When you inlet for a barreled action do you go right to the center line or just short of center line?

I go a hair under centerline and then file the top of the stock down to the center line of the metal.

I realized the way I wrote this response was probably confusing. it would probably be easier to understand this way:

I inlet a barrelled action a hair "over" centerline. By that I mean the centerline of the metal is hair under the top of the blank. Then I file down the top of the wood until the top of the wood just touches the centerline of the metal.

I check this with a small engineering square. When both arms touch the sides and the point touchs the sides and bottom of the barrel channel or round portion of the reciver, it is at "centerline" depth.

It is very common for people just starting out to not get the metal down far enough. Many of them also have the metal inletted where as you approach th emuzzle, the metal "climbs" farther out of the stock. One very well known gun writer has done this on several stocks and it drives me crazy every time I see it! But hell, I even have a rifle of mine (second stock I ever made) that does that a little. I was going to fix it, but never have. It has a lot of stylistic problems, and metal creeping up towards the muzzle is a minor one! Plus it is always good to see how far you have come.

But trust me, it is no where near as bad as the rifle picture that the prolific gunwriter has used in dozens of his stories!!! That picture give me hives just thinking about it.

I do it the same way as Marc_Stokeld does,then when i sand the stock and get it ready for the finish,it usually brings the stock lines down to just below as well. Not much,but just right. Believe it or not your eye can tell were it should be. Sometimes some stock makers don,t inlet there stock deep enough and this makes one having to do a lot of inletting to get to the point you want. van

I take it just to the centerline.