Lost barrel wedge question

I have a half stock CVA that I use for hunting. Yesterday I was sitting down in my stand and after hunting 3 or 4 hours I happened to notice that my barrel wedge was MIA. I noticed that it was loose on the previous hunt but I forgot to "adjust" it.

What would have happened if I had fired it with the barrel wedge missing? It could have easily happened. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bob

The barrel is likely to jump up out of the stock, pivoting on the hook, based on my experience with an old break action single shot shotgun. I knotted my forehead pretty good with it. My youthful solution was to wrap it with tape. You could do that too, until you get a preplacement wedge.

Had the same problem once. Whittled a piece of hickory to jam through there for the rest of the day. Once I got another wedge, I slotted and pinned it so that would never happen again.

Funny, I always wondered what would happen also. I just assumed the ramrod would hold it in place, at least enough to save your head. Bill

I inmagine that is the reason Jacob and Samuel put two wedges on most of their rifles..................watch yer top knot................

snowdragon said:

Funny, I always wondered what would happen also. I just assumed the ramrod would hold it in place, at least enough to save your head. Bill

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Good point, and a useful insight. Hard to get past my memories of a head klonk, but that old oneshooter had no ramrod of course.

That is an excellent temporary solution for a lost wedge while out in the field.

I would say the barrel would have stayed right in place if the RR was there. Probably 99% of the recoil is back, not up. Your body movement & shape of the buttplate, & the way it is held & shouldered is what makes the muzzle raise.
Without the RR in place, the barrel could have come loose & up some. But it is the body reaction to the recoil that does it & how it is shouldered & buttplate shape, not the rifle itself...... Rifle doesn't know up, down, east, west, recoil is just Back.....

Ya need to have pressure to put them wedges in & then at the final resting position, take a round file & relieve where the underlug is riding the wedgepin, so it kind of snaps & locks into place. That is how I did mine 33 yrs ago & they are still there.

Keith Lisle

All the wedges on my rifles have slots and are captured w/ a pin, either located behind the escutcheon or in the bbl channel.....Fred

Oldnamvet said:

Had the same problem once. Whittled a piece of hickory to jam through there for the rest of the day. Once I got another wedge, I slotted and pinned it so that would never happen again.

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That is what I did for the rest of my hunt except I used a piece of mountain laurel as it was handy. I figure that will hold it until the replacement wedges come in.

Thanks to all for the responses. I was curious as it could have easily happened.

Thanks,

Bob

Birddog6 said:

I would say the barrel would have stayed right in place if the RR was there. Probably 99% of the recoil is back, not up. Your body movement & shape of the buttplate, & the way it is held & shouldered is what makes the muzzle raise.
Without the RR in place, the barrel could have come loose & up some. But it is the body reaction to the recoil that does it & how it is shouldered & buttplate shape, not the rifle itself...... Rifle doesn't know up, down, east, west, recoil is just Back.....

Ya need to have pressure to put them wedges in & then at the final resting position, take a round file & relieve where the underlug is riding the wedgepin, so it kind of snaps & locks into place. That is how I did mine 33 yrs ago & they are still there.

Keith Lisle

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Keith I must respectfully disagree - the drop at heel and comp can make a big difference in barrel rise or not - it's one reason why a "straight" stock genrally has less muzzle rise.
One of the nastiest recoiling rifles ever built is the M95 Winchester in 405 - with that relatively "crooked" stock I always got a lot of rise along with the back push. On the other hand my copy of the virtually straight stocked M40 Remington Marine sniper rifles the recoil even in 300 Win Mag is virtually straight back with little muzzle rise.
At one time I had a pic of me shooting a 600 Nitro express H & H double rifle with about 3.5" drop at the heel and at full recoil the barrel was almost straight up (ie 90° from horizontal) and my shoulder was about where my hip would be if standing straight........
At the same time I had a Magnum Mauser in 577 NE with only about 1.5" drop at the heel and at full recoil the muzzle rose no more than maybe 20-25°.
Using as straight a stock as possible is common knowledge amongst those who stock such big bores. Yep proper hold and other parts of the stocking can help obviate muzzle lift but a "bent" stock definitely contributes to it...

I will say that I got great service from Deer Creek. My replacement wedges showed up today and it only took a couple of business days.

Thank You Deer Creek and the members here for your posts. I hadn't considered stock shape.Thanks for the interesting post Labonte.

Bob

Take the advice of Oldnamvet and flehto. Capture them wedges and never worry about 'em again.

The job is easy to do if you have a Dremel tool.
Here is a link with some pictures:
Link

Acorn Mush said:

Take the advice of Oldnamvet and flehto. Capture them wedges and never worry about 'em again.

The job is easy to do if you have a Dremel tool.
Here is a link with some pictures:
Link

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What a great idea. Thank You for sharing it. I will have to do that after the season.


Bob

Nor elegant but could save the hunt. I picked up a well-used cobbled-together CVA Mountain Rifle that has the barrel held in place by electrical ties. If you pack a few, they can come in handy for this and more. Discovered their many uses a couple of Christmases back. You can fix almost anything with them! Of course, they ain't period correct. :wink:

Duct tape, period correct since 1973

RedFeather said:

Nor elegant but could save the hunt. I picked up a well-used cobbled-together CVA Mountain Rifle that has the barrel held in place by electrical ties. If you pack a few, they can come in handy for this and more. Discovered their many uses a couple of Christmases back. You can fix almost anything with them! Of course, they ain't period correct. :wink:

Click to expand...

I actually have them in my ruck; just didn't think of using them. I use them to attach the tag to one of the legs.

Bob

It might be a good idea to replace the standard barrel wedge with something like one of the slotted keys shown in this link
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Cate...D=14&subID=160&styleID=717&PageSize=10&Page=2

These keys would probably need to be fitted to work on most half stock rifles, or with some drilling, sawing and filing the existing key could be slotted.

How does it work?

Once it is installed into the stock with the barrel removed, a small hole is drilled down thru the forearms wood in line with the slot.
A small pin is then inserted into the hole and thru the slot.

If done correctly, the wedge can be pushed thru the barrel lug or removed from it but the pin will keep it from falling out of the stock.

The keys on a Pedersoli Tryon are made this way by the factory and it has proven to be a handy idea to have.