TennHB,

There was toil but there were tricks that old craftsmen used as well. When I jointed my first SXS I toiled for ever to get a perfect fit, then I saw the trick used by Spanish jointers and kicked my self for not having thought of it. They first fit the lumps and breech to the action but without the crosspin in place, and before they mill the barrel hook. When they have everything fit just right they put a two layers of card paper under the breech end of the barrels and hold everything tight together and center punch the lumps for the cross pin. Once the cross pin is in, and the hook milled on the barrels so that they will ride on the pin, they smoke in the barrels at the breech face. So simple and so fast!