How should I know if my barrel is inletted well enough?

[flintbuilder]

I am putting in my barrel with inletting black and am getting some pretty complete coverage of black. I wondered how good is good enough. I completely understand the better the fit the better but does the inletting black need to completely cover the entire surface of the barrel channel or is 70% 80% 90% good enough to get good results with accuracy? :idunno:
Also, does anyone use glass bedding regularly to help with accuracy or do you mainly use it to fill in the inletting gaps in the breech?

 

[flintbuilder]

Ha ha, thats funny, I posted this before I saw the post just bellow. I guess my question is a little different as the barrel slides out pretty easily and I just wondered how much black I need to see on the bottom three flats?

 

[Stophel]

Good enough is good enough. Total contact is really unnecessary. "Even contact" would be a better way to go.

Here is a completed inlet that I have done. You can see the amount of contact there is.

You could scrape down the high spots till the cows come home and get more contact, but for no good reason at all.

this is a "tutorial" of sorts....How I inlet a barrel. The photos are in reverse order. www.photobucket.com/albums/v326/Fatdutchman/Flintlocks2

 

[Zonie]

Speaking of a full stock rifle in my opinion the barrel channel from the ramrod inlet area to the breech should have over 80 percent contact between the barrels bottom flat and the bottom of the channel.

The forend further out from the ramrod inlet hole can be quite a bit less than 80 percent because this area of the stock does not provide any support to the barrel. In fact, the barrel supports the wood out in this area.

The most important area of the barrel channel is the breech area. The wood should fully support the barrel here.

 

[flintbuilder]

Wow,these two posts completely answered my question. Thankyou for sharing your experience with me. The two of you seem to answer alot of my questions I post here. I have to say thanks, your helping out a newbee, by that I meen this is my fourth gun. But I have done them all on my own without help from anyone. So your help is huge for me.
Thanks,
And happy building
P.S How about using glass bedding, any use in using it if you don't have a big gap at the bottom of the breech area? I also read that it is a good idea to have a small gap at the back of the tang inlet, instead of having a super tight inlet, so the recoil doesn't slowly crack the stock. Is there merrit in that? :v

 

[Birddog6]

I bed ALL of my breeches & tangs with Accraglas Gel. You can't see it, but it is under there, stable, & they never move.

Keith Lisle

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have to agree with Keith about using Glass to bed actions. It is Not Historically correct- because they didn't have it back then! However, its not unusual to find 19th century guns where paper, or cloth has been used, with varnish, or Shellac, to bed stocks. I have read, and therefore have no reason to believe otherwise, that this kind of bedding was used earlier- but Not being a Curator of a museum, with a collection of 17th and 18th century guns to examine, I simply can only say that is what I have read and heard from others far more knowledgeable about antique firearms.

Its next to Impossible To get Curators to take a barrel out of a stock from their collection to allow an inspection of the barrel and tang mortise work. Many are Historians, with little to no knowledge about guns, on how to take them apart. :shocked2:

As to the rear of the tang, you can either leave a small gap= usually beveling the wood immediately behind the tang to hide the gap, undercutting the wood. OR, you can bevel( Relieve) the underside of the rear of the tang, so that any force applied to the tang wants to angle upward, against the tang bolt, rather than push back squarely against the stock.

If you relieve the tang at the rear, it helps in removing the tang from its mortise, if you need to take the tang out of the stock for any reason.

Relieving the rear of the tang and then putting a similar angle to the tang mortise, aids in getting that "tight"-appearing fit of the tang to wood that we all love to see. You file The excess wood, and metal together to the final dimensions, and in doing so, get that fine fit between the two. If you leave the wall of the tang at right angles, instead, you may NOT have an equally straight wall in the stock, and the more wood filed, the bigger a gap appears. Grrr.

 

[Stophel]

I never use epoxy for anything!!!

 

[Tinker2]

I usually use Acraglas but not the gel.



William

 

[flintbuilder]

Kieth,
Can you tell me your proccess for putting in the bedding? Do you run it down the whole barrel channel or just the first 10" or 12"? Do you do it before, after stain and oiling, and then stain and oil over it? Do you use the screw under the tang to get the right deapth? I am quessing that you do it after every thing is final fit and lock and tang screws are in place? I have never done it before so any advice you may have would be very helpfull. I have a box of the accraglass gell and have read the directions and it seems pretty easy. Any info? :hmm: Thanks in advance.

 

Flintbuilder, There's no need to bed, or use a cloth or paper on a longrifle, except as a repair. Unlike modern guns, with their harmonics, BP guns have the barrel holding the stock. With all due respect to Paul V. the only need for some kind of filler, with cloth or paper would be to repair a split in the webbing between the barrel, and ramrod groove, or a break. I used some Dacron, and varnish to fix an early Hershel House, with a split web, and that was on Hershel's recommendation after conferring with him.

Bill

 

[paulvallandigham]

Bill, when I saw this in an original stock, I can assure you I made NO attempt to peal off the layers to find out WHY the material was in the barrel mortise of the stock. No obviously crack appeared on the outside of the stock, however. The Owner of the gun told me the information I passed on to you, and said that this was passed down to him through his family with the gun. He had no reason to doubt that an ancestor had bedded his barrel mortise with the layers of what appeared to me as cloth- but could also have been old paper- or velum, or sheepskin. The Varnishes were very darkened with age, so even in the best light, I could not see clearly through the surface patina.

You might be correct- I am not going to argue the matter, as I have had so few chances to be able to handle, and take apart original guns.

I heard the same thing, BTW, from another member of my gun club who had a relative with an extensive collection of 17th and 18th century firearms. More recently, Someone from England mentioned, on this forum, the fact that in the European Rifle competitions, glass bedding with Epoxy was not allowed, but stocks could be bedded this older way- using paper, cloth, or what have you, and layers of varnish or lacquer-- and that method was considered acceptable, because it was Historically Correct. :idunno: :thumbsup: