horn butt plates

[paul stafford jr]

I am working on this beautiful old hammer gun, its a WC SCOTT , I was wondering if anyone knows what kind of horn was used in there making , I cant find much info on them , I am not even sure when it was made , I think between 1880 and 1890 but that is just a guess. its quality seems on line with a B GRADE parker or maybe a little higher. the barrels are marked W&C SCOTT & SON MAKERS PATENTEES. LONDON ser.#10239 . the barrels are 30 and 1/8 inchs long they have a fine London pattern. fancy wood lots of fine engraving with game seens

[Richard Flanders]

water buffalo maybe? I have a C Daly with horn butt; I really like it. Much tougher than just about anything short of steel.

[chris dawe]

Its usually water buffalo...Asiatic is most common today,I've made some up for customers,it's really nice stuff,checkers well ,carves reasonably well ,polishes beautifully and like Richard said ,it's as tough as nails (stinks like #$@^ when you work on it though) )

Because of all the hand work it's not a cheap proposition though,but then again most of the "real and good " stuff isn't...heres a pic of one from last year.It's almost done, just a little clean up around the pattern ,cut the borders a little more polish etc...there's a spur on this one I didn't get a pic of.

[Dean Romig]

Being an early British gun it would have been water buffalo as suggested but could also have been cape buffalo.
That was also just about the period when the (misguided) US Gov't eradicated the North American Bison and the bone collectors harvested millions of buffalo skulls and horns and sold bones and horns for profit. This may have been a more ready and inexpensive market.

[Kensal Rise]

It is indeed buffalo horn... by whichever creature. It may also include some "worm holes" or voids. These are a natural part of the material. And some were even created while the beast was wearing that bit of horn! Don't fill them. They are testimony that nature was involved in your gun.

[paul stafford jr]

from your discriptions it does sound like buffalo horn its hard as hell and was easy to recut some worn lines and the dust smells like burnt hair. if I can figure out how to post some pictures again they should be fourth coming. there seems to no two of these guns that look the same , they must be a lot of special orders

[paul stafford jr]

heres some pics of the wc scott

[paul stafford jr]

[paul stafford jr]

[wayne goerres]

That looks just like the one on my W C Scott. Would like to see some pics of the engraveing.