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 ?
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