Main Discussion Area > Muzzleloaders
TC stock makeover
Eric Krewson:
Here is where I am headed on the stock makeover. The top stock is a TC kit I put together and shaped to be trimmer and more more pleasing to the eye, the bottom one is the factory stock I am working on (when the mood strikes me). I will use the kit gun stock as reference for what I want to make out of the old stock.
Eric Krewson:
I started this yesterday, going slow. I popped a shallow 11/64 hole through the tang and stock wood using a centering bit. Using the drilling fixture on my drill press I drilled from the trigger plate inlet to the tang with the 23/64 bit supplied with the bushing kit.
I glued a piece of hickory ramrod in new hole from the tang down leaving enough room for the bushing to be installed from the trigger side
The 11/64 hole is a very tight fit for a 10-32 screw, today I am going to use my 11/64 centering bit to drill through the tang countersink and through the hickory plug.
To line things up all the way to the trigger inlet I am going to insert another piece of ramrod without glue between my plug and the trigger guard inlet (tight fit but I can get it out). I will rest my drilling spike centered on this piece of ramrod so I can aim the hole at the center of the drilled hole in the trigger inlet. I will pull the extra piece of ramrod out after I drill the hole
To get the bushing started and properly aligned I am going to insert a 11-32 tang bolt through the tang and tight clearance plug then screw it all the way into the bushing while the bushing is all the way out of the stock. I plan to pull the bushing up to the hole on the trigger inlet with excess tang bolt length centering it and start it in with a screwdriver. It should be perfectly aligned because there is no slop at all in the tang bolt hole through the plug.
Eric Krewson:
My method worked perfectly except my installer tool twisted off and left the threaded part in the bushing. I was able to get some needle nose pliers on the part and unscrew it. I don't know if the bushing bottomed out on the dowel I plugged the tang hole with or was just over powered by the hard walnut. Anyway, couldn't go any deeper with the bushing but all the trigger parts clear it. My alignment was pretty good, no problem screwing the tang screw in and out with a screw driver but I did run a tap through the bushing so I could run the tang screw in with just finger pressure.
I didn't take pictures of everything, there was a lot more to the process.
Here I am aligning the bushing on the tang bolt to start it into the wood.
This is as far as I could go after the installer broke, should be deep enough. the alignment to the tang bolt is very good. I am going to have to rethread and shorten my replacement tang screws to have the right length for the TC tang.
I am going to make a wide blade screwdriver to install my other bushing, I don't have any that wide. I may just saw and grind down the body of the failed installer to make a wide screwdriver with a 1/4" drive. I decided a drill was too fast to to use in the initial installer so I used a 1/4' ratchet.
I have another TC to install bushings in, it will go much easier now that I worked the bugs out.
Eric Krewson:
I got stared on tomorrows bushing installation, I drilled out the old screw hole and installed a hickory dowel to reinforce the tang area.
I drilled in from the trigger side;
The dowel glued in and glue curing, I use TB3.
I use what we call a drilling spike to drill a hole in one side of the stock and have it hit where I want on the other side. For drilling for the dowel I put the tang bolt hole countersink on the field point and drilled in from the trigger plate side. I don't go all the way through and finish up the hole with a cordless drill and the same brad point bit.
Eric Krewson:
I got the bushings installed, it was a pain, screw alignment from the tang to the bushing was the big issue.
I rethreaded some long tang screws and finished the job, it came out OK but could have been better.
The main reason I put the bushings in was to have a more solid attachment for one of my homemade peep sights, I found out that wood screw attachment just didn't cut it, the screws would strip out in this old oil soaked wood.
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