Inletting tangs on a levergun

dandak1

Question for the stockmakers out there. I am building my dream gun on a Winchester 1886 lever action, cal 33 WCF. Fairly stout round, I am concerned with the tang splitting the stock if I inlet it tightly. Should I leave a gap there while inletting?? If so how much?? What brought this to my attention was a Marlin levergun a friend bought 10 years ago. New in the box it had a huge gap (maybe 0.040" to 0.050") behind the tangs. We were ticked off about it but took it out shooting. After a dozen or so 45-70 rounds we looked at the tangs again and they had seated in the wood to where there was no gap. I guess Marlin figured out to leave a gap so the gun can seat itself and not split the wood. So...stockmakers I am turning to you. Is this standard when inletting a lever gun?? I already have the entire action bedded and inletted. Looks good and I am quite proud of how it fits, should I now take my chisels and relieve the wood/bedding?

SP45

do not leave a gap. it should hit on the receiver and the end of the tang at the same time. carefully scrape the inletting until it fits both at the rear and on the sides without stress.

XXCross

I would respectfully suggest that a "small" gap be left at the end of the tang. Over time the wood will shrink and if it pulls away from the action you are going to risk having the stock split by the tang.

perry shooter

Well let me jump in here with a different suggestion. If it were me I would glass bed the rear of the receiver are with a sheet of wax paper between metal and glass bedding with a thin film on every where except the tang and I would make either the receiver move forward.010 -.020 in the current inletting . This would prevent the receiver from moving back more in .015 under the first few rounds of recoil and give you a nice snug fit to the tang area without the danger of the receiver having further set back and split stock around tang.

Emmett Dunham

It would seem that the force of the round being fired would only put stress on the screw or screws and the bottom and end of the tang not on the sides of it. I would use bedding on the screw, under the tang and that is it. I think the screw is very important and if bedded well will absorb a lot of the recoil and return the screw to its original position. I can't remember the depth of the bedding to make it affective, I think it is about 1/8th inch so filling any small areas is not going to help. To bed the tang I would leave the top of the wood around the tang in tack and dig into the wood the required amount to give the required depth to do the job. I would also bed the screw and the at the same time I bed the tang inletting and letting the compound flow down and around the screw if it can be done. I have used a lot of bedding and it takes some thinking ahead to get every thing the way you want it and have it work right. I use Pan as a release agent, wax paper and Play-Doh to dam. Remember it is very hard to hide bedding compound, you can mix color to it and would have to be a real pro to match it to the finish.

Good luck


Emmett

dandak1

Thanks to all. Emmett, the tangs are actually slightly tapered front to back, so the sides would exert a "wedge" effect, but perhaps not the hammering the ends of the tang do. Never thought about the screw acting as a recoil lug. Hmmm...may have to bed the screw as you suggest, I like the idea. I already bedded the entire action, altho the bedding is so thin in some areas I am sure it wont show (I know what you mean about not being able to match the colors exactly, and I am definitely not an expert at this).

ta812002

The inletting should be as tight as possable in all areas.
This is why glass bedding is a good idea. anywhere there is a gap, that leaves a chance for recoil to work on another area where the metal is contacting the wood.
When I fit stocks I try to get the wood as nicely fit as I can and then get the rest of the job done with glass bedding. Even if it is just a little bit, it really helps. I have found that bedding works best under tangs because sometimes it is hard to get the depth of the inletting perfect, especially if the tang is tapered in thickness.
The only time I do not use glass bedding is if the wood is very dark in color or very light where the bedding will not blend in, but you can do some things to darken or lightedn the bedding too.