Lock Bolt placement

[49FMarlin]

looking for help again,
my TOTW plans show a percussion, and I'm making a Flint,
and the plans are sketchy on placement of the lock-bolt anyways,
so before i drill in the wrong place Im looking for help,

I have the Lock-Plate inletted into the stock, with the touch-hole centered and on top of the pan
now i need to drip for the lock-bolt,

where on the lock-plate am i aiming to drill and top for the bolt?

see the pic of my Lock-plate,
do i go into the thickest upper part of the lock?
or
in the area with the "L&R" markings?
I realize i have to miss drilling into my tang/breach plug

thank you for your help
John

[curator]

John,

A flint lock should have two lock screws. One should be at the forward end between the end of the mainspring and the end of the lock plate. Pay attention to your ramrod hole as the forward lock screw can intersect there causing problems. The "rear" lock screw needs to be in the thick part of the lock bolster, forward of the cock. Your breech plug will determine the exact placement

[49FMarlin]

Thank you,
from what I'm seeing, the H.E.Leman Trade rifle (TOTW-Kit) has only 1 Lock screw, looking on the internet for originals leave a lot to be desired,but only seeing 1 lock screw, (sorry shoulda mentioned that it was a Leman)

Thank you
Ill get the 1 bolt into the thick part of the bolster



John,

A flint lock should have two lock screws. One should be at the forward end between the end of the mainspring and the end of the lock plate. Pay attention to your ramrod hole as the forward lock screw can intersect there causing problems. The "rear" lock screw needs to be in the thick part of the lock bolster, forward of the cock. Your breech plug will determine the exact placement

[RU shooter]

On the couple I built I used only one bolt , you want the bolt to go through the thick part of the lock plate called the bolster in the area above were the LR stamp is . And you want the bolt to go through the lower back section of the breach plug closer to the barrel the better .

[49FMarlin]

on this rifle I'm using a .58 CVA Mountain rifle barrel, it has the lift out tang setup, (the original stock was in pieces and worthless)
I know terrible on originality, but i got what I've got, so I'm going to have to miss the tang,


On the couple I built I used only one bolt , you want the bolt to go through the thick part of the lock plate called the bolster in the area above were the LR stamp is . And you want the bolt to go through the lower back section of the breach plug closer to the barrel the better .

[bedbugbilly]

John - I googled "Leman Trade Rifle Photos" thinking it might bring up some photos showing either some originals or some reproduction builds. I was surprised when nothing came up.

Traditionally, flint locks used two lock bolts and precision one - but that is a general rule of thumb and there are exceptions to everything. If your lock mortise is good and your lock plate sits where it should, then one bolt will hold it - but as already said - it goes in to the thickest portion of the plate.

One thing to remember, the plans you have are TOTW's version - and there is nothing wrong with them - but trade rifles varied. I can't speak for the Lemans, but if you were building trade rifles to sell to civilians or for the Indian trade, you'd build them as cheap as you could ignored to make the most profit. In those days, when everything was labor intensive, one less lock screw saved money and time - so a flintlock may very well have only had one lock bolt holding it on.I have seen a number of flintlock or flintlock conversions over the years that only had one lock bolt and in turn, have seen many percussion rifles with two bolts - so it's a personal interpretation. Many times, things are based on surviving specimens and for every one that survived, there were dozens that didn't survive. I remember my Dad talking about helping with "scrap drives" during WWII in our small town and what was often brought in to be given to the "war effort" - including such things as old horse drawn farm equipment, old guns, etc.

As mentioned, if you use a front lock bolt, it is going to have to go through the web between the top of the ramrod hole and the bottom of your barrel channel. That dimension may dictate whether you use a front bolt or not. You don't want to interfere with the ramrod hole and you can smudge it a little by putting a small portion of the lock bolt in to the barrel channel and then grinding a "relief" in the bottom flat of the barrel so it won't interfere when you put the front lock bolt through but you also don't want to chance weakening the barrel wall at that location.

I also wouldn't worry too much about the authenticity of whether you are using a standard breech plug with a tang or the barrel you have with a hooked breech. Again, in the originals, a breech plug with a tang would have saved money/time but who is to say that a hooked breech was not used on some of them? It certainly makes cleaning of the rifle much easier and during that time period, patented breeches were being used on percussion rifles.

I don't want to clutter up your thread with photos so later today, I'll try and post a thread showing a rifle I purchased many years ago that came off of a Reservation here in Michigan. I wouldn't call it a "trade rifle" but it is close and I'll explain in my post with the photos. If nothing more, it is an interesting rifle.

It looks like you are making good progress! That's going to be a nice rifle when you get it finished and it's nice to see the progress and photos of it!

[Eddie2002]

Check the tang screw that goes to the trigger assembly before you drill the lock bolt hole. Sometimes there is clearance issues, drill the lock bolt hole in front of the tang screw not through it ;) guess how I know about it!!!