Butt Plate Inletting.

So I have been procrastinating on this buttplate. I’ve been away for a month or so and had thought long and hard how I would go about it. I’ve read, watched and watched again videos online and finally went at it. I’m on day two, lol! I’m taking it in small steps. I have it about 1/16” all around from being done but I have to say it’s been a pain. You guys that build guns regularly have immense patience.

There is nothing hard about inletting a butt plate. Just keep at it and eventually it gets done.

After you inlet 150+ , you have it figured out. To eliminate this problem , do a basic mountain rifle w/ no butt plate. I'm doing one just now , and didn't want to do fancy work on it , so eliminated the butt plate , and installed a large headed door nail , on the top of the butt return in the place where the butt stock sits on the ground. when loading. Butt plate , what butt plate?? Many years ago at the Baltimore M/L gun shoe , I saw an old original made this way ,so had to do it before old age does me in........oldwood

Bill, Eddie Van Halen said that playing guitar wasn’t that hard! Lol!

Sometimes they go easy, other times they fight you. Lamp black to show high spots and plenty of patience with the files and it will come together. If you're doing a brass plate, you can make some final tiny adjustments by peening the soft brass around the perimeter to close up the little gaps. Make sure the plate's mating surfaces are smooth and true.

Not hard, just a bit tedious and all part of the journey.

Oldwood, not to derail the thread, but I’m just starting a barn gun with no buttplate also and I’m trying to envision shaping the buttstock without having the hard lines of a metal buttplate.
I’m thinking lots of layout lines and have even thought of either temporarily attaching a paper template to the stock or making a sheet metal template of the desired butt shape and continuously checking when shaping.

Robt. E....... I'm a fan of lots a lines and templates when desired. One detail I have noticed on butt less guns , over the years , is that the edges of the butt stock architecture are not highly delineated as in say a late Lancaster type rifle. Guess you'd say the edges are softened a bit. In other words , Rounding the edges of the butt , where a metal butt plate fits , is proper to do. Most buttless m/l stocks show this feature. The one I'm working on just now , will have a 1" head door nail in the top butt curve to deflect any damage from me dropping the rifle on the concrete at the range. Hope this helps..........oldwood

Thanks Oldwood. I’ve noticed the rounded, soft edges too on the butts of these guns, particularly the heel.

I just finished one for a British fowler that fought me hard for a long time. Just when you think you know how to do a rifle, try one for a fowler that doesn't have a rectangular top and you will be humbled.

As with all things gun building, the key is to remember that you "creep up on perfection". Soon as you find yourself starting to loose patience, take a break. This one in particular for quite some time wasn't coming together as I was having trouble getting it to fit all around the top and the back at the same time. I was very tempted to take some drastic measures, but then all of a sudden it just came together thanks to nothing more than patient perseverance, a little inletting black, and a couple of my favorite chisels. Ended up not even needing to hammer it.

Fitting the butt plate is one of my least favorite tasks.

Valkyrie said:

So I have been procrastinating on this buttplate. I’ve been away for a month or so and had thought long and hard how I would go about it. I’ve read, watched and watched again videos online and finally went at it. I’m on day two, lol! I’m taking it in small steps. I have it about 1/16” all around from being done but I have to say it’s been a pain. You guys that build guns regularly have immense patience.

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At first I thought you were referring to mayor Petey buttaplug

Guys, thanks for the lovely picture of the original rifle butt. It's classic. As far as patience , I inherited patience, from my dear old Dad. He put up with a very young kid , with too many questions, under foot for many years in his mechanic shop. Dad was a brilliant self taught , mechanical engineer. On winter evenings in our cellar shop, I watched him make stocks for surplus military rifles , so we could have quality deer rifles, and summer , long range , ground hog guns. Around age twenty 23 , modern firearm boredom set into my life , and muzzleloading guns caught me up. At this point in my life , I'm building a few of the odd guns , nobody ever wanted , but me. One type of gun , is the plain barn type gun, because they are easy , and don't require a lot of expense , thought , and effort. The more skilled you become from building copies of old guns, the more reward will come to you. Keep working ,and studying..........oldwood

Tom A Hawk said:

Fitting the butt plate is one of my least favorite tasks.

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Doing it like that I can see why.

The top is what seems hardest to me. What is the purpose of the top extension anyway! I am thinking of omitting it on my current build.

Here's an old one. I think probably Rowan county NC.

RobertE said:

Not hard, just a bit tedious and all part of the journey.

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I never fit the inside center of the comb to the stock, just the outside edges. Why is is necessary to do it the way you did? This is not criticism, I just don't understand the reason, unless this is the way the old boys did it.
Thanks
Larry

Larry (Omaha) said:

I never fit the inside center of the comb to the stock, just the outside edges. Why is is necessary to do it the way you did? This is not criticism, I just don't understand the reason, unless this is the way the old boys did it.
Thanks
Larry

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Don’t know if it’s right or wrong, just figured it’s more meat for the screws to grab into.

I remove the wood from the center of the butt plate area. It's just extra to work with, with no gained strength. I use John Biven's method of fitting the butt plate closely, then anneal it, and use a ball peen hammer to bring the metal to the wood, then file smooth. I can have a butt plate ready to mount in 1-2 hours. IF doing a poor boy type rifle, I use Minwax wood hardener until it will absorb no more liquid. My guns show no wear even after years of use.

I can "usually" do a brass buttplate in 1/2 hour. Those severely curved late buttplates can take 1 1/2 hours.
When I started 40+ years ago it was an 8-hour job.