engraving on butt plates

[smylee grouch]

On some of the originals you will see engraving on the heel extension of the butt plates, but are there any examples of original rifles with engraving on the butt (rear portion against your shoulder) itself?       Gary

[flintriflesmith]

Some super high art European guns have engraving there. I've never seen it on an original longrifle.

Gary

[G-Man]

As Gary said, I've seen it on some high grade English fowlers - sometimes a small "wreath" like feature around the screw heads; sometimes a little bit of border around the edges.

[Long John]

At the last CLA show in Lewisburg, PA, they had a large exhibit of the original rifles also.  I had the opportunity to study RCA 53 in detail.  There were faint traces of engraving on the BP extension.  It consisted of a fine line paralleling each side of each facet of the octagonal flats.  At the front end, adjacent to the wedding band these lines were connected with an arc.  At the rear end the just ended.

I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

JMC

[Robby]

While not original to the eighteenth century, Keith Casteel routinely engraves, or carves the flat of the butt plate, and they are original to him. Maybe he should have a school named after him!!
Robby

[Hawken62_flint]

Speaking of Keith Casteel, he is a master at deep relief carving of brass and steel.  As the previous post says, he routinely carves scenes into the buttplates on his rifles.  His book, "Keith Casteel - Full Circle" has many great photos of his work and shows many of the carved/engraved buttplates.

[James Rogers]

Here is an example off an English gun