doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com A Snider inspired Trapdoor sporter

Another trapdoor sporter is in the works. I have a great piece of wood for the project and did not want to risk making a bunch of firewood from it.
Not being sure that the parts at hand would work together, I made up a pattern stock of the lock/breech area. With a few refinements on the actual gun I think it is time to proceed.
One problem is the mortise for the breech latch. Notice the gap in that area. Solution seems to be reducing the size of the boss behind the latch so that the latch is larger than the boss rather than smaller. Then the latch can be made to fit nicely into its mating wood mortise. Nose of the comb needs to move ahead a bit because I band sawed off too much material.
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Jim Westberg

looking good!

I like it a lot. I might change the front nose of the lock plate however. The sharp corner in the wood may give some stress points and invite some cracking but more to the point, it doesn't fit with the curve of the panel that the lock is set into. So, I'ld round it off with a radius as much like the top rear of the lock as possible (scaled down of course).

In a Hawken, the forward edge of the lock plate would come forward to meet the back of the breech plug on a slant. While you wouldn't want to do that here because the latch is not immobile, perhaps the lock plate would be made to come forward a bit and follow that same angle as the lock. There seems to be lot of space there.

Would recoil put pressure on the latch if you fit things tight? In 2 dimensions, I can't tell what is going on there, but I would think that might be an issue. The latch should be VERY free of recoil pressures so it does open unexpectedly or become damaged in some way. Perhaps that is all a nonissue; I don't know trapdoors well enough.

But overall, it is beautiful for sure. If only one could get a rod in the back of a trapdoor - I could be tempted.

Brent

I'm with Brent on reshaping the front of the lockplate. Maybe the severe angle behind the hammer as well. Plenty of good examples on early breechloading shotguns and percussion conversions, so called Island locks.
I'd probably use a larger grip cap, front to back?
Nice start, but a LOT of work for a model!? Good way to get it right though...

I agree with Brent about the lockplate corner.

In addition, I'd make the lockplate wood panel front and back end outlines so that they more closely match the curve of the rear of the lockplate; not a perfect match, the ends will naturally need to be extended somewhat in an elongated oval like your existing wood rear curve only made a little more blunt to match the rear curve of the steel.

IOW I like the way you've formed the front of the wood panel and the rear of the lockplate and I think it would look even better with the lockplate top front corner rounded off and the rear of the wood panel made a little blunter; not much blunter, just a smidgen (grin).

What lock are you using, and what did you do to the hammer nose?

You might consider adding a little fillip to the top curve of the hammer nose like the fancier ones, IMO it really adds character.

I plan to add a stalking safety to my TD project but haven't done the alteration before. It seems like a lotta work but I guess I'll find out!
Regards, Joe

Here's a very different, similar idea I did in a previous lifetime...
Reshaped Griffin Hawken lock and breech. Custom tang sight base with Marbles (off-set for cast-off) stem.

A .45 cal. bullet rifle I've shot a couple of deer with.

Very nice idea Jim.

I agree with everyone about the lockplate corner.
And perhaps a little engraving on it would go a long way.
IMHO I think it would also look good with a straight grip stock and a carved horn pistol grip.

Just my 2 cents, John

Thanks to all for the comments. This is why I decided to make the pattern stock, sometimes the obvious escapes us. Yes, the front corner of the lock needs to be rounded off. The lock molding will need to change correspondingly to the new shape of the lock plate. The position of the lock plate is pretty well determined by the throw of the hammer which is the same as the original Springfield lock.
The lock is one that I made a number of years ago for a project that was cancelled and it has been sitting waiting to be used.



Here is a better picture of the breech/lock/hammer. The hammer nose needs to be finally shaped and fitted to the breech. As you can see, I still have about 1/8" of forward hammer travel to play with.



Steven, the grip cap length is about 1.700". I roughed it to this size because I have a horn grip cap that could be used.

After all of this, should I just use a Springfield lock and be "safe"? I really dont want to make a new lock plate to deal with the 'wood space' issues above the lock.
Thanks again,
Jim Westberg

Perhaps an original lock with a stylized hammer?

That's what I plan but (having bench-made several hammers in the past for British shotguns, rueful grin, LOTTA work) I'd really rather find a damaged original hammer to use as a donor.

BTW I really, REALLY, like the shape of the hammer shown in the mockup!

Have you considered any particular treatment for the left side of the stock at the lock area? Perhaps an engraved dummy lockplate or a serpentine or some sort of filigree? Most of the originals I've seen have looked downright plain in this area, and even lots of the better-quality rifles (both old and newly-made) seem to me like the makers formed this area as some sort of an afterthought.
Regards, Joe