Butt plate reshaping

[Scota4570]

I got two prospective but plates for my Vincent project.  They are also to radically curved to allow me to fire from the shoulder.  I want to flatten out some curve. 

These are very nice investment cast brass.  How much bending will they likely take before they break?  Should I heat and quench them before I start messing with them?

[smylee grouch]

All of the Vincent butt plates that I have seen were I think made to shoot off the arm and not the shoulder. To straighten them out might be risky with out putting some kink in them or actually breaking them. You would also lengthen them out somewhat by straightening them out so they might be too long for a precarve stock if that is what you intend to use.

[Scota4570]

I contacted the vendor.  They are a phosphor bronze alloy.  They are not malleable.  I learned yet another thing, always specify malleable brass.  Yikes, this has become the project from $#*!.

I am not using a pre-carve stock.  So, I can use what I want for a butt plate.     I do find it odd that the but plate vendors and kit makers don't specify that some butt plates can not be used to make a rifle that can be fired off the shoulder in the modern way. 

[greybeard]

Check with David Keck. Knob Mountain.
His brass hardware seems to be quite soft. Bob

[Scota4570]

The vendor was quite knowledgeable and helpful.  I just did not know to ask the right questions.  I'll check with the suggested vendor, more is well more.  I it is good to have choices.  

If it comes to it I will make one.  I have a video of Heshel House doing it and somebody her did one recently for a shotgun.  It is as much about the process as anything else to me.  Parts look more real if they are hand made anyway. 

[smylee grouch]

I have bent cast steel but plates a little in the vice jaws but don't know if those bronze castings will bend or break regardless of the amount of bend.

[Mark Elliott]

Bronze is relatively brittle.  You will not be able to bend it much at all.   Have you considered making iron mounts for the gun?  I don't think they would look out of place on a Vincent. 

[Scota4570]

Iron, yes, more and more.  Mild steel is cheap, looks authentic, and is easy to work.  If I break on the these plates I will do exactly that. 

As I get more and more in to the hobby, I am less satisfied with off the shelf stuff. 

[JCKelly]

Reeves Goehring

[sqrldog]

Get a Hedgecock E 8 sandcast buttplate file the flates round bend it a little to suit you. I usually put a touch more curve in it. Makes a nice late period buttplate a grown man can use. Tim

[Scota4570]

Where can I purchase a  Hedgecock E 8 sandcast buttplate?

[Mark Elliott]

If you have a forge with an anvil and a swage block, steel butt pieces are quick and easy to make.   Trigger guards are another matter.   They can be quite a bit more work.   

[sqrldog]

I sent you pictures and info by email. Tim

[Bob Roller]

I have bent cast steel but plates a little in the vice jaws but don't know if those bronze castings will bend or break regardless of the amount of bend.

Never thought of bronze as gun hardware but have made thousands of bearings and bushings for car transmissions from it and it seems MUCH harder than brass. A local junk dealer knowingly bought broken bronze
flower cups from grave plates in local cemeteries and will now spend a long time in the Hotel Graybars for being so stupid and greedy.Broken means hard to me.

Bob Roller

[flint45]

The first rifle I built was a Vincent.It's still my favorite. I straightened the buttplate,only a little. It came from Track, but it was approx.15 years ago.I cold bent it in a vise,again,only slightly.I shoot it off the arm,and it feels natural.

[Scota4570]

I ended up reworking the butplate.  I used a thin one made for a Hawkin,  It has too much curve for me.  I straightened it by putting it vertically in the vice and making a bunch of little squashes.  It worked fine.  I also straightened the Vincent one the same way.  It worked fine too.  

As for the stock I selected a slab of walnut from my stash.  I got started over the weekend.  I now have the barrel and breech plug inletted into a square profile stock  stock.  

I have been attentive about taking pictures of the build.  Hopefully I will keep up on that and make a build log.  

[flehto]

Lucky that you found that those Bplates were cast from a  phosphor bronze alloy....shown below is the butt of my 2nd LR and the difference in the color of PB vs yellow brass is striking and it only took a couple of yrs for the difference.....Fred