First gun build underway

This weather may not be good for Boca Bash but it gives me the time to lock myself in the garage and slowly chip away at this gun build. The mech pocket was stressful simply because I don't have a router table for my big 1/2" router and I don't have the bits for the little router(stupidity). So I decided to go old school: drill holes and chisel.... It's taken lots of drilling, chiseling, installing, test fitting, removal, etc. The mech pocket is finally installed and I can engage the shaft and pull the trigger to release it. It's not quite perfect but once I shape the bottom of the blank for the handle install I will fine tune everything. I also drilled the holes for the pins using Woodguy's technique. Here's the pic:

I had some time on thursday and a little this evening to get some work done, here ya go!

I cut the pocket for the trigger frame to sit into, material still needs to be removed at this point see next image:

If you notice at the bottom you can see the extra wood has been removed around the frame and over my wrist.

Tonight I was able to hog out the wood and fit/mount the line anchor.

picture of my blank next to my current pursuit(SPEARDIVER) euro gun

After more research I am willing to bet that the wood is Longleaf Heart Pine. It is supposed to be about as dense and hard as oak but is more stable. All of these match the characteristics of my piece.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there! I sent mine to get her nails done which allowed me some time on the router table.:D All of the router work is now done, I just need to finish up the hand sanding to soften some of the sharp lines. I set it all together for pictures, I love the way it has turned out thus far and can't wait to get it in the water. Let me know what you think!

Mockup:

Thanks guys I'm really happy with it thus far, I think it might be the angle of the picture because there is only 1/2" between the top of the band slot and the bottom of the Neptonics track. Maybe that's a lot but I thought it seemed about right:confused1:. I still need to round the band slot to take the hard edge off of it, but I don't have a router bit that will fit in it so it will be done by hand or possibly with the help of a dremel.

I have a 1/4" roundover that I planned to use but it doesnt fit in the 9/16" slot. I am hoping to do it something like this now:

mixed up some penetrating epoxy today and started coating the blank:

here's both handle side plates before any epoxy

And here's a couple with 1 coat to show the color and grain

Finally got this thing all wrapped up and assembled. I'm not very happy with the last coat of epoxy that went on it, I left it un-thinned and it just didn't turn out well. I will sand it down and recoat at a later date I just want to get it in the water and see how it handles. I threw it in the pool just to test its buoyancy, at 8lbs its a bruiser but it barely sinks with the shaft in and floats with it out. It should be interesting tomorrow to see it in saltwater. I will try to post pictures and hopefully some fish tomorrow.

P.S. It's going to be a bitch to load, I can tell already