Barrel Pinned Into Stock & Ramrod Groove Drilled:

To save time, I chose to go with the flat staples, Track of the Wolf provides. 

PIN LOCATIONS: The forward pin will be located 1/2" back from the end of the muzzle nose cap (muzzle nose cap will be 1-1/2" long). The rear pin will be in the middle of the rear thick forearm area. The center pin will be 1/2 way between these two pins.

STAPLE INSTALLATION:

The punch will be center over the mark on the barrel. This leaves a couple nice dimples in the steel for the #34 drill bit to drill 1/16" into the barrel. The barrels are driven one leg at a time into the barrel, then a punch tool is used to work the steel down and into the feet to secure the posts to the barrel.

The rear pin is installed first and the barrel with tenon are inletted into the stock. Once this is inletted, then I use the depth gauge across the barrel channel to determine the depth of the barrel. Transfer this mark to the outside of the stock where the center of the tenon was marked to be.  Below this mark is where I drill for the 3/32" pin thru the stock and the tenon.  Next the middle pin is done and finally the muzzle pin is done.

Here all pins are installed:

  This is how the pin looks after it is drilled thru the stock.

RAMROD GROOVE:

Since this is a .45 caliber, I will install a 3/8" ramrod on this rifle. Before laying out the ramrod channel, the stock flat for the ramrod channel was flattened and squared.  Then center was determined by the end of the barrel and width of the stock at the entry hole area.  Two lines were drawn on the stock for the 3/8" ramrod.

Using a knife to cut down along the inside of each line, a groove tool was used to remove the wood down the center of the groove.  Once enough of the wood was removed (depth of <3/16"), a depth gauge was used as an aid.  A bent 3/8" round rat tail file with a handle on was used to smooth out the channel.  Since the drill bit is a 25/64' bit, I wanted the bit to lay flat when I drilled the hole. So I used the drill rod to with soot on it to show me the high spots in the groove.

Here is a photo of the groove after the stock was drilled out. [The depth of the ramrod hole was to the face of the breech plug.)

You will notice the 1/2 wooden blocks to the right. They were used to hold the ramrod drill in the groove, while I drilled out the hole.

Hoot AL Rifle Shop

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