Proper checkering and butt on GHE straight stock
 

I recently acquired a 1907 GHE with an English stock it appears to have been restocked improperly at some point. I plan to have it restocked. I was hoping someone might be able to tell me if it would have had a hand checkered butt or a plastic plate. I appreciate any help.

Rather than spend thousand$ on replacing the stock I would simply have the borders of the checkering mullered and have some of those screws professionally replaced.
It could have had either a DHBP or a checkered butt by request. A PGCA research letter might address the butt treatment if something other than a DHBP was requested.





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A Grade 2 (G) gun, from that period, most likely had the hard rubber butt plate with the dog, showing full shoulder and legs. That said, there doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rules from different periods, to say it positively had one style versus another. I have seen two known original guns, separated by only a few serial numbers, with two different style plates. The difference in the two guns, was one was an 0 frame, the other a 2 frame.
Without saying "Never" It is extremely unlikely it had a checkered butt, because that style treatment was almost exclusively used on small bore skeet guns which didn't come out until many years later.

Dean I considered that option but I really dislike the replacement stock grain. I will have the screws replaced while it's in for the stock work. I appreciate your help.

Here's the buttplate from a 1910 GH 16ga Damascus

A buttplate would be the appropriate treatment for the gun. Checkered butts would only be on skeet guns and by special order.

I agree with dean in that the stock is completely salvagable. The fitment looks to be good. The shortcomings in the form can be easily corrected and the checkering is no big deal to fix after that. But it is a plain piece of wood. So if you want to put in the effort for the wood upgrade. Have at it. Just make sure the job gets done right.

If it were mine I'd more than likely take it out and see if I could hit anything with it as is . To me from looking at the pics it seems it might have more drop than I like anymore . So again if it were me I might get the stock bent and put a plate or pad on it and shoot the heck out of it .

Just saying ! :bigbye:

I agree with Craig. That stock appears to have at least 4 inches of drop. I doubt if even a riser kit could correct that.

So, the question that Levlgreen must answer for himself is, does the gun fit you well enough to shoot it well… or at least acceptably well.





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Buttplates are frame size specific in most cases. They are identified by the logo, which is usually determined by frame size, not by the period of manufacture. I would not restock a thousand dollar gun for thousands of dollars when I could buy another one with a good stock. Your choice.