cjensen,
Upon first reading the title of this topic, I thought oh no here we go again, another firing accident that could have easily been avoided, but after reading your post and viewing the photos of your functional rig, I’m glad I was mistaken.
Hey, no apologies necessary, your carriage looks like it’ll work fine. Clint Eastwood’s character in “Heartbreak Ridge” tries to instill in his boots the philosophy that: “You adapt, you improvise, you overcome.” Sounds like dang good advice to me; now all you’ve got to do is take it out and have a blast!