Thank you for posting about the A grade Jay. I really appreciate it.
When I found this gun, it was a mess and I did not really know what to do with it by way of making it right. I decided to let the new owner of the gun to decide that if they wanted me to do the work. Fortunately Jay and I were on the same page about it being the beat decision to Put the gun back to completely original specifications as far as we knew.
The gun was the textbook perfect case for a butt transplant. A stock with a perfect head and wrist, but a back end that was not salvageable.
See here a few photos from the actual butt transplant process for those who may not know how it is done or what is involved.
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As far as the buttplate goes, the original was on the butt still but it was so hacked up and reduced in size that it was not usable. It had a long narrow spur, which I replicated with the replacement plate.
One would think that an A grade would have an ssbp. And 3 of the 8 guns that are known about have ssbp on them. But, there was absolutely no physical evidence that this gun ever had an ssbp on it. The solid plate on it was original. And Jay was also on the same page as sticking with that, though it defied convention as one would expect.
And I instructed Geoffroy on what I wanted to see out of the engraving on the plate as we had no reference for that. I think he did a great job on it.