Zouave barrel loose in stock

I have a zouave reproduction that has a lot of play in the barrel. I'm not sure how it should be addressed. With the bands in their usual location the barrel has enough play to make accuracy an unlikely outcome.

Have considered adding a bit of shim under barrel to make barrel tighter against bands. Not sure best material for that. Maybe a bit of leather.

Thought I might bend bands in a bit tighter on either side of the barrel. Not sure of any reason not to go this route since barrel was tight in the past this seems the most likely area to have loosened up.

Considered bedding the barrel but if the bands are the issue it would just become loose over the bedding eventually.

Looking for "best" solution or tips for how to accomplish tightening the barrel so it doesn't shift around.

I do lots of glass bedding on my Hawkins and Renegades so the stock matches the barrel perfectly.
I would think bedding would be your best choice .
But , not if you shoot in vintage competition.
Wood shims is your other option.
It takes a little more effort to get it point shimmed at the key points.

If you're going to shim, and there is enough gap, you may want to try a piece of plastic shotshell case. Doesn't absorb water and swell up or rust your barrel.

Unless you're shooting International competition glass bed the breech area up to just forward of the lock mortise. Will usually fix them. Who made it, or what brand? (just curious)

If shooting International competition, you'll have to laminate wood in and sand it to fit to be legal.

Is it loose when the barrel is hot?

I would think that folks at the North/South Skirmish Association would be familiar with this loose barrel issue. The Zouave is a popular competition rifle there.

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Originally Posted by waksupi

Is it loose when the barrel is hot?

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I think it is loose enough that it doesn't tighten up when hot, the few times I've shot it since it became loose I didn't shoot a lot of rounds. Not as much fun when the barrel shifts during firing.

Before I got too permanent with anything I would fold up some wax paper between the stock and barrel and see how it works.

I've been shooting muskets in N-SSA.org for 43 years. Glass bedding is definitely the way to go. My current musket has been bedded for 37 years and has more than 100,000 rounds through it. Shot a 92 at the fall National's . Not bad for someone my age.

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Originally Posted by carbine

I've been shooting muskets in N-SSA.org for 43 years. Glass bedding is definitely the way to go. My current musket has been bedded for 37 years and has more than 100,000 rounds through it. Shot a 92 at the fall National's . Not bad for someone my age.

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Heck I would say a 92 ain't bad for any age. Although I have from time to time (damn close to daily) been reminded that stuff I would say I excelled at once upon a time I can't do at the same level now. Sort of annoying I must say to be aiming and the center of an oversized fuzzy red spot rather than a bullseye that my arms keep insisting must be moving cause it isn't their fault. ;)

I'm surprised not to get confirmation that tightening the bands by increasing the bend isn't a good option. I did fail to mention I first noticed the barrel being loose after it fell when on the ledge of a deck railing. Sort of made me think the impact might have caused the bands to loosen.

I think I will take the suggestion to shim with something temporary and if that yields positive results proceed to glass bedding. My only reluctance to bedding is while I won't use it for competition where modern material would be disqualifying someone may want to one day. Unless getting barrel tight brings it to the point of being accurate enough that it would be a rifle for competitive shooting it wouldn't matter if it was glass bedded.

On the other hand it sounds like the best approach to make it work well for my use would be bedding and I'm the one using it today. I mostly like the smoke and noise and history of the rifle but I don't like to miss often or by much. Spoils the fun if all I'm doing is scaring the tin can rather than knocking it over.

If you want to keep it to original materials and need to shim look into horn. It was used then for a lot of things.

I bet the bands did loosen when the rifle fell.
But the barrel could have dented into the wood as well causing the extra space.
If you do competition with it, you do have several options to make it fit better.
Wood shims glued in with pine sap,
Leather or like mentioned horn material either in shims or ground up and mixed with pine tar.
Modern Epoxy fixes the first kind of fixes.

Could the stock have dried out and shrunk a little? dry weather and heat can be hard on wood. There are many good suggestions here. I would look into shimming with wood horn or other natural material.

You could possibly heat and shrink the band but if its bending it may not hold.

thanks people, good information and helpful as always.