Sidney Smith
58 Cal.
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2019
- Messages
- 2,130
- Reaction score
- 2,204
The thread below regarding the man's 45 caliber and his short breech plug, got me thinking. When I did the breech plug for my .32 caliber, I had to file off some of the rear of the barrel and cut off some of the plug in order to get it to mate up with the flat I had wanted. I bought the barrel without a plug since I wasn't sure which tang style I wanted. I ended up buying one. It is a 5/8X18 plug. The barrel must've had a plug on it originally because there is a witness mark on one of the flats. This barrel had a 1/2 inch deep thread hole as measured by me. I figure the barrel maker had already fitted a plug on it and removed it when I said I didn't want a plug installed. After getting the one I bought seated to the shoulder of the bore, it measures .420, or about 3/32 less than half an inch. When I took off enough of the plug to get it to the 1/2 inch depth of the hole it wouldn't line up to the flat I had wanted. Instead the former witness mark was 180 degrees away or would have been right on top where it would be seen. Its too deep of a mark to file out, so I filed the barrel and plug until I got the mark to hide under the stock. I'm wondering now if I have enough of the plug to be safe. Trouble is I already inletted my stock and positioned the lock in relation to this plug. I hope I didn't ruin things. Any ideas? Am I ok or do you think this will be an unsafe weapon to fire at this point?