Barn gun patch box question.

[Rt5403]

So I was going back through the plain an Perdy discussion and noticed some rifles with no butt plate and a wooden patchbox. What does it look like from the butt end and how does it latch? Sorry for my ignorance. But I've built a Jim chambers New England Fowler kit and thinking of building a barn gun for a rifle from a blank.

[David Rase]

Butt from from a Don Getz barn gun.

[blienemann]

Some like Jud Brennan have filed the bands and detail of a buttplate into the wood - also done on a few old European guns in the period. Can carve or insert screws to add to the look. With or without a real buttplate or filed into the wood faux buttplate, the wood pbox spring has a notch filed forward of the rear that catches on the rear of buttplate cavity. You could insert a small piece of brass or iron there to catch the notch and resist wear. Don Bruton and others including a few old guns swivel the pbox cover on a screw, with another screw or pin to hold in place closed. Use your imagination and have fun! Bob

[AMartin]

I have done several sliding wood box schimmel without having a buttplate to capture the box lid ..
Matter of fact just finishing one up for our big buddy from Paris KY ... Not quite done yet .. needs some more grunge and schmutz !!

I inlet & dovetail a small snibbel of steel in what I call the bridge or the back end of the box cavity , and pin it to final lock it in place .. then file my catch spring so it locks in place on the inside edge (much like a buttplate )

Easy peasy ... buttplates are waaaaay overrated !!

Allen

[Stoner creek]

Here’s a faux butt plate during construction

[Tim Crosby]

  That's a new one for me, "snibbel"

    Tim

[rich pierce]

Here’s a faux butt plate during construction

Dang that inletting looks perfect!

[smylee grouch]

Yes, the seam on that " wood to wood " fit is impossible to see.      Nice looking rifles all.

[Bob Roller]

  That's a new one for me, "snibbel"

    Tim

Maybe Schnabel (beak).Schimmel usually means moldy. The once was a cartoon character called Heinrich Schnibble,a doofus of obvious German origin that sometimes was seen in newspapers in Chicago when I was a preschooler.Maybe related to the Katzenjammer kids that stayed in trouble .
Bob Roller

[AMartin]

I grew PA Dutch Lancaster Co .. (Pa Swiss/German) , a bastardized dialect from the Palatine or or perhaps a Swiss twist ..
After 300 years of mixing in English and their own words ... now we a chopped soup of words that only the locals will make sense of .. (maybe) !!!

Schnibble is normally used a for a small piece of something .. apple piece , broken piece of cake .. etc etc .. You get my drift ..
I my case here , a small itsy piece of steel to keep the patchbox lid from falling off the gun !!

Sorry for the confusion ... well not really !!
Al

[Stoner creek]

I checked with Track of the Wolf today. Shnibbles are on backorder.

[Tim Crosby]

I grew PA Dutch Lancaster Co .. (Pa Swiss/German) , a bastardized dialect from the Palatine or or perhaps a Swiss twist ..
After 300 years of mixing in English and their own words ... now we a chopped soup of words that only the locals will make sense of .. (maybe) !!!

Schnibble is normally used a for a small piece of something .. apple piece , broken piece of cake .. etc etc .. You get my drift ..
I my case here , a small itsy piece of steel to keep the patchbox lid from falling off the gun !!

Sorry for the confusion ... well not really !!
Al

 No need to be, Thanks for the definition, I thought it was something you made up, for lack of a better word.

   Tim

[Tim Crosby]

I checked with Track of the Wolf today. Shnibbles are on backorder.

 Maybe you can get a couple from Allen, I'd get some extras just incase

   Tim

[Rt5403]

Some like Jud Brennan have filed the bands and detail of a buttplate into the wood - also done on a few old European guns in the period. Can carve or insert screws to add to the look. With or without a real buttplate or filed into the wood faux buttplate, the wood pbox spring has a notch filed forward of the rear that catches on the rear of buttplate cavity. You could insert a small piece of brass or iron there to catch the notch and resist wear. Don Bruton and others including a few old guns swivel the pbox cover on a screw, with another screw or pin to hold in place closed. Use your imagination and have fun! Bob

Well now you're giving me options which will just make this harder 😆. Both look great.

[Lucky R A]

Hey Allen ,     come on a picece of apple is a schnitz.....LUCKY

[B.Barker]

I've seen a couple of originals that the wood box release just caught on the wood. They didn't bother with any metal for the latch to catch on. I've done at least two like that and don't think either has loosened up any great amount.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Here is one I did





Cory Joe

[Karl Kunkel]

A snibbel of schnitz.