Brian and I started on the rifle by squaring the wrist area for the breech of the barrel after we removed the breech plug from the barrel. To do this the barrel with the breech plug was laid in the stock and a measure was made from the end of the tang to the end of the inletted area for the tang.  This came to 20/32".  Measuring this distance from the end of the barrel on either side of the tang, we now have a two marks to draw a straight line across the wrist of the stock. This will be how far back we needed to square end of the barrel channel for the barrel.

The barrel was inletted into the stock using candle soot on the barrel and then removing the black marks only.  To hold the barrel, a wooden dowel was inserted into each end of the barrel.

Here Brian is laying the sooted barrel into the stock.

Then using a wooden mallet, the barrel is tapped to leave marks in the barrel channel. He started with easy taps and by the time we had the rifle almost bedded, he was really wholloping the mallet to the barrel.

Here you can see the marks left by the sooted barrel.

Now Brian is using a chisel to remove black marks in the breach area of the stock.

I think Brian is starting to like this type of work.

After the barrel was inletted to leave a solid black mark along the bottom flat in the barrel channel. I had him draw file the sides of the barrel to remove the mill markings and smooth the surface. This removes less than a .001" of material and allows the barrel to slide into the stock channel more easily.

Here is Brian with his barrel finally inlet into the stock. Next we will reinstall the breech plug and inlet the tang into the wrist area of the stock.

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