Building a Pecatonica Tennessee Classic Longrifle

[PathfinderNC]

I started work on a custom order Pecatonica River Tennessee Classic Longrifle. The customer ordered some outrageously beautiful premium Curly Maple, a Late Ketland flint lock and had a Rice Premium, Southern Classic swamped 50 caliber barrel shipped to Pecatonica for in-letting the barrel channel.
The kit arrived in good shape after disappearing in transit for a few days.
I started with cleaning up and installing the buttplate. The next step was to measure out the location for the touch hole. I installed it so the vent is just forward from the inside face of the breech plug (3/32"). I next started the cold browning of the barrel.
The lock mortise was pre-carved so I had to do some fitting to get the lock in place and sitting flush. I didnt have any inletting black so I used lipstick (thanks to my wife!) to indicate areas needing attention.
With that done, and the barrel now browned, I laid it against the stock to see how well Pecatonica did in routing out the barrel channel in relation to the lock mortise. Ugh! The barrel sat a heavy 1/8" too far back! (Had I just drilled the vent hole as things were, there would have been a large chamber behind the vent and a light load of powder would have the ball sitting over the vent hole). So, with a piece of similar Curly Maple in my bucket I cut a spline. After getting it to fit, I sanded it to thickness and Titebond 2 glued/clamped it in place. The patch is strong and I am pretty sure the seam will not be very noticeable. (A hint when gluing end-grain to side grain; always smear a bit of glue into the end grain and allow to dry, to seal them up, else the glue will wick in when clamping and you will not get a good bond.)
Next will be to fit the barrel in. I hope it lays in the channel well. I dont know how much a 1/8" adjustment forward will affect the fit of barrel and channel. I may need some suggestions soon!

 

[Bassdog1]

Pathfinder keep up with the progress of this project I love seeing how these come together.

 

[Notchy Bob]

That's a clever fix, Bob. Barely noticeable as it is, and in the finished rifle, the patch will probably disappear.

That's also a great tip about gluing end grain wood to side grain. This makes perfect sense, but I had never thought of it. I putter with woodworking now and then, but your level of skill way out of my league.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished rifle!

Notchy Bob

 

[PathfinderNC]

Pathfinder keep up with the progress of this project I love seeing how these come together.

I will try!

 

[PathfinderNC]

That's a clever fix, Bob. Barely noticeable as it is, and in the finished rifle, the patch will probably disappear.

That's also a great tip about gluing end grain wood to side grain. This makes perfect sense, but I had never thought of it. I putter with woodworking now and then, but your level of skill way out of my league.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished rifle!

Notchy Bob

Someone once talked about the art of hiding a mistake. I have learned not to 'freak out' at these things as much as I used to, but kind-of sit back and give it some thought. It certainly is better to tackle a challenge with a calm, level head. Things generally work out better that way And I am glad that I was able to share some tips. Thanks!

 

[Norman Brooks]

Looks like a nice piece of curly maple. Good idea on the barrel movement forward, depending on how tight the barrel fits in the channel you may not have a problem of side gap. I have done two Pecatonica River rifles one Buck's county and a Tennessee Mt. both with A weight barrels. Make sure you post pictures of the finished gun...

 

[Eric Krewson]

I leave the patched areas darker when I finish a gun and the patches never show.

This tang has had some serious shimming done to fill gaps that I made when I had a bout of ADD while I was inletted it.

 

[Reno]

Looks good. I always drill the vent as almost the very last thing. BUT!
I always check the alignment with the pan and breech plug before beginning serious fitting of the lock and the barrel.
Just me. I probably do things the hard way most of the time.

 

[Darkhorse]

Why did you install the vent before the barrel and lock were in their final position and pinned to the stock?

 

[PathfinderNC]

Why did you install the vent before the barrel and lock were in their final position and pinned to the stock?

Because the touch hole needs to be placed in the center of the side flat and close to the face of the breech plug. Not too close or fowling will clog the hole and not too far or light loads will put the ball over the vent hole.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Bob don't cut or shape your lock moldings yet. Do nothing with them until you have shaped the wrist to its final form. Rounding the top and bottom of the stock through the lock area will shape the contours forming the lock panels naturally without any need to cut them in except around the front of the lock. The top of the stock at the breech needs much more slope from top to the lock mortise. If you continue as it is now, you will end up with a wrist that looks like a 2x4 with the corners rounded over. The cross section of the wrist should be oval or spherical even through the lock panels. Try to visualize the cross section of a ball with two opposite sides cut off flat forming the lock panels.

dave

 

[GANGGREEN]

Looking forward to seeing the upcoming photos too. I had Mark Wheland inlet a Getz/custom FCI barrel into a similar/really nice curly maple stock blank and I'll be working on it at some point soon and making a TN rifle as well with a Kibler Ketland lock. Really looking forward to seeing my final outcome and shooting that .36 rifle as well.

 

[Darkhorse]

This is the way I do it/was taught to do it and done right it puts the touch hole exactly where it should be everytime.
With your ramrod measure the distance from the end of the barrel to your breechplug, now scribe a line vertically at that point. Measure the distance you want your TH to be from the breechplug and scribe another line. Measure to the center of the flat at that point and scribe another line to make a cross. This is a visual reference point.
Compare the center of the pan to your reference point. It will be off but it will show you how much to move it.
You can move a swamped barrel towards the butt a good bit and still get a tight fit. There will always be a little distance you can move the lock also. Lay your lock plate over the mortice to see how much larger it is and where it needs to be moved. Lay the barrel on the stock butted against the rear of the barrel channel. Now by comparing the two components carefully inlet both until your reference mark is your chosen distance from the breech plug and the reference point is in the center of the pan and the center of your horizontal mark is centered on top of the pan.
If you had done it this way I don't think those pieces of wood you glued in would have been neccesary.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I made my Tennessee with .40 + .50 interchangeable barrels. The barrels and stock came from Pecatonica. Inletting and lock mortice location were perfect. I let the pan tell me where to install the vent liner in sunset location and ignition is instantaneous.

 

[Norman Brooks]

I forgot to mention is the lock opening on mine was off and larger in spots, had a friend tig weld on additional metal then fitted it to the opening for proper location.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Never drill a touch hole until the lock is in place and the gun basically finished. Mark the location it will be but leave it at that until the gun is done. That way you can make minor changes during construction without worrying about the hole being in the wrong position. Don't brown or blue anything until the gun is done.

dave

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Hi,
Never drill a touch hole until the lock is in place and the gun basically finished. Mark the location it will be but leave it at that until the gun is done. That way you can make minor changes during construction without worrying about the hole being in the wrong position. Don't brown or blue anything until the gun is done.

dave

Thanks Dave. That makes great sense. My method for locating the vent has been to lay the end of a very thin SS ruler across the pan flats and lightly scribe a line on the barrel. I center punch just above the scribed line which puts the vent just above the pan/frizzen interface.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
You all have great ways to locate the vent hole. Do that but just don't drill it until the end.

dave

 

[PathfinderNC]

Hi,
Bob don't cut or shape your lock moldings yet. Do nothing with them until you have shaped the wrist to its final form. Rounding the top and bottom of the stock through the lock area will shape the contours forming the lock panels naturally without any need to cut them in except around the front of the lock. The top of the stock at the breech needs much more slope from top to the lock mortise. If you continue as it is now, you will end up with a wrist that looks like a 2x4 with the corners rounded over. The cross section of the wrist should be oval or spherical even through the lock panels. Try to visualize the cross section of a ball with two opposite sides cut off flat forming the lock panels.

dave

Thanks Dave. Yes, I will be doing the wrist much later as well as the lock moldings too. What we see at this stage is the pre-carved stock without any work done to it, except for inletting the lock, barrel and tang, and the double-set trigger mechanism (today). It's very beefy which I like and will allow me to do some nice shaping.
One challenge I overcame today was in getting the double-set triggers installed. I had to carefully grind down the tops of the levers so they did not touch the sear bar. I am not a metal worker so I really took a lot of time to very gradually grind the levers (I don't know the actual term) so they functioned properly when installed. It's like surgery LOL.

 

[PathfinderNC]

I made pretty good progress with the build today; first job was to carve out the barrel tang. The barrel channel patch I did yesterday got the barrel located just about perfectly in position. I was also greatly relieved that the actual barrel inlet channel was smaller than the barrel itself. allowing me to gently widen it with a series of wood sanding blocks. I cut the lug holes and carefully measured where the barrel pins will go. For the pinning I will use a c-clamp Drill Guide made by Robert Bogg.
Inletting the double-set triggers took a bit of patience for me at the bench grinder. I garved the hole and got the mechanism in well, but the trigger levers (I don't know their actual name) were too high so I had to grind them down so they did not touch the sear lever bar while cocking the lock. I was a bit nervous but had done this once before, though not as much metal needed to be removed. After some time I got it to where it works well and triggers the lock.
Next up is to drill and tap the lock bolt and inlettting the side plate. Then I will drill the tang screw into the trigger plate and tap that. Robert Bogg's drill guide will be a big help in getting these in on target. The barrel pins will follow.
With that completed, I will begin working on shaping the butt section and moving forward up the gun.