I have had a question about wood to metal fit that I struggle with. On several very nice, older rifles that are TD’s I have seen where the forearm wood does not go up as high as the notch in the TD ring. I have attached several pictures of an example. I have several older TD 1894’s where the wood does go up as high as the notch. Is there something wrong with the attached rifle? I only have my 3 TD’s and all of them are the same with the wood going up to the notch at the TD ring. Expert opinions are appreciated. Thanks, Peter
My 94 TD has the forearm wood meeting the top of the “notch” evenly as do a number of TD’s I looked at on the Mertz website. The fit along the sides looks excellent so the pictured rifle doesn’t appear to have ever been removed and sanded. Also, the pictured specimen appears to have a slight angle on the edge of the forearm and the barrel edge of the forearm seems to meet the “notch”.
"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
The early Winchester wood fitting was done by hand. Individually fitted pieces to individual guns. If you try to interchange wood stocks and fore arms between different rifles, you will find they often do not fit or interchange well if at all. On the example shown, the wood fitter cut the forearm a bit slim, but still acceptable to the final inspector. Winchester did not waste many parts.
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