Horn Butt Plate

[Richard Brinkman]

I'm starting a .40 cal Squirrel rifle build to be used in competition. This will be a Poor Boy style but I don't like a rifle without a buttplate. Weighing my parts right now I'm about 8 oz over weight, 10# limit. I am planning on cutting the barrel back to 38 inches from 42 which should get me back to weight. I don't like rifles with out butt plates although I know that some were built that way. My home range has lots of loose gravel on the loading area. So I was wondering about a horn butt plate? Anybody ever use one or make a rifle with one have any problems later on with it like splitting?

RB

 

[Supercracker]

I've only seen horn buttplates on high end guns. Might not fit with a "poor boy" styling.

Have you thought about leather? That would have been cheap protection.

 

[54ball]

I assume that this will be a fullstock in the Appalachian style. If shaped properly most of the stock will wind up on the shop floor. These rifles were very thin.
Unless you are using a 1 inch or greater diameter barrel, it should be pretty easy to meet that weight requirement even with a 42" barrel and a buttplate.

Look up Gillespie Rifles to see some originals without BPs. Gillespies were high quality rifles, even the ones without BPs.

Horn is not that much harder than wood and may even be less durable. Bone and antler though harder, would require a thick workable piece and in the end may be heavier than metal.

Some originals are found with simple nails, small metal scale plates, or a shaped heel plate and toe plate.

I used one for years without a BP, mine got some nicks but that's just part of having a rifle like that. Most of the time I loaded it off my foot but not always.

As said earlier, unless you are using a super heavy barrel you should easily meet that weight even with a BP and 42" barrel.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
I am sorry but if a 40 cal rifle is over 10lbs I suggest there is something else that can be trimmed other than butt plate weight. You must have a very heavy barrel or way too much wood on the stock.

dave

 

[Richard Brinkman]

Thanks for the replies the barrel is a Rice .40 cal 15/16 across the flats 42 inches long. It weighs 7 pounds the stock is already thin but some more wood will come off it. It is a rather hard and dense piece of walnut I ordered walnut thinking that it would be slightly lighter that maple but guess not. I did weigh up the all the parts together including a 5 oz brass butt plate and brass trigger guard which weighs 3 oz, I would rather use steel but think that brass might be a bit lighter. This rifle doesn't have to be exactly right it will be used mostly for line competition but I do like to have my rifles at least look they would fit in the general time and region that they might have come from. I did find that the leather butt plate was interesting.

RB

 

[Patocazador]

I stole this photo from a fellow member's post. The bottom rifle has a buffalo horn buttplate. I don't know anything else about it.
http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j333/bigotto1/ml2_zpsdcb537b0.jpg

Hopefully, he will see this and answer your question.

 

[Birddog6]

Weighing my parts right now I'm about 8 oz over weight, 10# limit. RB

Who set the 10# limit. If we are talking about HC/PC, allot of the original Tenn & Southern rifles went well over 10#. You take a 48" barrel 1 or 1.25" across the flats in .32 cal, we are talking about some serious barrel weight. The fact you went with 15/16" and now going to 38" barrel length just killed the HC/PC aspect of it.

If this is YOUR set limit, change it to 10# plus a steel buttplate. You can make a thin one out of 1/8" flat steel & taper it on the edges & make it simple. Up from toe & turn it at return for 1/2" & that's it.

Personally, I would leave off the triggerguard before I would leave off a buttplate. Leaving off a buttplate could end up you restocking the rifle.... :redface:

Also, to remove Weight from a rifle by removing wood, it usually requires a tremendous amount of wood removal, unless it is a seriously dense piece of wood. It may Look lighter, but when you weigh it you will see you can cut half a buttstock off sometimes & only relinquish a few ounces.

I watched a guy take a blade bit & bore out a buttstock one time & after hollowing it out Tremendously, he took off a mere 4 ounces. He also restocked it a year later because the stock split.

Keith Lisle

 

[fleener]

I have quite a few old shotguns with horn plate. No rifles however....

Fleener

 

[Rifleman1776]

Horn is not that much harder than wood and may even be less durable.

Disagree strongly.
Horn is very tough stuff. I wouldn't call it "hard" just tough. It will take a lot of abuse and would, IMHO, make a good butt plate.
Howsomever, I once had a Po' Boy sans butt plate. To protect the butt, I cut a notch at the top and inlaid a hunk of antler. Using brazing rod for pins it actually looked fine when I finished and worked well to protect the wood.

 

[nkbj]

I'm threatening to put a black buffalo horn butt plate on my little fifty smoothie critter getter. One piece has some pretty nice "grain" in it. The trigger guard might end up horn also. Dunno. I'm still figgering it out.

 

[loco6725]

I have an old drilling that has a slight chip in the buttplate, the chip has almost a clear or maybe a "marbled" look to it, I always wondered what it was made from. My thoughts are that it could be a hoof from some sort of (big) animal?? :idunno:

 

[Col. Batguano]

Don't forget, Japanese Arisaka Type 99's used wooden butt plates, with the grain going vertically, and the lower toe portion of the stock glued on to save in raw wood amounts in the stock manufacture. I've never figured out how they dealt with the wood movement issue though, and kept the butt plates on.

 

[Richard Brinkman]

No HC/PC the NMLRA set the limit, 10#, 40 cal or less, open sights.

Still looking and thinking.

Thanks for all the reply's.

RB