First time inletting a swamped barrel!!!

[250Savage3000]

I am working on building my first flintlock (decided on a 36 caliber Kentucky style circa 1790 or so). Never done anything like this before, but I have been pouring over the Gunsmith of Grenville county and feel pretty good. I've been using the technique for inletting a swamped barrel described in the book with the guard rails and saw cuts. I realized a little while ago that my vise was tilted a little bit so I wasn't sawing straight down.

On the last half of the right-hand side of the stock, I took out too much wood behind the rails (pictures are attached; when I put my calipers around the wood you can see a bit of daylight inside the rail). I started a new saw path and continued to the depth of the bottom flats. I was worried about having a gap between the barrel and the stock because of my screw-up, but because my saw cuts at least were parallel I figured worst comes to worst I let the barrel enter the stock at a bit of a tilt and rearrange the stock later. However, I now need to make a decision.

I tried putting the barrel in with some inletting black (a little early I know, but I wanted to see how I was doing) to see how far the barrel actually was seating when I tap it in. Just as I suspected, because I was being conservative and leaving extra wood slanted outside of the rails, the groove gets too tight for the barrel before it is all the way against the bottom. To get the barrel to sit further into the groove so I can start carving out the bottom flats, I need to start taking away some of the slanting wood. We're finally getting to my question now!

If I make the saw cuts parallel to the side of the stock, that means the barrel will enter the stock straight. Which means that the extra 16th or so of wood I took out earlier when I wasn't sawing straight will leave a gap. This seems like the best course of action to me, because if I try to let the barrel enter the stock at an angle to make it parallel to my messed-up saw cut, I would need to saw the rest of the sides to exactly the same angle.

To anyone else here that has more experience than me; how much of a problem will this gap be? Following the advice of the Gunsmith of Grenville County, I didn't cut away the extra wood to reveal half of the side flat yet (I will do that very last when I finish doing the bottom flats). This hopefully will make everything less noticeable and more uniform in the final inlet but I want to err on the side of caution!

Pictures are attached, and any advice will be more than welcome!

 

[rich pierce]

If your blank has room, has not been bandsawed yet, I’d inlet much deeper till it’s good and plane off the sloppy parts.

 

[LawrenceA]

Will the removal of the xtra wood eliminate the gap?
Assuming that you are working to the thinnest spot the barrels tapers should eliminate the majority of any gap or not?

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Rich is right on, if you have the wood and it will eliminate the overcut. If going deeper is not an option, or will allow correction, I would make the sides vertical as originally intended. Yes, you will have a gap, but IMO going slanted only compounds that mistake.
Don't beat yourself too hard, we all make them. At least most of us!
By the way, welcome to the forum! That was a good first post. You had good photos and description of the issue!

 

[250Savage3000]

That's a good idea, I should have the wood for it but I'll redraw everything just to be sure. I won't be making the same mistake the second time around!

 

[billraby]

I would inlet the barrel straight and not worry about the gap. You can always fill it in later and it is likely that there will be other gaps also later on. There always is.

 

[wulf1928]

I made a template and used a route.......