need design ideas for wear plate.

[George F.]

I am not as artistic as most of you. My ramrod hole exited just in front of the trigger guard. I've put this rifle on hold for over a year since then. I've ordered  the two from MBS , but didn't quite like them, there aren't that many examples in books that I could find, and I have a fair amount of them. It's mostly engraving designs that has me baffled. Can anyone help?  ...Geo.

[Dphariss]

I am not as artistic as most of you. My ramrod hole exited just in front of the trigger guard. I've put this rifle on hold for over a year since then. I've ordered  the two from MBS , but didn't quite like them, there aren't that many examples in books that I could find, and I have a fair amount of them. It's mostly engraving designs that has me baffled. Can anyone help?  ...Geo.

Many originals start at the TG and taper (flare?) out to slightly wrap the bottom of the stock then taper back down to the entry pipe tail. I have parts of an original out in the shop.
These were often as simple as they could be and still cover the hole.

Dan

[don getz]

George.....you might also glue a piece of ramrod in the hole where it exited and re-drill the hole.  I have a great gun that
was done that way, you don't even notice the repair.....Don

[Herb]

Here are four I built.  The top is a Green River Leman.  I took a rifle building course at the Green River Rifle Works in 1978 and the instructor drilled the ram rod hole out the bottom of the stock.  I designed and fitted this one.

The second one is a Christopher  Hawken Lancaster I copied from photos.  The stock developed a crack and I designed and fitted this one to the finished rifle.
The third one is my copy of a Jacob Wigle rifle (Westmoreland Co. PA).  This rifle was found in a cave with a mixed blood child "mummy" in the 1920's.  I cleaned the rifle up for a museum and have made exact copies of it since.  This wear plate is lozenge shaped and was deliberately built a little lop sided.  Western PA rifles frequently were built with wear plates.

The bottom one is my copy of a Thomas Oldham (Bedford Co. PA) rifle.  It is as exact as I could determine from photos in books.  Bedfords also frequently were built with wear plates.

[Tom Currie]

Here is one I made for a breakout problem. Couple of this same type deign in RCA only they extend direcly from the front triggerguard flat. Wish my photo quality was better.

[T*O*F]

This is on an original gun.

I've also used the glued ramrod trick that Don mentioned, but still put a plate over it

[Long John]

I had that happen to me on a rifle I was building for my best friend and hunting partner.  There is an option to using a wear plate.

I took a piece of maple that had matching grain and figure from the cut-off material I saved from profiling the stock.  I made a slab of wood about 1/2 wide by 1/4 inch deep by about 5 inches long.  I let this rectangular slab of wood into the fore stock where the drill had come through, just as if it were a side plate or trigger guard extension.  Before gluing this piece in I used a spoon gouge to deepen the ramrod hole the entire length of the patch.  I then glued the patch piece in and ran the ramrod drill down the hole to clean up the hole.  When I got to the part where I was doing the final shaping I just rasped the patch down with the rest of the wood.  Just before finishing the rifle I cut an incised line right at the glue line and carved an incised pattern within the rectangular outline.  Once stained and finished the patch was indiscernable.  Now, 6 or so years later it is still indiscernable.

This is an option that you might want to consider.

Best Regards,

John Cholin