Challenge in fitting a steel butt plate.

[Allenby]

You have a great start and just keep at it. I’m sure at the end you will be proud of your work and the time and effort you put into the rifle.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Eric,
I feel your pain. The trick to those English butt plates is to true up all the edges, then make an accurate tracing of the profile on one side of the stock. Cut to that line with a band saw and clean up the cut with rasps. Then mark where the cross pin lug will go and inlet a mortice for it on the top of the stock. Give that mortice some extra space forward and a little to the sides so you can move the butt plate as you inlet it. Then mark on the top of the stock the position of the first shoulder. Cut that down along that line to your profile line, and start taking down and rounding the heel until the plate starts to sit down. Then hold the plate down in position and trace the full return on the stock and inlet to that line and proper depth. If you've done it carefully, the fit will be close. The nice thing about the English style plates is then you can carefully move the plate straight foward, relieving the wood as you need to bring everything into contact.

dave

 

[Eric Krewson]

Looking good, mine was OK but I spent so much time working on it I am ashamed to admit how much in days and weeks. My biggest mistake was the rookie decision to leave a lot of extra wood and inlet the return down to "practice" my inletting.

Yikes, what a bad decision, I also matched wood to the inside curvature of the buttplate instead of just the sides.

Overall it came out OK;

 

[PathfinderNC]

You have a great start and just keep at it. I’m sure at the end you will be proud of your work and the time and effort you put into the rifle.

Thank you

 

[PathfinderNC]

Edit: Didn’t see @Hatchet Jack ‘s post until after I posted below.

Remember, you are working with a kit. Have you reviewed Jim Kibler’s video on fitting the buttplate? He starts the buttplate 22 and a half minutes into this video.

Note in this screenshot from the video, even though it is a brass buttplate, the fit appears similar to the one in photograph you posted. The fitting process is the same with either.
View attachment 78420

Good post. Yeah, I saw Jim's video and also the one he made for the SMR butt plate also. It seems that some go on easier than others. It's my first SMR (I have a .45 to do also) so I didn't know what to think when I saw the way it needed work. It cant all be easy!

 

[troy2000]

As I commented in another thread this morning, the butt plate on my Kibler SMR took more time than all the rest of the fitting I had to do. I agree with Prussian blue, an extremely sharp chisel, a half-round file and lots of patience... and I also had to file down casting marks.

add: You might try scraping with the chisel instead of cutting, but I wouldn't do it near the edges; a slip could be tragic.

 

[PathfinderNC]

Thanks Troy- I saw your earlier comment also- I agree it does take a long time. My Colonial butt plate was a breeze compared to this, but I think I got it.

 

[Mulemauler]

Buttplates are my second least favorite part of a build only followed by entry pipes. Tedious, but resist getting in a hurry. You rush the process and every time you look at it in the future you will regret it.