If the key goes into both escutcheons easily when the barrel is out of the stock, then the problem is NOT the key, or the escutcheons. Its the Stock( warped) or the barrel and hangers. You should not have to press down hard on the barrel to get the key to go in. That "warps" the barrel, and gives very poor accuracy as the barrel heats up. Since the barrel is made of steel, its usually going to be the stock that is warped. SEND THE GUN BACK!
Sometimes, its just a burr on the slot in the hanger under the barrel that is moving the key out of alignment. That is why you take a look at that part, using marking dye on the key to show where its rubbing. What its rubbing against can be determined by looking at where on the key the dye is being rubbed off! If its a burr, then a fine file will remove it in short order and you are good to go.
Keys should fit tight enough so that they don't come loose in recoil. You don't want to lose one in the field. But, they should not require a Hammer to put them in, nor a gorilla-sized Grip around the wood and barrel squeezing the two together to get the key into its place.
More than 30 years ago, I was at a club range when a friend was shooting a CVA rifle. He is a very fine rifle shooter, but after his first shot he could not put the ball on the paper at 50 yds. He let the gun cool down, and fired a shot over a rest, and it hit the target, but was well away from where the sights were zeroed the year before.
He checked the sights. He had put witness marks on the bases of both the front and rear sights when he zeroed them the last Fall, and the sights had not moved.
So, he decided to take the keys out of the gun to remove the barrel. He got one key out easily, but the second one required the use of a claw hammer( mine) to pull it out. That T/C tool is a mini-claw hammer, BTW. When we got the key out, he could not put it back in the stock. After looking through the key hole, and using his huge hands to squeeze the barrel and stock together to try to put the key back( almost did so) I urged him to just shoot the gun that day without the key to see if that was the problem he was having with accuracy.
So, he shot the gun with just the one key in the stock, and the gun shot right to POA, and put 3 balls in the target touching, shot OFF-Hand, at 50 yds. He was ecstatic. His accuracy problem was solved.
The stock had warped as it dried out over our very dry winters here in Central Illinois. He took the stock back home, moved the escutcheon, and refiled the slot for the key, and the gun has shot just fine ever since.
Warping of the stock wood is becoming a common problem with production guns as they cut corners on production costs by using wood that are not well seasoned( dried- either air dried over a couple of years, or kiln dried) before the Barrel mortises are cut, unfortunately.
Part of the problem is that the kiln operators are used to drying construction lumber, that rarely are more than 1 inch thick. Blanks for stocks are necessarily more than 2 inches thick. It takes more time, and if the kiln operator doesn't know that(he should) or has failed to calculate the additional cost of keeping the wood in his kilns longer, you get wood that does not meet specifications.
Now the stockmaker is sitting with a truckload of wood, and demands to get the stocks made and out the door. He can't afford to ship the wood back to the kiln operator, and if he orders more wood, there is no guarantee that the new order will be any better than the last. Finding sources of kiln dried wood for this business is difficult, as there is not much of a market to support much competition. So, he runs the wood through his operations, and Hopes that most of the wood does not warp Too Badly so that the Company begins to complain about it too much.
Make the Company Complain! :cursing: :thumbsup:
