20gauge English Fowler Build

So I lost my Dad coming up on a year now this week. It's been hard but I am making it through. The one thing that we shared that no one else in my family did was our love of Muzzleloaders. In particular, Flintlocks. My Dad built around 40 guns in his life(I know that's not a lot compared to some others)for himself and others. He was extremely talented. For the last 3 or 4 years of his life, we often spoke about what gun he would like to build next. Without fail, it usually was an English Fowler. He became interested in Smoothbores after shooting only rifles. I decided to build it in his honor. This is my first completely solo gun without his help. I worked on a lot his guns with him also and spent hours watching and learning from him. I settled on a Clay Smith English Fowler Kit in 20 gauge with a 38inch barrel in fancy Walnut. This blog is mainly for me to document what I am doing and any mistakes I make. I started tonight by starting to further inlet the already partially inlet lock mortice. I put in about 2 hours tonight. I know that's not usually done first but I wanted to start getting it set in so I can see if I need to move the barrel back any to clear the breechplug for the touch hole. I took my time and didn't rush and made some headway. I think 2 or 3 more sessions should do it. Walnut is NOT an easy wood to work with. Very finicky!! Here are some pics from tonight. Also, when I talked to Clay to order, he had already installed the buttplate on this kit. He didn't even charge for the extra work!! Bonus!! A powder horn I am working on also.