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Inletting The Lock Plate, Side Plate & Lock Bolts Installed:

Lock Plate Inletted:

The lock was disassembled and the plate was positioned onto the stock. A little bit of wood had to be cut off behind the frizzen pan. The plate was then lowered into the stock till the bolster (thick part of lock) was tight against the barrel. Note the even blackening around the perimeter of the plate. this ensures a tight fit against the stock when the lock bolts are later installed.

Side Plate Inletted:

Prior to inletting, I cleaned up the edges of the plate with a file to ensure they were squared and beveled properly. I used a small clamp to hold the sideplate in position as I used my knife to cut around the tail of the plate to inlet into the stock.

Lock Bolts Installed:

I measured where the top lock bolt hole was positioned on the sideplate. It was 1/2 inch behind the barrel.

On the lock side, I measured 1/2" and made a mark on the stock. Then measuring forward from the front edge of the bolster cut out to this mark, I was able to transfer this position to my lock. In this case, it was 1-28/32".

To position the bolt in the center of the bolster, I made my cross mark for the center of the hole. I punched the mark and drilled a #29 hole thru the bolster in the lock.

Then I reinstalled the lock plate into the stock.

I also drilled a #29 hole in the top of the side plate too. Now I can use my drill jig to position the rifle with the sideplate on the bottom pin and then use the lock plate pilot hole to drill thru the stock to the other side.

Once the hole was drilled, I removed the lock plate and drilled the hole in the stock with a 3/16" clearance drill bit. I also drilled a 3/16" hole thru the side plate, too.

(Making The Drill Jig.)

This allowed me to reinstall the lock plate and position the tap thru the sideplate to tap the lock plate for the 8-32 lock bolt.

Here is a photo of the chart I use in my shop. Hopefully it is useful to you, too.

Here is the first bolt installed.

I followed the same process for the forward lock bolt. Except is this case, I measured the depth of the barrel channel and passed the bolt thru the web between the barrel and the ramrod channel.