TC stock makeover

[Eric Krewson]

I could have wrapped the makeover up today but found a couple if faint fingerprints in the sideplate panel where I didn't wipe the excess finish off well enough and touched the gun so I put one more coat on that area.

One thing that people don't know about TC triggers is they are as rough as a wash board but the roughness is hidden under a coat of bluing. I found this in a couple of guns I reworked so now I polish the trigger bars and the sear make them silky smooth.

I checked the front trigger pull on a unpolished trigger set and it came out to 7.8#, Because I have a coat of finish drying on the gun I can't check the polished trigger pull until tomorrow but I suspect it will be less than the rough trigger.

A normal rough TC trigger with the bluing sanded off.



I polish triggers like I polish brass, 220, 400, emery cloth and a Dremel buffing wheel.



Both the front and the set bar polished.



I like to polish the lock sear where it contacts the trigger bars as well, here it is before I polished it.



And after a polishing;

[Eric Krewson]

A sneak peek of the assembly, I will complete the overhaul tomorrow.

[Eric Krewson]

I tried to put the barrel in the stock for a photo shoot and couldn't get the wedge pin in, it went in just fine before the overhaul. I did add some wood at the back of the barrel channel and suspect I have a little barrel inletting to do to get things just right.

I put all the parts back in the stock and have to say it looks like a brand new gun, really nice.

[Eric Krewson]

Seeing as how this is all about the stock makeover, it is time to wrap this up.

Full length lock side;



full length cheek side;



Side plate side;



Lock molding;



Cheekpiece reshaped;



Done but..... I have another repair waiting in the wings, I told my nephew I would correct his hack job inletting on an attempted patchbox installation on a GPR, this one is really bad.

[Buckskinner]

Well done and much improved, side panels and cheekpiece especially!  It's amazing how much extra wood they leave on the TC's as well as some other kits.   The wrist is very thick, but I don't think there is much you could alter without changing entire geometry of the butt.

[Eric Krewson]

One more picture; these are the replacements for the wimpy TC tang woodscrews. As received this tang was lopsided, I reshaped, re-blued it and installed these 11-32 tang bolts.

[Eric Krewson]

The front trigger pull on this gun after I polished the triggers is 3.4#. This is not a valid test because the the unpolished trigger I tested earlier was on a identical TC Hawken, not this one.

Now I need to pull the unpolished set, polish them and see just how much the poundage drops.

The front trigger on the overhaul gun is so slick and just the poundage I like for hunting, no need to use the set trigger.

[Eric Krewson]

On the wrist; TC Hawkens are cheek slappers, they have a high comb for people who mounted a scope which many people did back in the day. This high comb put their eye in line with a scope but cheek slapped you if you got down on it and shot iron sights. An elderly, very knowledgeable gun builder told me this, then told me how he altered his rifle stock to shoot heavy conicals on elk and not get cheek slapped

I followed Fred's lead and dropped the comb of the butt stock which let me lower the wrist and take some of the bulk out of it and round it more.

To give you an idea of just how good a builder Fred is, here is one of his guns, built in his mid 80s.

 

[Buckskinner]

Fred's work is top notch no doubt.

[Pappy]

Nice work Eric, enjoyed following it.
 Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

A little more; I was showing my finished gun to a friend and held it up with a window behind it, I could see daylight between the buttplate and the wood, this won't do. I never looked at the factory buttplate inletting having found it to be good on all the TCs I have owned totaling at least 8 or more.

I can't stand glaring inletting gaps so I carefully worked to fix things. It is a little more touchy with the finish on the gun but slow and steady wins the race.

First I blacken the buttplate on an oil lamp.



Then tap it into place and look for the sooted high spots.



Careful removing the blackened areas lightly with a skew chisel after re-blackening about a dozen times brought the buttplate to a gap free fit.