Hi all, I'm assembling a Traditions Kentucky rifle from one of the kits. I've assembled a Trapper flintlock pistol before with good results (for a first try, anyway). Generally speaking I'm only moderately handy. No significant woodworking experience.
With this one I can't figure out what I should do. It looks like the tang is way too high over the stock. The barrel is sitting about as far down as it'll go. I've put the screw in to cinch it down, and that gets me maybe another 1/32", but half the thickness of the tang is still above the stock.
I can think of 3 options, and I don't know that any of them make sense here.
(1) Sand/file down the tang. It'll be pretty thin at the end and I'd have to redo the counter sink or chamfering or whatever it's called around the screw hole
(2) Sand down the inletting under the tang, and then sand down the stock. where it drops down to the barrel. Seems like I'd be taking off a lot of wood and it'd be hard to contour it correctly. Also I'm not sure it'd work without sanding down the barrel's own inletting, which definitely seems like something I shouldn't do.
(3) Bend the tang down to fit the contour of the barrel. Honestly this seems like the most realistic option but nothing I've seen indicates that this part should be curved.
What's the deal here? Should there be a curve to the tang? Am I missing something stupid?
I have sent off an e-mail to Traditions asking about this, but no response yet.
Pay no mind to the rust you see on the barrel. I foolishly left this out while letting some fresh air into the house for a few days when it was nice out. As it is consistently 2937.0% humidity around here, that has caused every metal thing in my house that isn't powder coated to rust. This isn't the first time I've made this mistake. You should see the reloading dies. =(
With this one I can't figure out what I should do. It looks like the tang is way too high over the stock. The barrel is sitting about as far down as it'll go. I've put the screw in to cinch it down, and that gets me maybe another 1/32", but half the thickness of the tang is still above the stock.
I can think of 3 options, and I don't know that any of them make sense here.
(1) Sand/file down the tang. It'll be pretty thin at the end and I'd have to redo the counter sink or chamfering or whatever it's called around the screw hole
(2) Sand down the inletting under the tang, and then sand down the stock. where it drops down to the barrel. Seems like I'd be taking off a lot of wood and it'd be hard to contour it correctly. Also I'm not sure it'd work without sanding down the barrel's own inletting, which definitely seems like something I shouldn't do.
(3) Bend the tang down to fit the contour of the barrel. Honestly this seems like the most realistic option but nothing I've seen indicates that this part should be curved.
What's the deal here? Should there be a curve to the tang? Am I missing something stupid?
I have sent off an e-mail to Traditions asking about this, but no response yet.
Pay no mind to the rust you see on the barrel. I foolishly left this out while letting some fresh air into the house for a few days when it was nice out. As it is consistently 2937.0% humidity around here, that has caused every metal thing in my house that isn't powder coated to rust. This isn't the first time I've made this mistake. You should see the reloading dies. =(