive in your sanding of the stock where it meets your nose cap.

I am probably not qualified to help you out, but I leave the stock with plenty of mass left the file down area for the nose cap so it fits flush. Then remove additional wood from stock after fitting. How does the barrel sit with the configuration you have now? Maybe you can cut down the nose cap a little to give you more to work with.

Plenty here with more experience will be able to help you out... good luck!

 

[EC121]

It looks like there is plenty of wood as you slide it back farther. Also looks like there is too much wood on one side. Usually by the time a nose cap is fitted the side wood is just about gone.

Hard to tell without the barrel in the wood.

 

[hawkeye2]

Sanding down the top of the barrel channel is not the way to go nor is radiusing down the top of the channel to meet the nose cap. The top of the nose cap should be at the same level as the top of the barrel channel. I might have picked a cap that had more depth to it. Try taking more off the bottom of the stock to raise the top of the cap higher as it goes on. If the wood inside the cap doesn't come all the way to the top it's OK since it can't be seen.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I like to use a flat mill file with a safe edge for fitting the nose cap. This avoids accidentally removing too much wood where it meets the edge of the nose cap. Use inletting black and fit it with the barrel in place for a perfect alignment. And the wood goes all the way to the end of the cap.

 

[Codger Craig Wilcox]

You need to use a chisel and/or a rasp, then file. Sanding rounds wrong parts, and is inaccurate for the wood to metal fit at the rear of the M/C.

 

[BruceHH]

OK, stop for right now. I don't think you have messed up yet - but you are about too. First, put the barrel in the stock and leave it there while you are putting the nose cap on. Don't worry about how high the channel sides are now - after the cap is installed, you will bring those channel tops down to meet the top of the nose cap. Your pictures don't give the whole perspective, but I suspect you need to get the type of nose cap that has the ram rod groove in it. It kinda looks like the cap you have is going to leave a big gap between it's bottom and the ram rod.

It is hard to totally describe how to install one, but I will give you one method to consider. The end of the cap should be about 1/8" behind the end of the barrel - once installed. Cut the stock back a hair bit further than that and square it. Measure inside the cap and mark that measuement from the end of the stock back to where the cap will end. Draw a complete line around the outside of your wood at the point. Turn you cap around and place it on the barrel backwards on the front of the barrel. Make sure the bottom cap flat is up tight against the barrel. Draw a line around the end of your stock - follow the outline of the cap. That is almost the amount of wood you will need to remove (plus a little more) to get the cap on - all the way back to your first line. Do not sand - file the contour to match the outline. You will find you will have to remove some of the wood at the top of the channel sides (back to your first line) to allow the cap to slide on. Use some type of inlet black when doing the final fitting. You will probably not get a perfect fit inside the cap - but the outside should be seamless. Once you get that fit and the cap slides on and fits the barrel, then you can do the next step. Take the barrel out of the stock. Put some Saran Wrap or something similar into and around the outside of the barrel channel wood - overhang the sides. Place the barrel back into the stock pushing the Saran Wrap down - it keeps any glue or epoxy from getting to the barrel or into the channel. Remember to have excess hanging over the sides. Turn your stock upside down, put a good amount of epoxy on the portion of wood you removed and a little inside the cap and then put the cap on, making sure it fits onto the barrel as it should in its final position. The extra Wrap will keep the epoxy from getting into or on anything that it should not. Don't worry about epoxy pushing out onto the wood in the back - you can wipe that off or file it off later. Once the epoxy has cured, you can remove the barrel and start cleaning up excess epoxy and the Saran Wrap. You then need to drill and put a couple of pins through the cap - but lets hold off on that step until the cap is on solid.

 

[Trapper1993]

Following the advice of people here this is what I have now. The barrel is 44 inches on a 42 inch barrel channel so thats why its sticking out. Sanded down the bottom of where the nose cap sits and its covering 1/2 of the side flat. its as much as i want to take off as the wood is getting thin now. Yeah, its looks like crap. I need to sand the top of the barrel channel a little bit as some parts of it are sticking up above the middle point of the flat. Its not fully seat yet, i still have 1/2 inch to go

 

[BruceHH]

You asked, we responded and you are still doing it your way. Good luck.

 

[EC121]

That nosecap is too long. You can cut it off some for more room to inlet it. That looks like a Douglas barrel. Since it doesn't have a crown you can, finish sticking the cap on the wood and cut the barrel off to fit the cap then crown it.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I was thinking the same thing, the nose cap is way too long, there is supposed to be about 1/8" of barrel in front of the nose cap. I had about 1/2" too much barrel sticking out in front of my nose cap on my first build. I found barrel cutting is not hard to do, I used a hacksaw, machinist square and several files to get the job done.

 

[Buckskinn]

Bull in china shop method rarely works out well for intricacy.

 

[1BadDart]

When I built my rifle I wasn't going to use a nose cap, but I cut the stock off 5/8" back from the muzzle and I hated the way it looked. There were two possible fixes, cut the barrel or install the nose cap. Looking back cutting the barrel would've been faster and easier, but my front sight was already installed and I liked the look of it and the muzzle.

Right or wrong this is how I installed my nose cap. I measured the nose cap, added 1/8" for the muzzle exposure. Then I measured back that distance from the muzzle and made a square mark around the stock. Using a very fine stiff back saw I made a cut around the stock and started working back to the cut with chisels and rasps. Making the cut deeper as I removed stock material until the fit suited me. Was it the correct way? I don't know but in my little mind it was the simplest.

 

[Trapper1993]

Cut off an inch of the awful looking inletting job I had and I cut off an inch from the cap. It looks OK for now, I may need to sand the wood a little bit more but im fine with how it looks.

 

[Trapper1993]

When I built my rifle I wasn't going to use a nose cap, but I cut the stock off 5/8" back from the muzzle and I hated the way it looked. There were two possible fixes, cut the barrel or install the nose cap. Looking back cutting the barrel would've been faster and easier, but my front sight was already installed and I liked the look of it and the muzzle.

Right or wrong this is how I installed my nose cap. I measured the nose cap, added 1/8" for the muzzle exposure. Then I measured back that distance from the muzzle and made a square mark around the stock. Using a very fine stiff back saw I made a cut around the stock and started working back to the cut with chisels and rasps. Making the cut deeper as I removed stock material until the fit suited me. Was it the correct way? I don't know but in my little mind it was the simplest.

View attachment 153151View attachment 153152View attachment 153153

that looks beautiful! I still need to cut 2 inches off of my barrel

 

[The Crisco Kid]

If all else fails and the nose cap ends up not fitting right and looking terrible cut off the wood to clean it up and do without a nose cap.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

There is a noticeable gap between the wood and the iron on the bottom. I had to sand down the top of the barrel channel so now about 1/2 or 2/3s of the side flat is showing, which looks ok but i dont want to sand it down anymore. I'm trying to slip the nosecap on to the wood that is small enough for it to fit around, tap it with a mallet and then sand down the parts that are preventing it from sitting further down the stock, I dont know if this is the right way.

"Am I installing this nose cap right" There are several ways to skin a critter, but end results and quality vary. First of all IMO the sides of the fore stock should be totally shaped except for final sanding first! You are cutting into material that would not have been there. That makes for more work and time. The RR channel bottom should be flush with the bottom of the nose cap. The nose cap you have will never allow that as it is the wrong configuration. Remember you asked and I am just trying to help you see some of the issues. All of us here are in different learning curves.
Hang in there, good luck!
Larry

 

[Eric Krewson]

Nose caps are difficult for me as well, I have done a couple where I took too much wood off for a sloppy fit. On these caps I built the wood back up with superglue and sawdust and started over. I got a nice tight fit on my second attempts.

On the gun below the kit came with a cast nose cap that was for a smaller barrel than I had on the gun. I didn't notice this until I was deep into removing wood, I ditched the cast cap, and ordered a proper one but had to fill in the wood with superglue and sawdust to start over.

Same gun finished.

 

[Fitzhugh Williams]

You can also add wood to the end of a stock.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I was going to mention. Glue another piece of wood to the nose cap area and start over. It would be easy to do. Cut the wood flush where you screwed it up. Drill two small holes maybe 1/2 inch deep on either side where there's some meat in the wood. Now take another piece of wood, carve out a barrel channel, easy to do with flat chisels. Drill two corresponding holes in that piece of wood. Then insert two small dowels into one side of the repair. Then using a strong epoxy or other modern glue, sandwich the two pieces of wood together. Then after the glue cures, simply start your nose cap process over. It will probably be stronger than had you carved the stock to get the nosecap to fit in the first go round. The wood under a nose cap tends to be very thin anyway. That's why a lot of guys put a pin or other fastener into the barrel to hold the nose cap on.