Wooden dowel in buttstock - did they add weights ?
 

I was taking pictures of my Parker "Folsom trap gun" last night. (A ca. 1886 hammer 12 ga.)

When I removed the buttplate, I saw a round wooden dowel (approx. 1/2" in diameter) centered between the two screw holes. It was approx. 1/16" proud of the surrounding wood.

Oddly enough, I'm sure I removed the buttplate in the past, but I must have been too blind to notice this !!!! I recall a grouse hunt with the RGS, in which this gun got totally soaked in the rain - I wonder if the resultant swelling made the dowel protrude from the surrounding wood ?

Regardless - my question is this: I recall an old thread that stated Parker didn't start using the hickory dowels until the 1890's. Plus, being located exactly between the screw holes is not where the patent drawing shows the reinforcing dowel being located (Dean posted this patent drawing a while back).

Did Parker drill out the butt, add some weight - and then close off the hole with the dowel ? Was that common on those Folsom Parkers ? (The letter doesn't mention that...) This hammer gun is a #1 frame, with 30" barrels, and the letter claims 7 pounds, 14 ounces. Is that a typical weight ? The gun balances somewhere between the hinge pin and a point maybe as much as 1/2" toward the breech (roughly said, it balances at the hinge pin).

It just seems odd...

The gun does have Remington repair codes, but no old cracks are seen, so why would they add the reinforcement ?

Any ideas ?

It is probably more common to find evidence of a wooden plug that caps off the hole bored for adding a lead weight billet for balance than to find one that is actually the end of a patented hickory reinforcing rod in the butt.

My 16ga Trojan has a similar dowel which I asked about some time back, here:

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3917

I ultimately took it to my dentist who was also a gun enthusiast. He x-rayed it for me; it extends into the stock about 3". No evidence of the hole going in further, nor evidence of any weight, etc. A mystery!

I had a early lifter once that had 3 holes drilled in the butt under the plate and they were all filled with lead. That explained why it felt so butt heavy being a 28" 1 frame with straight grip.

Likely your plug is either capping a hole that is there for adding weight, or reducing weight.

Could have been done at any time.

Unless a dowel is made of a wood as dense as walnut they should decrease the weight a very small amount. As for moisture making a dowel 'stretch', that is unlikely if it the dowel was properly quarter sawn with the grain parallel to the dowel. The moisture content of wood has very little bearing on shrinkage and swelling parallel to the grain.

Not really sure what they were for but these plugged holes were in the back end of a 16 gage CHE I once owned. I always assumed they were for balance as I don't recall a pat. date stamped in the stock.

I too, once had a 10 ga. Parker hammergun with a 1" hole bored in the center of the buttstock and half-filled with a lead plug then capped with a wood plug.

Larry, the diameter of both of yours are too large for the hickory rod's diameter of about 5/8"

Fascinating stuff - thanks guys !

John

Could some of the mystery holes have been drilled to remove checking in the end of a pc to ensure the crack does not continue opening thus destroying the stock over time?

I would guess that would save many a blank from being deemed unsuitable and unusable.

i suppose anything is possible - but the holes seem to have been centered and drying checks I have seen are not always that accommodating

Plus - with Parker's pride in their product, I'd like to think they were not that miserly

As you pointed out most checking would not always lend itself to removal by this technique but certainly some blanks could be saved that way.

After the build and as a repair this seems feasible..it's obvious that these holes are there to balance the gun during the course of manufacture...it's Phil Yearout's pc which causes some mystery..could have just been an overzealous removal of material & then a craftsman's judgement call feeling as if it caused a weakening of the wood & then feeling it necessary to re-strengthen by installing a dowel to occupy the space.

If I am understanding Phil's description correctly..the dowel occupies the entire 3 inch deep cavity which the x-ray revealed?

On your point of a miserly build..agreed 100%

I think inserting a dowel into the hole would defeat the suggested purpose of preventing checks. Now the stockwood wants to shrink against a solid core thus causing cracks in the thinner stockwood.

Yes; the dowel definitely bottoms out in the hole.

Certainly don’t want to beat it into the ground b/c as Rick pointed out ~ anything is possible.

Dean, to my mind leaving the space void would potentially allow the thinner cross-sections to cave if not supported..even if with just a plug at the holes opening as it would have no support behind it whatsoever. A properly seasoned pc should be pretty stable outside of expansion/contraction due to atmospheric conditions & not want to curl etc. That said…wood can by all means do exactly what you don’t think it should do..lol

It’s hard to say what practice was employed back then but I would guess that ends of green lumber were in fact coated for long term drying/storage..but perhaps not??

Considering it common practice for a blank to be oversized in length, a small degree of checking may not be of concern if in fact that portion of the blank was to be removed anyhow..now say the end is sawn and proper shaping ensues but low and behold you didn’t get it all & a small check begins to form in the butt end..if it was in the right spot there is no doubt that the area which is affected including material behind it could be removed for good measure. Provided the blank as a whole was dried proper..it would “likely” save the blank. Furthermore, filling the void w/a like material should typically keep things in order. If the craftsman were of the mindset, he could even go so far as using a pc of like material & of similar grain structure oriented proper to ensure little difference in expansion rates due to density etc assuring a sound pc..this would in my view not constitute a miserly repair but a rather savvy one quite frankly. If similar expansion rate was the goal it would be unwise to coat the entire dowel lengthwise with glue but rather just the leading edge to ensure no sealing action occurs & the material is allowed to expand/contract with its surroundings.

As to going through & “repairing” blanks for typical construction of a new gun - I would have to agree w/Rick in saying that would be rather miserly & the age in which these guns were made would be inconsistent…especially from an upper echelon manufacturing company.

I have seen these lightening tactics in other guns and the space was left empty leaving a pc un-naturally light and hollow feeling/sounding…I am aware that I am a rather finicky fella but I loathe that in a gun..if I had such a pc I would not think twice to occupy the space with a dowel..if it was a matter of affecting balance, balsa would suit me just fine (but I would review the expansion rates first). I have been known to fill the butt of a synthetic stock with “Great Stuff” for some friends and after having had the pc returned to them ask me just what it is that I did b/c it just “seems” more solid to them now.

Just to be clear - “Great Stuff” would never touch a gun made of wood & metal by my hand.

We know from reading The Parker Story that King went on a wood buying trip once a year for Parker Bros. It was stored for at least a year before it was put to use.

Scott, I think it's anybody's guess as to why that hole was bored only to be plugged to the end with a dowel.