Replacing a flat buttplate with spurred

[Buddy Marson]

When Brian Dudley installs a butt plate it will be "Parker Perfect"!

[Dean Romig]

Personally I prefer the spurred butt plate. It is from a time when frivolous cost-cutting procedures weren't as important.

You're very handy with hand tools and woodworking obviously and if you would like your gun just a little bit better with a spurred butt plate I say go ahead and make it like you want it.

But first take the butt plate off of your 20 to see what you need to do to the wood.





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[Samuel S.]

Thanks Dean. I also have a Trojan 16 from 1927 with a repaired comb (top 3/4”, front to back). I’ll upload pics if I can figure out how. I’ve never had the guts to replace the stock, but maybe some day. It’s a beautiful gun otherwise. Just as tight as can be. Even my lower end Parkers are works of machining art, in my opinion. What great guns they were/are!

[ArtS]

One of the more famous Northwestern US custom rifle makers, who is no longer around, had an article on his website showing in detailed pictures his method of installing a skeleton steel buttplate to his customs. His method was something I had not seen and have been wanting to try ever since. He took the buttplate and inlet it to the stock to only a shallow depth (the inside of the plate being concave) to just the point that the outside of the plate was fitted closely to the butt and generously supported all around. He then took a piece of walnut directly from the blank and chose a piece laid out for the best wear resistence and ability to take fine checkering. He then finely fit this to the inside of the skeleton butt plate cutout, trimmed and finished the outside and checkered. The front of this plug (if you will) was cut very slightly short and epoxied to the butt while the plate was installed on the stock. He was well known for his skeleton plates, and I doubt if anyone realized it until he posted this tutorial. It is not classic stock making, but it had advantages. He stated that it was much quicker to do, and made it possible to repair many of the butts that were damaged in use with much less impact to the stock dimensions. In a case like yours, it would allow the installation with less reduction in LOP if installing a skeleton plate.

[Samuel S.]

Super interesting. Thanks ArtS!

[Dean Romig]

Art, and all - that's basically how the skeleton buttplates were done on the Repros, except the Repros' wood insert weren't epoxied.





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[Terry Hobson]

Years ago (mid 80’s)I had a 20 gauge repro that I noticed produced a funny sound when thumping the checkered butt and seemed sort of spongy. I spoke with Skeuse who told me it was a piece of veneer and to re-glue it. Think I used acraglass.

[Jack Pesci]

First make sure that you can obtain a spurred buttplate that will fit the wood exactly. if it is undersized then the wood will have to be sanded to fit the plate and then refinished. If it is oversized the buttplate will have to be trimmed and Parker buttplates have a border that will be affected by trimming and will therefore look bad.
Just my 2 cents.

[B. Dudley]

Originally Posted by Jack Pesci

First make sure that you can obtain a spurred buttplate that will fit the wood exactly. if it is undersized then the wood will have to be sanded to fit the plate and then refinished. If it is oversized the buttplate will have to be trimmed and Parker buttplates have a border that will be affected by trimming and will therefore look bad.
Just my 2 cents.

If buttplates are too small, the wood does not HAVE to be sanded. Material can be added to the outside of the plate and then worked back down to avoid working the wood. The wood should not be reworked unless it is new or unless it is being refinished.

With my number 1 plates, which is the most common size that I use in stocking guns, i had ones made that are oversized around the outside to make sure that I would never have an issue with them being undersized when fitting to an original gun.

[Samuel S.]

Thanks Brian.