There is a question that the ladies on the order desks will always ask that seems to be causing some confusion and problems with our customers. It concerns the length of the straight cylinder section at the breech end of a custom barrel.
The barrel makers ship their blanks with a straight cylinder section at the breech end of the barrel of various lengths. A Kreiger #5 will have a 2.75" length and a Shilen will have a 3.0" or 4.0" depending on contour, etc.
Part of this is threaded to screw into the action at various lengths for different actions. On a Remington it's usually about .780" and on a Defiance long tenon action it's about 1.030", etc. Also, the gunsmith may cut part of this off depending on caliber and the weight the customer wants the rifle to finish at. So, the remaining straight cylinder length is totally optional depending on what the customer/gunsmith wants.
What we need to know to inlet the stock properly is the length of this straight cylinder portion of the barrel from the front end of the receiver to the first contour break where the barrel starts to taper. Again, this is from the front of the receiver, not the front of the recoil lug.
In all our action programming there is a location code called the G54 location which indicates the very front of the receiver. When we run the barrel channel program we just indicate on this G54 location and run the barrel channel from there. This way our barrel programs work for actions like a Remington or Stiller with a sandwitched recoil lug between the barrel and the receiver and also for actions like a Winchester or Sako which do not. Also, since the recoil lug recess is cut directly in front of this G54 location it doesn't matter what recoil lug thickness you use, from .187" to .375" it doesn't affect this "front of the receiver to the first contour break" length.
We get quite a few stocks back where this clyinder length has been inletted too long because of the customers not understanding what we are asking for and giving us the wrong length, like the blank length on the barrel makers chart, or too short because they measured from the front of the recoil lug. Refilling and/or re-inletting the barrel channel is costly and if we ran it at the length the customer requested
then we will usually charge them for this. I hopes this helps smooth some of these problems out.
If you want to order the stock at the same time that you order the barrel and you can't measure this at that time, just get with the gunsmith or barrel installer and decide on a length you want it to finish at, like 1" or 1.5" or 1.75" or whatever you want and tell both of us this measurement. Then we can each do our thing to the same spec.
Thanks, Dick.
