creative ideas for fixing holes in buttplate

[magyar]

Hey all,

I have a fairly small brass buttplate from an old rifle. No idea what kind of rifle but the plate resembles those on mountain style rifles. Rather narrow and a deep curve. Dad found it for me in the barn of a house here in KY he is selling. House and barn are over 100 years old but dont know if that means this plate is. Looks it though.

I would like to use it in a small rifle build for my son. The problem is that the top and bottom holes are misplaced. They are down the center line of the plate but top hole is almost completely at the rear and bottom hole is almost near the toe. Just does not look right. It also looks like they were just punched through and held in place by a couple of nails.

To my question....is there some creative way of covering these holes and remaking new ones? I have never worked brass so the easier ideas the better. i obvioulsy prefer not to leave the holes there but just dont think they will work for me now. I have thought about some kind of poured pewter design in the plate that would cover them.

Thanks for any help guys. I appreciate it.

[smylee grouch]

Could you fin d a large enough brass screw and silver or soft solder it in the holes and then cut screw shank off from inside and file excess off from the outside?

[smylee grouch]

Another posible way would be to use annealed brass brazing rod and make a rivit head to fit the countersink in the plate and solder that in place and dress it flush.

[rich pierce]

Just get another buttplate. I might have a similar one.  Maybe take pix and measurements

[kutter]

Slightly countersink the holes on the outside if they are not already,
Then just rivet a brass screw in place with a head that fits the countersink. Any excess height of the screw head will be what you'll be resting upon and taking the hammer blows as you rivet it on from the inside of the plate. That way you won't deform the plate itself. File off that excess when done.
If done right it'll be almost impossible to see the joint. Differences in the oxidation rates of the brass alloys can show it up more than anything over time but there won't be any solder joint/ring to show up.

Get fancy,,make the repair rivet circles into flower centers when you engrave it later on...

[Mark Elliott]

You have gotten some good suggestions for filling the screw holes.   However,  you really might want to reconsider leaving the holes where they are.   You might not think they look good where they are, but they are in the mechanically best location to pull the plate up tight against the butt.   It is pretty much where I put mine.   I just need to make sure the toe screw is far enough from the toe and push rod for the patch box release.    As to the heel extension,  I put the screw behind any transitional file (like a wedding band) work between the heel and the comb.   If you don't have anything like that,  there is no reason not to put the screw right up at the end of the heel extension.   I am sure the holes where put where they were for the most practical of purposes.   

[Pete G.]

You can bet that whatever you try to plug the holes with will not match the alloy the part was made from and will leave evidence of the repair.