barrel staples

[eph289]

I'm building a rifle with a 62 cal,1 1/8 X 36" tapered, round ball,barrel. I've installed two staples at 5'& 12' from the breech.I installed them per TOTW instructions. My wedge keys are extremly tight. I'm concerned that the sudden recoil might pull the staples out. Anyone have any experience with this ? I need to know what would be reasonable tention on these wedge keys Thanks alot

 

[bioprof]

From what I have been told and read on this board, you want to have a small gap between the key and the front and back of the staple to allow for expansion and contraction of the wood with changes in temperature and humidity. Many antique rifles have cracks in the forestock where the pins or keys enter the wood because of a insufficient slots for the keys or pins. Recoil from such a large bore might also cause cracking of your stock, so I would file down the width of the keys so you have a small gap.

 

[Zonie]

I moved your post to the Builders bench because your question is more in line with the material over here than it is in the Percussion Forum.

If you haven't seen this post, it may be of interest to you:

STAPLES POST

If your wedges are "tight" in the up/down direction you may want to evaluate how tight they are.
IMO, they should be just tight enough that they need to be lightly tapped into place. If they need a lot more than that, they may cause the wood to split if the wedge is not going thru inlayed, slotted escutcheons.

As bioprof posted, the wedge fit in the fore/aft direction should be a very loose fit.

 

[eph289]

hey guys ! thanks for the info and Zonie, thanks for moving my post to where it belongs. Maybe someday I'll learn.