A bit of an update which I will probably make in a couple of posts since I hate when they get toooo long.
First off I want to give a big thanks to Sam Welch (SamW) since he's been very helpful. He's given me a lot of info from when he worked on his Batavia along with a lot of photos.
So, I've been contemplating my path forward maybe to the point of overthinking. I'm in the process of rebuilding the original stock to replace missing wood where it mates up to the receiver.
I cut my practice blank out of some poplar which isn't the full stock length but will allow me to fit the entire receiver and trigger assembly. In a earlier post I questioned how much extra wood to leave and for better or worse I cut the blank out with 1/8" extra before getting the responses to leave a 1/4". Will have to make do I guess.
I've been trying to get a decent pattern of the top tang. If I try to get the complete tang, it gets difficult at the end where the curves compound to match up to the receiver. I made a partial pattern where it's easy to trace and using my engineering skills
I was able to determine where it would fall on the stock. Still pondering my path forward as I work on repairing the stock.
Sam indicated that although it has been awhile he seems to remember that he started short and worked his way back.
As I was pondering the stock, I thought I'd assemble the receiver to see what all I'll be dealing with during inletting. In my opinion, there is so much packed into the small action that it's hard to believe that I'll be able to get much more wood.
Should be interesting to say the least. Have some more thoughts that I'll put in another post regarding the parts that need to be fabricated/modified.
Later
Kirk
