Drilling ramrod hole

[sdakotadoug]

I am considering recreating a Tryon rifle in a friends collection. It has no underrib and only one ramrod tube. It appears as though they drilled the ramrod hole on this half stock gun at a slight angle, to go from the front/only ramrod tube, into the front of the forestock and somehow angle to miss the single barrel retaining key/staple. Any suggestions on how I might accomplish this? Thanks Doug

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Drilling RR holes is a scary thing for me, the pucker factor goes up everytime.

It can be done, but set up prep is everything.

 

[shortstring]

There's a couple of ways to do this that come to mind.

The easiest way is to drill a hole in a blank, locate the back end of it & inlet the barrel where you want it. Just start out with a large enough piece of wood to give yourself some slop every direction.

Another way if you got a barrel channel already.Hopefully I can put this in writing,some things are easier to show someone. On the side & bottom of the stock put lines that represent the location of the ramrod. With the barrel channel down, clamp this to a table or bench & shim it up so the side lines are parallel to the surface of the table. Now you got to make some drill guides. What they are going to be is blocks of wood with holes drilled thru them the same size as your ram rod drill. The holes need to be exactly the same height off the table as the side lines on the stock blank. Clamp the drill guide blocks to the table, one a couple of inches in front of the stock & the other a couple feet out. Now the holes line up perfectly with the intended ramrod hole & you are ready to drill. If you hold your cud right in the center of your mouth & get good & lucky it might go where you want it to!!

 

[George Holton]

Amen Brother! but remember that the brass inlay laong the forestock under your hand , probably covers a booboo many do even the oldest rifles. D o not be ashamed.

 

[wallgunner]

There's a couple of ways to do this that come to mind.

The easiest way is to drill a hole in a blank, locate the back end of it & inlet the barrel where you want it. Just start out with a large enough piece of wood to give yourself some slop every direction.

Does anyone do it this way? I'm not, and probably never will be a proffessional builder(a boy can dream!), but I build the guns I want. Like right now I'm building a bluderbuss I saw in a book. I'm about to start as usual gouging out the barrel channel with gouges, and then do the rammer channel. The few times I've tried this, the rammer channel is always 100% in line with the barrel, but tends to take a dive towards the bottom of the stock at the breech. So the with the bit going down, now I have to leave excess wood on the bottom of the lock panel, where in theory it should be mostly flat, or just a little wood left. It makes the lock area look chunky.
In Ravenshears craftsmanship manuals he states that he thought some English fowlers must have been literally built around the ramrod channel. I'm willing to try it this time. The other way is how all the books tell you to do it, but there is more than one way to skin a cat! I guess there is always more trees to be cut into planks if I screw it up.

 

[FASTFRED]

Keeping the distance between the bottom of the barrel channel and the ram rod hole is always pretty touchy....You want enough between the two so the key/lug setup doesn't go into the ram hole...Even worse when you have a twin lock bolt setup...

Since there is no stand off (in your case) between the single thimble (such as a barrel rib) and the bottom of the barrel, here is what I would do....Get the barrel into the channel where it needs to be...Temporary sweat on a thimble out near the muzzle the same size as the ramrod drill...Solder on another thimble a few inches from the nose cap with a spacer between thimble and barrel thick enough to just let the proposed hole miss the key/lug...

You must drill slowly, only a 1/2 inch or so at a time and clean out the chips...Any more and you'll clog the hole and jam the drill and get the hole off line...I use a brad point bit socketed/soldered to a drill rod...

Your other option is to cut/route out a long channel under the barrel...This is not ideal as I believe it tends to weaken the forend...Many double guns are done this way and I have seen quite a few replica's also using this technique...It'd ulgy, but your the only one who knows it's there... :winking: ....The Best...The Lizard...

 

[Slamfire]

When drillin' deep holes you want to git a bit with no leade screw/brad or whatever. :winking:

 

[wolfers]

Not to change the direction of this thread but how did they drill the RR hole back in the 18th and 19th centuries? They must have had a method that was used over and over again that was successful. :youcrazy:

 

[shortstring]

wallgunner; Careful doing this with a fullstock. If you have a crooked hole & line up the muzzle & breech with the RR channel & hole the entry thimble might end up off to one side or the other.

I was fortunate enough back in the 70s & 80s to work for Homer Dangler for a period of time. He had a RR drill with a threaded end. Besides having a drill bit for it he also had what looked like a small holesaw 3/8 in dia. He would drill a short amount & then run the hole saw in to straighten the hole as the saw was basically solid rod & was less apt to bend. I still use this concept & seldom have any trouble. It's gotten to be a pain when someone hands you a 2-3 hundred dollar piece of wood & you got to sink a drill in it & hope things work out right.

 

[dlemaster]

The Wolf
In the 18th century they used what is called a spoon bit. It resembles somewhat a gouge that is used in carving. The steel cutting part was forge welded to a long wrought iron shaft that was turned with a brace.
Dill a couple of ramrod holes with spoon bits and you will come to appreciate the twist drills and gun barrel drills most everyone uses today.

Regards, Dave

 

[sdakotadoug]

Thanks all, I will try both ways on a disposable piece of wood/metal and see what works best for me. Thanks again, Doug