Collection of compromise trapdoor.

[Alasgun]

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Been a while since ive done anything here, so im showing my “collection of compromise” project, if anyone’s interested.

G.M #3barrel, chambered 40-65 win, receiver dated 1891, block 1873, trigger plate, cam latch, hinge and extractor are the best i could find and in very fine condition. Assembled the lock up and overall tightness of the action is impressive.

I have a grade #7 piece of Maple and a number of the lesser parts i have or will make myself. This past week i finished the buttplate, front sight, reamed the chamber and cut the extractor slot, cut the barrel to length and crowned the muzzle. The rear sight is a repro from a Smith carbine, from Lockwoods!

The style was inspired by Freund, Gemmer and Gove; with some of my own creativity and an eye for subtile technology the Masters would have used had it been available in their time? Well, maybe

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Looks like you've got your work cut out for you ;-)! Should turn out to be a very nice rifle. I like the concept, and the stock design. Maple is always a good choice, so many interesting grain patterns. Good luck with this--keep the photos coming as you progress.

DG

[Nueces]

Lovely! Nice caliber choice, too. I have the bits to make similar, but intend use of a Lyman windgauge tang sight, as produced for the Savage 99. My prototype is the one pictured in Clyde Baker's 'Modern Gunsmithing,' which is a sporter. I am interested to follow your progress.

In my case, 'intend' is as likely as it'll ever get. What the heck, though, I may be younger next year.

[Green Frog]

Cool! Will it be a "Frankendoor" or a "Trapstein" when it's done? I've always thought that custom Trapdoor projects were just too cool for school! 8-) Be sure to post in-progress pictures. You know how much we love pictures here.

Froggie

[Alasgun]

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With a little time to spare, i got going on the stock work today. The vertical mill is no pantograph but does real nice work (no more of this than i do nowdays). Utilizing the digital read out all the important stuff is easily accomplished and much faster than doing it by hand. A selection of corner rounding mills and fly cutters will get the outside close as well.

Tomorrow i’ll take after it with scrapers / chisels etc and should have the barreled action inlet by this time tomorrow.

[M-Tecs]

Very nice, I have the parts to do a Gemmer TD but that project is a ways down on my project list. Thanks of the pics and keep us posted on your progress.

[Alasgun]

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Im happy with the inlet so far. Currently im waiting for some bedding compound to show up. I always like to do the bedding in stages and will bed the barreled action before moving on to the side lock then trigger. Once the lock is inlet i have several hours of rasping to slim the wood but right now i need those large flat surfaces. More than likely i’ll be shelving this in another week or so as it’s time to get garden starts going. When i get back after it i’ll post more.

[armoredman]

Sweet project.

[Baltimoreed]

Looks terrific. Keep us posted.

[dverna]

I enjoy seeing something like this.

[skeettx]

Well done
Great progress
Thank you for sharing this with us
Mike

[Alasgun]

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Having never used the Probed 2000 products i was a little skeptical! Stuff is as thick as old peanut butter and what’s this “buffered wax release agent”?
So after bedding the barrel channel i worry warted it all evening and this morning hurried out to the shop to face the music!
It’s the best bedding job i’ve ever done with only one small void and a very uniform finish. And it popped out with out any resistance.

Today i inlet the lock plate and got it bedded as well but won’t be too concerned about removing it tomorrow.

I also like how clean everything came out, none of the blue flashing stuck here and there as was common with the acraglass gel.

[Alasgun]

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Today the lock components were inlet and the thru holes drilled for lock bolts. Tomorrow i’ll poke a hole thru from the bottom to exercise the sear and check for function.
Probably peal some more “bark” off the thing too before moving on to the trigger inletting; which im undecided on at this point. I’ll either severely modify an original trigger/guard or completely build a new assembly, which will give a better look.

[TNsailorman]

You have me looking forward to your progress like a saturday matinee. Thaks for sharing your knowledge and expertise as well as the great pictures. james

[bedbugbilly]

That is great! Like James above - I'm looking forward to seeing the progress! Thank you for sharing!

[Alasgun]

296126Sear function is fine so im moving on to the trigger. I really like the feel of the Springfield trigger against my finger and decided to modify the original to something more stylish. In this first picture you see the original along with an english sporting guard that’s being grafted onto it.

By the end of the day i have the trigger plate modified to accept the new bow which you can see in the 2nd picture. The front was pretty straight forward and now it’s time to break out the torch & hammer to reshape the rear end of that bow for a good match up.

Previously the tang bolt went thru tying the upper tang and trigger assembly together. The threaded hole in the guard was in the right place but at a very bad angle so i corrected that; enlarging that hole to accept the english bow and will just use screws from the bottom of the trigger assembly to attach it to the stock.
Up on top i’ll make a threaded stock insert and epoxy it in place. Then cut down the original tang bolt and rethread it to match the insert and still have a good rear attachment point.
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Thanks for the kind words folks!

[Cosmic_Charlie]

A labor of love for sure!

[Alasgun]

The “grafting” is now complete but a lot of cosmetic blending and a rear screw hole still has to happen.
Once that’s complete and it’s inlet i can get serious about the final wood shaping.

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[Alasgun]

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Today was a good day with the trigger group being inlet and bedded. While waiting for glue to dry i moved on to some small components; that i had to machine.

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First was the stock insert that will be epoxied into the wrist along with the original tang bolt cut off and rethreaded to match the insert.
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Im impressed with the steel quality in that over 100 year old tang bolt. It would have been much simpler to use a 12/28 machine screw but this way i’ve still got the exact look of the original tang. There will be a pair of attachment points on the forearm as well; so everything will be plenty strong.

[Alasgun]

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In case anyone is interested, the 12/28 tang bolt was single pointed.

[Alasgun]

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I made a bit of progress last week with 4 barrel dovetails cut (sights and under-lugs); barrel lettering and some stock profile work. This included tapering the forearm and corner rounding to easily get rid of a bunch of wood.
Everything’s still pretty “thick” but that will change shortly. The remainder of the profiling is a rasp, scrape, sand thing.

[Alasgun]

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Todays effort probably dont look like much; unless the pictures show all the nail biting necessary to get those under-lug pins and they’re liners positioned properly while keeping the epoxy where it belongs!

The gun was first assembled; positioned in the vice and the thru holes drilled. Then the barrel was removed and the wood went back to the mill (same set-up) and the Thru holes were reamed to accept the 5/32 brass liner tube.
These were glued into the stock and the interior’s cleaned (repeatedly) and finally the under pins were waxed and eased into position and the extra material was removed.
The pins are 0-1 tool steel and were given .001 clearance to the underlug, same for the tube. Once everything is hard i’ll probably have to do a little filing in the underlug hole to get the elongated clearance i want.
Never used a liner on underlug pining before but i think i like them. The stock finish will be a very deep red/ brown (same one i used on my 4 bore a while back) and the contrast should be nice. The pins along with all the bolting will be Niter blued.

Once hard, the liners will get smoothed off as i finish contouring the for-end schnable.

[missionary5155]

This is going to be one fine custom Trapdoor !
I also appreciate the good photos and write up !
Every time I look in I re-start the journey and progress you have made and Have no regrets re-reading it.
Thank you !!

[Alasgun]

There are always details in a project like this that seem ridiculous or un-necessary and today i completed a detail so small, the un trained eye would never notice it. Knowing about and understanding “thermal growth” in gun barrels and contemplating the possible effect on a rifle such as this with a rear tang bolt And two underpins i did a little research. Thermal growth calculators are easily found online so i plugged in the constants and was surprised to learn IT IS POSSIBLE to have .011 growth between the back tang and the front pin! Initially i intended to just elongate those pin holes with a small round file but after my net search decided to just stick it back in the mill and do it properly. The pictures show me indicating each hole and with a solid carbide mill, turning each hole into a perfectly elongated slot .014 longer than the pin diameter. Is all that necessary; who knows but im now certain heat related binding should not affect bullet flight. Time will tell.
I wish i understood why some pictures load sideways and others are normal, with the camera (phone) in the same orientation!

[Alasgun]

Today i also made some progress on the forearm. It too went back to the mill and had a little over 1/8th of an inch removed from the overall width. At this point a different mill set up will give me a proper groove in the unformed scannable, where the ebony insert will reside.

With the forearm width complete the underpins were cut to length and a very small center drill was used to dimple one end of each pin. The un-finished un-polished result can be seen in the picture.

So with these very small “complications” complete; i can get back to the final rasp, scrape, sand work.
Little bit by little bit! Some day it will be a gun.

[missionary5155]

I will admit lateral thermal growth is one "small detail" I have not considered. Nor do I remember reading about it.
I will need to look into Ned Roberts book on the "Muzzleloading Rifle". I do not remember if he mentioned it. But that may have been such a small common practice it was overlooked in writing.
We do have a couple old flintlocks that I think one has elongated barrel slots. But it as been some years since they have been dismounted.

[Alasgun]

The wood will expand too, just at a different rate than the steel so it would take a rocket scientist to make a very accurate determination. Im more left field than scientist and a bit Germanic and it’s in our gene’s to add complications “just because we can”! However; i am familiar with problems some Ruger #1 owners (and others) have had due to forearm attachment and just want to elimenate one variable.��
I hadn’t thought of Robert’s book and would be interested in what he may allow; i believe i have it around here.
I first toyed with the thought of using screws, up from the bottom but opted for pins in keeping with the gemmer / hawkin look. Screws (depending on tension) would allow a tiny bit of lateral motion, pins will tie it together tighter without slotting the hole.
And the bottom line is me looking forward and yielding to my own laziness! You see; i’m not a fan of just rolling it over on it’s back while cleaning to keep the liquid goo off the wood and yet want to have a sort of quick takedown ability, so pins and an easily removed tang bolt will allow that. Wedges would have done the same thing but as tiny as the forearm will be would not fit well. A hooked breech would help as well but i didnt like the look with the added length.
At the end of the day, it will look fine and function just fine and my ever fertile imagination will be satiated from it’s ever wandering & wondering!

Thanks for looking, keep me on my toes if i get too far in the ditch. The important thing is that we enjoy what we’re doing and projects like this provide me with a lot of that.

[Alasgun]

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Today i had a little window of time and was able to get the ebony insert in place. Using the same carbide mill i first tapered a wedge before cutting the mating groove in the forearm. That gave me a gauge of sorts, allowing a nice fit. Once i was happy with the dry fit i slobbered the epoxy (G-Flex) on everything and wrapped it all up with a “tourniquet” for the evening.

[Alasgun]

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Between re-homing a buck rabbit and up-potting 2 dozen tomato plants; i didn’t do a lot on the rifle today.
I did “release the tourniquet” and smooth off the bumps. Another hour or so and it’ll be looking better.

More than anything today i wanted to upload some pictures taken with the camera rotated 90 deg. That worked fine and i’ll try and do better in the future!

[Alasgun]

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Today the rasps were put away and im down to a #2 cut half round, scrapers and paper! Until i color the wood it will still look pretty lifeless but a lot of the grain is showing pretty well.
At this point i begin working in the shadows, under id-direct lighting; making the imperfections more apparent. The stock profile is now complete and wont change much as i move thru finishing.

I’m certainly closer than i was a couple months ago!

[TNsailorman]

You have me on pins and needles waiting on the next installment. I like your work, very excellent work. Keep it coming on the updates. Thanks, james

[Alasgun]

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Today was a good day so i traded in the files and scrapers for #0000 steel wool and a burnishing tool AND worked under the magnifier quite a bit. The magnifier is a new thing for me this go round and im well pleased with it. Just an Amazon cheepy but it will adjust to a half dozen intensity levels as well as 3 or 4 different hue’s! That made it real nice; once i found the right combination.

Never burnished a stock before either, im using a 5/8 hardened dowell and man doe’s it ever slick the wood up. Today’s session was to see how that works and to see where it fit’s in the sequence going forward. From what i can tell the burnishing is best done after coloring and before finishing; we’ll find out directly. I see a lot of promise with this; it gave the wood a distinct sheen almost to the level of a semi gloss WITHOUT any finish.

When i was done for the day i whiskered the stock and hung it to dry. I’ll repeat todays activities 2 or 3 more times before moving on to the coloring but in the picture; you can see the fiddle showing nicely while the stock was wet.

[Alasgun]

Things are moving; just not real fast right now. I’m nearly done planting garden starts and am waiting for a coin ring i purchased to arrive. My intention is to open it up and fashion the “In God we Trust” section; into a stock inlay. I’ll carve it in right behind the bag grip and am hoping to do just a little carving to trim it as well.

Once i start carving pictures can resume; right now i’m whiskering the stock and there ain't much to show there! I lost track of how many times i dampened it but when it came back clean; i wet it one more time!

The lock plate was sent off for color case work along with a handful of pin’s/screws to be Niter blued.
Once the wood is at the finishing stage time will go more slowly allowing me to finish the metal and brown everything.

[Alasgun]

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So, i’m still waiting for my coin to show up and moved on with some other minor details. First picture is the wood back in the mill to cut the cam latch notch. Then i decided to place the House number in a small indention. Id seen this previously and liked it better than just stamped on barrel flats. So after i made the indention if dawned on me i might have a real time centering the stamp; so i filled the recess with melted beeswax and sanded off the extra to give me a clear look at the indention. Next i simply played with the stamp, lightly impressing the wax; until i was sufficiently happy with it’s location before giving it a good whack.
I’m happy with the result.
It’s also shown with the wood on. Don’t fret over the epoxy hairs showing along the edges of the ebony insert, once finished they’ll not show.

[Alasgun]

298310I also added a bit of decorative file work to the heel of the butt.

[armoredman]

Very nice, thank you for sharing!

[Alasgun]

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I’ve been waiting for several components to arrive so i can get back after my project and they’re here; unfortunately due to a high level of garden prep activity, progress will still be a hit or miss thing for a little bit.

However; the Color cased lock plate and Niter blued pins and screws are so beautiful; i thought id share them with you.

[Ajohns]

Wow! That is going to be really nice! Good work

[Alasgun]

303111Remember me? The garden season is slowing down so today i did a little scratching on the trapdoor. Pretty crude at this point; but one of the 4 panels was roughed in today! Once the checkering is done; the rest will come together pretty quickly.

[725]

What a project! Your work looks fabulous. Really enjoy the photos.

[TNsailorman]

I'm loving your project and the excellent work you are doing on it. Keep the updates coming, I really enjoy them, especially the pictures. james

[Alasgun]

The checkering is done, the wood is stained and im beginning the finishing. Previously i’ve used Anilin stains by themselves with great success and im particularly fond of a very deep red finish on maple. This time i went down the Aquafortis, tannic acid route.
Trying to emulate my forefathers and am somewhat displeased with the end product. Some artisans get magnificent results with these original finishes; not me! I don’t do enough of this work to get really good at anything and im lazy so putting the time and effort into perfecting a finish ain’t gonna happen! My previous rifle, the 4 bore was the closest i’ve ever come to what i consider perfect and i was trying to build on that this time.
Anyway; it is what it is at this point and im sure it’ll look fine and be pleasing to most.
These pictures show the wood before and after i started oiling it. It will take a couple weeks to get the depth of finish i want but along the way; ill get the metal browned and be ready for assembly when the wood’s done. The final finish will be somewhere between the satin and the gloss shown here.

[Alasgun]

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Today i browned everything; now it sits around a couple day’s to cure then after a good scrubbing with white scotchbrite and Johnsons wax it will move to the “done pile”. Here’s the small parts.

[Alasgun]

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It is finished! Here’s the results. It weighs 11.2 lbs.

[Alasgun]

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A few more.

[Alasgun]

Overall im happy with the results but in any project like this ; it’s never just exactly the way you envisioned it in your mind’s eye, which gave me the heading for this thread! Combining components approaching 150 years old with new stuff is fun but can be challenging.
As mentioned previously, the color is not even close to what i was after. I’ll know next time and stick with what i know works.
The trigger guard grafting; combining the old with some new, could have gone smoother.
As i worked the wood down i put a lot of effort into giving it a very slim appearance and to my eye; it’s still a little thick?
The alloy steel pipe i made the butt plate from didn’t take color well, it should have been bead blasted before browning.

Now i’ll need to get some ammunition put together and see how it shoots. At 11.2 lb. It hangs real well and i suppose it will shoot well offhand. I have 300 ea 420gr. Paper patch slugs (smooth) here ready to go and really want to see how it shoots BEFORE snow fly’s.

For anyone who followed this, thanks for the interest; i’ll probably crawl back under my rock for a while but i do have a couple more interesting projects rattling around in my head.

[hporter]

Great job!

I would be proud to have a trapdoor that beautiful. Mine is still shod in her original infantry apparel. Want to trade? :-)

[Ajohns]

Wow!

[HWooldridge]

Fabulous! You should be proud of your work. Hope it shoots as good as it looks.