Just bend that brass buttcap a little....SNAP

[Steeltrap]

Thanks gents for your advice and encouragement. As I was coming home from archery hunting this am I was passing a Harbor Freight. So, being the impatient one that I am I stopped and picked up there dome set. Not as big as I wanted but they sure did help.

I have it formed and cut off additional material which made a big difference. I don't have pics right now but I'll post when I do.

Again, Thanks!!

[Steeltrap]

I'm getting closer. Still some bumps to remove and some shaping\removing material to be done. The Dapping punches helped a bunch.

The third pic I'm showing where I need to shape it more....plus that "bump" on the lower rear.

[Steeltrap]

Moving along.....

[coopersdad]

Looks like you're about ready to inlet!  I wished I'd left a bit more wood on mine at that point like you have.

[Steeltrap]

Yes. I'm starting the inlet. I'm not going to polish it all up then keep banging it around while inletting.

Lessons I've learned from this:

1-Don't cut more material than you need. The brass thins out and stretches.
2-Use Dapping punches. Ball peen will get you there....but with a very lumpy exterior that requires a lot of filing.
3-Having to much material and a constant whacking on the brass to get the outside dimensions smaller will really thin out the bottom of the brass. This bottom is down to (my guess) .010. I soft soldered a piece on the inside to provide strength and have enough material to counter sink a screw.
4-It ain't as easy as it looks. OTOH....it's not as hard as I made it.

[coopersdad]

Yes, my experience too. I started with .090 brass and it was about .040
on the bottom when done.

[Rolf]

Yes. I'm starting the inlet. I'm not going to polish it all up then keep banging it around while inletting.

Lessons I've learned from this:

3-Having to much material and a constant whacking on the brass to get the outside dimensions smaller will really thin out the bottom of the brass. This bottom is down to (my guess) .010. I soft soldered a piece on the inside to provide strength and have enough material to counter sink a screw.
4-It ain't as easy as it looks. OTOH....it's not as hard as I made it.

If the brass thins this much, you are hitting too hard and not annealing often enough.
Please read this tutorial I did for making spurred butt cap.
https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=32410.0
Read the paragraph with the heading "Swaging the cup".
I started with 0.08 thick brass. The bottom of the cup is 0.075, measured through the screw hole.
When making this cup, I annealed over 60 times.

That being said, you have a good looking butt cap and soldering a piece of brass to strengthen the screw hole is good solution. I did the same the on the silver Kentucky pistols.

Best regards
Rolf

[Steeltrap]

Thanks Rolf.

I did read (just now) your tutorial and agree with your directions. However, I did not make any wooden punches. I think my biggest mistake was not paying close attention to the amount of material that simply wasn't needed. The second mistake was using way too much ball peen hammer. To much ball peen results in a bumpy cup and then you spend more time removing bumps that you would like to.

When I sized the brass I took my broken cast piece as a model. Rolling it on the sheet brass from front to back, and side to side to get the outer rim dimensions....then I (mistakingly) added a bit more thinking I could just cut off the excess. (Which you can if you pay very close attention to the depth of the cup you're making).

So, as I kept pounding the upper sides and bottom to push the metal diameter I got the bottom of the cup very thin. Then when I measured the cup from base to rim I saw I needed to cut off another 3/16" or so. And that was the second time I cut the material. I simply wasn't paying attention to the cup depth as I was focused on the cup lip diameter.