Help ! Newbie attempting to build an 1861 Springfield from a pile of parts

[TNBandit]

First I must confess to being a complete noob at what I'm attempting with the exception of building one of the Nepal Brown Bess kits from IMA last year. Now I'm wanting to build an 1861 Springfield rifle from a variety of repro and original parts. This project consists of a new repro stock from Numrich, a repro barrel from an unknown maker and an original lock and trigger guard assembly. The remainder of the parts are a mix of repro and original parts. First issues I can see are the barrel needs to be set back in the stock a bit for the tang to fully seat and the tang screw hole to line up. Second issue if the lock dosn't seat all the way into the stock either. I'm sure it's a simple matter of carefully removing some wood until things fit as they should. Are there any decent videos or inexpensive books available to help figure all this out ?

 

[user 34300]

You need to remove wood to make it fit. A big fat marker makes good inletting black.

Here is a link to a very detailed series of videos that will explain it.

 

[hawkeye2]

Remove the internal lock parts except for the tumbler and hammer and you'll probably find it seats a little deeper in the mortise. With the lock in place you'll see how much you have to set the barrel back. The bolster has to fit into the lock plate and the hammer and nipple line up. Don't go by the tang inlet and screw hole as they could be wrong and the repro barrel may not be 100% correct. If the lock plate and bolster don't fit together correctly it can give you accuracy problems specially when the gun warms up. Do not file on an original lock plate. When it's correct you should be able to remove the lock without first removing the barrel though it can be a snug fit. With that combination of parts you'll most likely have to glass bed the breech and tang. Do not bed more than 6" of barrel and 3" may do. The middle barrel band should be a slip fit, that is slightly loose for best accuracy. The rear band can be a slightly snugger fit but you shouldn't have to tap the band on or off. The front band should be snug, again not enough that it has to be driven off, but the inlet (and the stock) should be true enough that it doesn't exert any pressure in any direction on the barrel. Cheap lipstick works for inletting too. Work slow and good luck.