Fitting a Parker black rubber butt plate

[John Farrell, Charter Member #33]

I have a replacement dogs head spur butt plate to fit to my stock. I understand that the fitting technique is to immerse the buttplate in boiling water to make it pliable. Any experience here on how to determine if it is pliable enough to fit to the buttstock?

How does one handle the butt plate when it comes out of the boiling water and then while fitting it to the buttstock??? JF

[Bob Jurewicz]

John,
First thing is to fit the spur to the recess in the stock. Only shape the spur not the wood!!!!
No magic amount of time for softening the plate. 1 minute or less in boiling water softens them quite well. Remove from water with any utensil and it will be OK to handle. Bend gently to appropriate shape. I try to shape so the screws do the final forming to the shape of the butt for a nice tight fit. With the plate cool and tightly attached to the butt I scribe the edge with a needle like tool to mark the material to be removed by a belt sander. Final edge smoothing is done by 600 grit paper. I even use auro rubbing compond for final edge finish.
Bob Jurewicz

[Pa SxS]

I do not use a sharp pointed object to scribe the DHBP/Recoil pad when fitting a pad. The reason being that it's possible to chip the finish as you scribe the line. Instead, take blue painters tape and tape around the entire edge of the DHBP so that half is stuck to the plate and half is off the edge. Mount the DHBP/Recoil pad and scribe your line with a sharp pencil or black pen. It will show up nicely on the blue tape. Take the DHBP off and trim excess tape off with a sicssors. As your sanding, the sander will sand off the tape along with the plate. When you just see the scribed mark almost disappear, finish up with fine grit paper as Bob mentioned.

[John Farrell, Charter Member #33]

I tried the boiling water technique with the broken DHBP this morning after getting the replies. The butt plate turned a muddy brown color. Did I leave it in the water too long? It was in there about 5 minutes and was just pliable enough to show that the method works. Will the replacement DHBP need to be in the water less time?

Thanks for the help. JF

[Pa SxS]

Sorry John, I've never tried bending a DHBP to fit a curved stock. It's not unusual for the old DHBP's or grip caps to turn brown. Black liquid shoe polish should fix that.

FWIW, I did fit a Kickeez pad to a curved butt. I used Acraglas dyed black to fill in the widow's peak and added a screw to the middle of the recoil pad to draw it tight and put the rubber plug back in the hole to cover the screw head. Real comfortable to shoot and in 5 minutes, I can put the original DHBP back on.

[Bob Jurewicz]

John,
The original is of a material different from the "reproductions". I have never had a repro turn brown.
Bob Jurewicz

[Jeff Mayhew]

Old "gutta-percha" rubber often responds to moisture by turning brown or even reddish. Here's a closeup of an old pistol grip. I kinda like the color, but it can be splotchy.