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View Full Version : TREASURES UNDER BUTTPLATES


George Lander
05-19-2011, 10:49 PM
Have any of you here made it a practice of looking under the buttplates when you acquire a gun? A friend of mine did & told me that he found a five dollar bill! So I started looking under mine & so far I have found a 1921 hunting license from Pennsylvania (in an A Grade Fox) and a King George VI 10 pond note (in a W.W. Greener).

Inquiring Minds want To Know....George

Russ Jackson
05-19-2011, 11:59 PM
I started the practice years ago of removing Butt Plates ,I read about a fellow that removed a plate on a B Grade Fox and the large hole where the bolt goes through the stock into the back of the receiver to hold the stock on ,had a wad of $100.00 Bills rolled up and stuck in the hole ???? So far " NO LUCK !:banghead:

Destry L. Hoffard
05-20-2011, 04:56 AM
I've looked in every gun I ever owned and found nothing except some lead and some newspaper scraps.

scott kittredge
05-20-2011, 05:29 AM
just dates and names under grip caps, still nice to find :)

chris dawe
05-20-2011, 05:33 AM
I do it as well,and have found note's ,string ,fish hook's & a couple St.Christopher medal's.

Dean Romig
05-20-2011, 05:49 AM
Odd that there should be St. Christopher medals and not St. Hubert medals...?

ED J, MORGAN
05-20-2011, 06:38 AM
Odd that there should be St. Christopher medals and not St. Hubert medals...?

HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL ?

Dean Romig
05-20-2011, 06:39 AM
Agreed, but St. Hubert is the patron saint of hunters.

Steve Huffman
05-20-2011, 07:04 AM
I had a heck of a time getting into my DH the outside came off with the screws but the wood part I had to use a band saw. Didnt find anything . Does the wood just get glued back on ?

calvin humburg
05-20-2011, 07:22 AM
Steve,:rotf::rotf::rotf: Me and my friend worked over a 44 Stevens a smith long ago put a coil spring in it and had to lenghten the lower tang he put the serial # back on but under the butt plate he nailed the piece of the original lower tang with the serial # on it.

Dave Suponski
05-20-2011, 07:42 AM
I havn't found anything yet. But I check every one that comes home..

Buddy Marson
05-20-2011, 08:12 AM
One of our members showed me a Fox he had purchased. When he removed the butt plate, stamped in the end of the stock was inscribed "This stock was custom built for Ted Williams". A wonderful treasure indeed!

David Holes
05-20-2011, 08:51 AM
I have a solid rib model 12 that I tried to get the stock bolt out of. Someone had rolled all of his hunting permits, and his wifes also, and stuck in the stock. I had them all laminated to preserve them. They are from the 20's and 30's.

Dave Tercek
05-20-2011, 10:06 AM
I had a 20 Ithaca NID with a rolled up note putting a curse on anyone who sold the gun. I believe it was on a hardware store bill from Clevland OH, the phone # had only 5 digits.
I also had a 20g M21 with someones WWII draft card under the plate.
The note and card were in the guns when I resold them.

Russ Jackson
05-20-2011, 10:12 AM
Hi Dave ,Haven't run into you in a while . Hope all is well ,I don't believe ,I would have cared much for that curse thing !:eek: Russ

Richard Flanders
05-20-2011, 11:23 AM
Live and learn.... I've never checked under a butt plate. I'm sure at least one of my Parkers has the stocked hollowed and is full of gold doubloons....

Leighton Stallones
05-20-2011, 12:45 PM
A friend of mine has an old Hammer double with a brazed hammer repair. It fits the make and descriiption that Nash Buckingham gave of his early double. When we took the steel buttplate off it had NB scratched on it in about 2 inch high letters.

calvin humburg
05-20-2011, 01:26 PM
I hope the smith doing the face lift on my hammer gun don't peek, probably nothing but that is some neet stuff you fellowes are telling.

chris dawe
05-20-2011, 04:26 PM
Odd that there should be St. Christopher medals and not St. Hubert medals...?There is some very old time strick Catholic's up here in Newfoundland .I did'nt see a direct connection as well.

calvin humburg
05-20-2011, 05:12 PM
So is there a St.for everything you do? And what is a St, whats his job? just wondering not trying to be disrespectable.

John Dallas
05-20-2011, 05:50 PM
I'm not Catholic ( but I did sleep with one last night, and have for 43 years) - I understand that St. Christopher was "de-saintified" a few years ago, and now more properly addressed as "Mr. Christopher"

George Lander
05-20-2011, 05:59 PM
I am Catholic and also sleep with one (51 years now) & I was brought up by the Ursuline nuns to understand that St. Christopher carried the Christ Child across the swollen river on his shoulders. He is, and always has been, the patron saint of travelers.

Best Regards, George

Fred Preston
05-20-2011, 06:30 PM
Same here Big D, except, being youngsters, we're only in our 31st year. George's description of St. Christopher is my understanding; a not inappropriate guardian for a hunter. I was not aware of his demotion, nothing serious I hope. As an undergraduate, I was managed and informed by the Jesuits for which I am forever grateful.

Jerry Andrews
05-22-2011, 10:02 AM
I found a $100.00 bill under an L.C. Smith buttplate years ago. It was quite a find as we were just married ( 28 years ago ) and with 2 new businesses, 3 girls within the next 4 years, and a hundred bucks was quite a find! Still would be actually. Jerry

charlie cleveland
05-22-2011, 10:29 AM
im like the rest ..i took off a few butt plates but come up empty handed...have not took off any butt plates in a long time... charlie

Bill Jolliff
05-25-2011, 11:21 PM
Pulled the butt plate off a 1934 vintage Winchester model 61 pump .22 and found two locks of very fine brown hair, pieces of newspaper from The Denver Post July 1935 edition and a $1.00 Silver Certificate series 1935.

Destry L. Hoffard
05-26-2011, 01:33 AM
Leighton,

Tell us more about where you get your information on that hammer double. When Buckingham mentions his first shotgun in his writing I believe the only description is that it's an "old English gun with donkey ear hammers" but no brand name is mentioned. Maybe my memory is fading and I don't feel like digging through the books to find the exact passage.


Destry

Thomas L. Benson Sr.
05-29-2011, 11:44 AM
I bought a vh 12 ga. back in the 1980's and removed the butt plate and found his name and his hunting license from 1921 from oregon and i still have the gun and the last name was Clark.

Jack Kuzepski
06-01-2011, 03:14 PM
I had pulled the butt plate of my 1888 10 ga. Parker Hammer gun and found just the scribed center line of the stock with both screw holes going thru it.

Jack Kuzepski

Gerald McPherson
06-06-2011, 02:47 PM
I found a 1917 hunting permit inside an Ithaca. If I remember right it was made in 1916. I laminated it and put it back inside. I traded the gun for a septic tank pump out. No S**t. Thats the truth. If that little 20ga had been a Parker he would have had to pump it out many times. How is that for Provenance? That made me think of the fellow in Alaske shooting the poop down in the toilet. Who was that? Gerald.

Dave Suponski
06-06-2011, 03:05 PM
That was our own Rich Flanders...:) No job too unimportant for a Parker..:)