Gap between buttplate and stock

[Terry Reynolds]

I know it’s a crappy pic but want to repair the gap between buttplate and stock. I don’t like the idea of sawdust and glue and would rather repair with a sliver of wood. Is there a tried/true method to this repair? I’ve tried to find a pic of a repair like this so I could see what it might look like with no success.
I appreciate the advice.

[Don Stith]

Remove wood where it touches until it touches everywhere.

[rich pierce]

So it looks like a build in progress.  Are the buttplate screws in already? Looks like a brass buttplate.  I would carefully peen it (use a hammer carefully to bend it ever so slightly) to close the gap.  Never mention sawdust and glue here  .  Make sure it’s soft brass and anneal if necessary.  Annealing involves heating to a very dull red color barely visible in low light, and allowing it to cool.  Or quenching in water, no difference.

[moleeyes36]

It appears that the toe of the butt plate is making contact with the wood but there is a gap above that.  You don't say if this is the same on the other side of the stock as well.  If it is, using some inletting black to check your progress, take a little off the toe until you have contact all along.  If it is just on the one side, you can lightly peen the edge of the butt plate to eliminate the small gap.  There are other ways to handle it, but these are commonly done and easy fixes.

Mole Eyes

[Mike Brooks]

I assume it's fit properly everywhere else. At this point don't worry about it until you thin the edge of the buttplate down. The edge of your buttplate should be 1/16" or less when it's done. At that point you can peen the brass right up against the wood.

[flehto]

It looks like the toe is touching w/ a fairly big gap above. I'd remove the wood on the toe,   anneal the Bplate  and then bend it so it's pretty close and if necessary after the edge is filed down, peen for any small  gaps.

If the 2 mtg screws aren't in, you could just reinlet   further until the gap disappears.

Don't bend it when on the stock...the toe might break loose. I use a rubber mallet and a hardwood block to bend. 

[smart dog]

Hi,
Beat the snot out of it until it sticks to the wood then file off the dimples.

dave

[Long John]

Digger,

This is how I would address your situation.  Keep in mind that I am a hobby builder and generally used as the "before" in those "before-and-after" comparisons.

1.  I am assuming that you have good tight fit everywhere else and that the screws are torqued down snug.
2.  Rest the butt on a soft-wood board with the offending area facing up.
3.  Take a small ball-peen hammer and begin peening the edge with the hammer blows going DOWN, perpendicular to the length of the rifle, in line with the width of the butt-plate.
4.  The ball-peen hammer blows will fatten the butt plate in that area as the brass flows under the hammer head.  The edge of the butt plate will fatten both forward, closing in the gap, and backward.  Many light taps is MUCH better than a few heavy taps.  Some-times you can angle your taps some towards the front to help the brass flow.  It the brass is not flowing, remove it, anneal it by heating it to dull red and letting it air cool, reinstall and continue.  (Do NOT try to work brass when hot - it will break!)
5.  In a few minutes of peening that brass will have flowed to close the gap.
6.  Then use your files to smooth-down the surface and bring the edge thickness down to what you want.

I agree with Mike that the butt-plate edge should be much thinner but I would make use of all that metal while it is thick to close the gap.  In my opinion, once the gap is closed then is the time to file it down to finished thickness.  I would not recommend banging the brass down in the direction parallel to the barrel.  Many times applying hammer blows in that direction knocks off the wood at the toe of the stock.  (Not Good!)

I have demonstrated this technique at the ALR Tent at Dixon's for many years.  It never fails that attendees tell me later that they wish they had known what I showed them before, that it would have saved them a lot of grief.

Good luck!

JMC
John Cholin

[Bill Raby]

Hammers can fix pretty much anything.

[45-110]

another way to fix this is to continue scraping and filing the wood till you achieve the correct fit. then if your screws holes are off the mark, make a tapered sliver of same wood and insert with glue into the hole favoring the correct side you want the screw to be so as to "pull" the plate into a nice tight fit. peening does not work well on some styles of plates. when done the adjusted hole will be un-noticeable.
best
kw

[SingleMalt]

Hi,
Beat the snot out of it until it sticks to the wood then file off the dimples.

dave

I like your solution, Dave!    

[Eric Kettenburg]

Hammers can fix pretty much anything.

Truer words have never been spoken.  Problem solved.

[davebozell]

Just be careful with the hammer while the butt plate is attached to the stock.  The bottom of the stock is fairly fragile.  Don't ask me how I know this....

[Pukka Bundook]

Hi,
Beat the snot out of it until it sticks to the wood then file off the dimples.

dave

That's the way to fix it!  Was going to say so myself but Dave saved me the time. :-)

[rsells]

I agree with Don.  Inletting a butt plate is something I sometime chase my tail when doing it.  I have done the inlet in as little as an hour and have spent over a day getting the butt plate to fit.  I would be patient and continue to black and remove the wood that is touching that will move the butt plate in the direction needed to close up the gap just above the toe.  When the inlet black marks  the wood all the way around, I would consider it finished.  If you already have installed the screws, just plug the holes and reinstall the screws in a new positon.  Good luck with the build.  The fit you are dealing with is something common to me because of the shape of the hand forged plates I make for my mountain rifles.  Sometimes it takes a while for me to get it to the point I am happy with the fit.
                                                                                  Roger Sells

[greybeard]

You don't need brains i you can find a bigger hammer!!!
      Bob

[Terry Reynolds]

Not to shabby for a first timer that heeds good advice! Thank you.

[BOB HILL]

Looks great. Congratulations on being able to recognize good advise and follow it.
Bob

[oldtravler61]

  Well done...following good advice..works far better than the other way...

[Pukka Bundook]

Looking good!  Pleased you stayed at it!

For future reference;     

[Terry Reynolds]

Looking good!  Pleased you stayed at it!

For future reference;     

LOL......I get in trouble with hammers, haven't mastered them yet!

This build I'm working on is a 30 year dream. When I was 28yo I put together a T/C Hawken kit and used it to take several deer on the property. Loved doing the build but there wasn't much to it and always wanted to build a flinter. Got sucked into the inline ML craze and hunted that way for years with the idea of a flinter knocking around in my head.

This summer I decided to build a gun room on the back of the house, actually it was my summer project. This room would get me out of the garage on those cold winter days when I took a hankeren to work or clean my firearms and do some reloading.

Finished the room in September and moved in and it's been a joy ever since. Then it hit me, it was time to build that flinter. Have a friend in Ohio that built rifles about 20 years ago and he said he had a Bucks Co. kit he purchased 17 years ago that he never had time to build and offered it to me.......jumped on it with both feet, my winter project has started!

I know this rifle will never be perfect as some I've seen on here but my goal with this first build is to do the best I can, take one deer with it, then retire it to the mantle and pass it on to a family member hopefully years down the road.

I'll use this first build as my "control" for future builds and look back upon it as a time when I finally got a dream to materialize.

Thanks to all those that have helped on this great site so far, I'm sure I'll get myself in a corner again before it is finished.

[Bill of the 45th]

Good job, both on the build start, and that you're not afraid to ask questions.  Might i suggest that you visit the tutorial section and Mike Brooks build tutorial.  It should answer some of your yet to be asked questions.

Bill

[dlubbesmeyer]

Just be careful with the hammer while the butt plate is attached to the stock.  The bottom of the stock is fairly fragile.  Don't ask me how I know this....

Well said. Don't ask me either how I know this....

[Long John]

This exactly why I recommended fattening the butt plate by applying the hammer perpendicular to the axis of the gun (barrel) with a soft pine block on the opposite side to absorb the blows.  When you hammer in the direction parallel to the barrel the brass (or steel) of the butt plate bends and then snaps back once the force of the hammer blow is spent.  While the butt plate is bending it is pushing against the stock wood.  The stock wood is relatively weak under a stress applied this way and is apt to chip-out or split-off.  By gently applying the ballpein hammer to the edge of the plate we can fatten the metal in that locale to close the gap without stressing the wood.  Once the gap is closed we can draw-file the metal to remove the dimples in the metal surface.  Draw filing the edge will also push over a burr that further closes any gap and gives us a nice gap-free fit of butt plate to stock.

Best Regards,

JMC
John Cholin

[Waksupi]

So it looks like a build in progress.  Are the buttplate screws in already? Looks like a brass buttplate.  I would carefully peen it (use a hammer carefully to bend it ever so slightly) to close the gap.  Never mention sawdust and glue here  .  Make sure it’s soft brass and anneal if necessary.  Annealing involves heating to a very dull red color barely visible in low light, and allowing it to cool.  Or quenching in water, no difference.

John Bivins recommended this method, stating he had seen evidence of it on original rifles. Ball peen hammer. I have done many that way.