..............with the grain running in another direction, which is a necessity, leave me cold. Caesar Guerini runs an advertisement on Shotgunworld that shows a O/U with drop dead gorgeous streaking in the buttstock, but it has a buttplate made of walnut cut so that the grain runs vertically. I think it looks horrendous.

Am I the only one? Wouldn't your rather they just let the beautiful buttstock streaking continue to the butt, then checker it?

SRH

I despise those things too, Stan.
JR

Even if it is a draw bolt gun, there are other ways to deal with that. A checkered insert, ala Dickinson, looks 100% better, IMO.

SRH

Wooden butt plates never appealed to me. If it has to be wood then Ebony, or horn or even a nice solid color plastic. If I don't like it I'll replace it.

A couple of my Parker Repros have as skeleton of metal around the checkered wood butt of the gun.
I kinda like it.

A couple of my Parker Repros have as skeleton of metal around the checkered wood butt of the gun.
I kinda like it.

3/8” or less are fine imho. Beretta did some, attractive to me.

For me, there would need to be a stark contrast in color. Perhaps ebony as Jon said... Different strokes I suppose...

Skeleton buttplates can be beautiful, no doubt.

This is the the .410 Dickinson. I find this treatment much less distracting, for a draw bolt gun, than the wooden buttplate on the Guerini. Slightly different color wood in the insert, but certainly not objectionable. But my opinion is only mine, and worth no more nor less than anyone else's.



SRH

I like a wood butt, but with heel and toe caps of a skeleton steel butt plate.

My Atkins has a horn butt plate, which I like too.

This is the butt of my 20 Gauge Lindner Daly...

Who wouldn't like that butt treatment, C'man? But, you have to avoid draw bolt guns to have one that nice. I've got some nice guns with heel and toe plates, too. But, I'm referring specifically to how today's makers finish off draw bolt guns.

BTW, are those heel and toe plates in the white?

SRH

I love ebony:



This replaced a shrunken factory plastic plate. At one time, the factory would supply rosewood, but, I think that is over. Wish I would have bagged one when I was there. A rosewood butt contrasts nicely with French walnut.

28 gauge V19. It has a bretelle Darne installed.

Best,

Ted

I think Beretta still sells checkered walnut butt plates on their website. As I recall, they came in two sizes, oil finished. I have a few stashed somewhere.

Stan, thanks for your comment - the work is by Gary Goudy. It CAN be done with a draw bolt gun, I think - but you're not going to be pulling the stock any time soon. On my P Gun I have a leather covered pad that accommodates the stock removal tool. This might be the best solution for that type of stock.

Yes the heel and toe plates on the Daly are 'in the white' before engraving and case hardening.

Nice looking Butt. Usually I only say that under my breath when I'm walking on the beach with the wife.

Here's an other one. It is an insert to cover two holes drilled for recoil reducers. Looks pretty nice IMHO.

While checkered butts and really most hard butt plates are the most aesthetically pleasing, they are the least functional in terms of good shooting; an ugly one inch recoil pad absorbing some recoil and keeping the gun from slipping facilitating a second shot is really much better for good shooting.

My brother has one of those Guerini guns, a "Woodlander", I think. It has the checkered wood butt-plate which is obviously not part of the stock. It looks like a butt-plate. He likes it and it doesn't offend me...Geo

I also have one on a Husky Mark Larson did and it may be either a plate or just a checkered butt. With Mark, how would you know?

I don't have a gun with a wooden plate, but if I did I would replace it with a horn plate. Horn is easy to work but a pain to checker. I think horn always looks nice.

I don't care for recoil pads, even on heavy rifles. I only have one gun with a pad and it came to me that way.

I say any gun without a recoil pad is going to slip off of whatever you lean it against and hit the floor, one day...Geo

I'm with Hammergun, don't much care for recoil pads either. Use them only if stock has already been cut too short otherwise.

I bought my first double 64 years ago, maybe "IF" I live long enough I will have one hit the floor because it doesn't have a pad. One simply needs to "Always" use extreme care in Leaning a gun whether it has a pad or not.

One Shoe size simply Don't Fit Everybody & recoil pads are "NOT" considered a necessity by many of us. Lack of it has never seemed to affect my 2nd shots either.

We can tell you are not a competition shotgunner. No need to elaborate.

I can't think of anything less practical on a gun. It's just begging for scratches, dents, and chips

I have one on a Rizzini.

It looks OK to me.

Maybe the best thing is that it's replaceable if it gets chipped or chunked.

I have been a member of this forum for quite a few years. I think everyone here pretty well knows that I am a Hunter & not a competitive shooter. Hunting was I believe the "Original" use for which shotguns were developed. I have been to this date totally unaware that not being a competitive shooter prevented me from enjoying my shotguns or from having & stating an opinion of them or from being a member of this board. As I stated one shoe size don't fit everybody for we do have different uses to which we put our shotguns.

Also I do not recall the post stating that "IF" I didn't have a recoil pad on my gun it "Would" fall & be damaged saying this applied "Only" to competitive shooters, that I didn't need to concern myself with this matter.

I didn't limit my opinion to competition. If you lean your shotgun against the wall with the un-padded butt on a slick floor it will one day fall. You can depend on that like an unwritten law of physics.

I have and regularly use guns finished with and without pads. I like the un-padded ones better because they go to my shoulder more smoothly. Yet one day I know they will slip and they will fall...Geo

Here is the serrated wood butt end of my [only one of its kind that I know of] special order 1890's damascus Lefever:

I love pads on a shotgun. They look good, they work good. No slick, hard buttplates made of horn or wood for me, checkered, uncheckered, whatever.
JR

It is not physics but rather the well known Law of Limiting Probabilities from the field of Probability Theory, also sometimes called the Law of Large Numbers.

Just so you know.:)

If it was all about practical, we’d be sharing photos of our current spec pump shotguns, that all come with pads. Some of us do like hand checkered butt plates, with hand engraved screws, timed properly, retaining them.

I am a lot more careful with a gun so equipped.

Best,
Ted

Buzz,
Didn’t you refer to the Browning BSS sidelock as a “non starter”, based on the fact most have a 14 3/8ths LOP? Here, you are saying a 1” pad is more functional than a checkered butt, which the BSS has. Add the pad to the gun, with a gunsmith who is on his game, and you are easily out to 15 1/4, plenty long enough for most, too long for me, actually. If you put pads on everything, you have a lot more flexibility with factory LOP, even with so called “non starter” guns.

Best,
Ted

I pulled this gun out thinking it had heel and toe plates, but instead it has a steel butt plate. Oh well, it is a nice embellishment, so I will post it even though slightly OT. 1871 Woodward 10ga.

Ted: I’m guessing you know what I meant. My hunting guns don’t have pads either, but all my competition guns do. In fact, you rarely if ever see a competition gun without a recoil pad. My buddy bought a Guerini Evo light 20 ga for grouse hunting. He had Bryan Bilinski at Fieldsport in Traverse City do his fitting and he bought the gun from him. Bryan talked him in to a Pachmayer sporting clays pad on that light gun for Grouse hunting rather than a checkered butt. Bryan did tell him the pad would help him with the 2nd shot, which it has. Bryan does know a thing or two about shooting and gun fitting. Well, my buddy loves that thing and let me tell you, the Grouse are in big trouble. I personally prefer checkered butts on my SxS hunting guns because I like pretty guns. But, just sayin’.............

Geo we can't be worried with such trivial things...



Don't you knOw a pretty butt is all that matters.

jOe hit the nail square on the heAd this time. A pretty bUtt is really all that does matter. +1.

Actually Brent, I was thinking "Murphy's Law". Thanks for the information. If I can remember all that I'll use it next time it comes up...Geo

"If you lean your shotgun against the wall with the un-padded butt on a slick floor it will one day fall".

Note this was NOT stated as a law of probability but as an Absolute Fact. That's the reason I have a problem with it. To me though the answer is not to stick one of those Ugly pads on every nice gun I own but to "Not" lean them against a wall with the butt on a slick floor, whether they Do or Don't have a recoil pad on them.

If you engage in that practice the Law of Probability has a good chance of catching up with you Either way.

Extreme care needs to be exercised however in making Absolute statements. To quote a long time ago co-worker; "Don't ever say I Can't, Say I Can't Hardly".

This could have been stated as very good advise, had the pendulum not Swung to so far an extreme.

Any of those plates wooden or otherwise as well as any pad can be wonderfully enhanced by the simple addition of a white line spacer.
Pretty simple actually

Re horn buttplates . . . anyone ever had one with a worm infestation? My hunting partner did. Relatively light 12 in which he once used (by mistake) 1 3/8 oz loads. Gun survived doubling. Worms found after that. Surprised the recoil didn't kill them!

I had a gun with a worm eaten butt plate. Before I replaced it I dug around in it and found a desiccated beetle instead of a worm?...Geo

Have you seen a psychiatrist about this?


Larry,
No actual infestations, but, I’ve owned lots of ‘em with worm holes.

Best,
Ted

Parker butt :


No white lines for me.

Iff'n I had a butt like that I surely wouldn't replace it with no Stinking recoil pad, with or without a White Line spacer.

Ted,
jOe's departed buddy, AmarilloMike, might say "if it was all about practical, we'd be sharing photos of our chicken dinners from the local KFC."

W H Baker Drilling