doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com I hate to desecrate such a beautiful buttstock...

I MUCH prefer a checkered finish on the buttstock, to a pad, of any sort. The pad won't look better than horn or ebony in 125 years, either, but, that is the price you pay.
Craig, wise man that he is, hit the nail dramatically on the head-it takes someone with training and experience to decide if a piece of ebony is up to being tough enough for use as a buttplate, or, better suited for use as inlay material. The guys who went to gun fixing school in Europe seem to have an edge in that area, in my limited experience.

Very recently fitted checkered ebony buttplate.



As mentioned above, I, too, prefer them fitted on the curve. It seems much more asthetically pleasing than a straight line fitment.



If you have the option, just checkering the wood of the butt is a beautiful finish treatment. The wood on this R10 Darne was checkered over 20 years ago, and, truth be told, hasn't worn much for the amount of use it has seen.
Again, the wood in this case is a fabulous piece of native French walnut, selected by the stocker, for the use the customer intended. It is exceptionally hard, and dense. I was actually happier when the checkering wore a bit, it was quite aggressive to shoulder and shoot, when it was new.
I find the selection of clothing you will be using while shooting to be much more significant to how much the gun will "slide around" than the finish treatment to the butt. I have a beautiful silk T-shirt, that was a gift from my Mother, that, I can assure you, will never be used for shooting, again. The best for me is a regular, Pendleton wool shirt, or, a cotton work shirt:



Hollowing the buttstock is a good way to change the balance to where it needs to be. But, there are other ways to do this:



Some ebony is hard, and dense enough, to be used to accomplish the same thing as hollowing. You just put the piece in the front of the forend, and finish it up beautifully. Unlike Dustin, I can't say I've had a bad piece of ebony, but, all I've ever owned was fitted by European gunsmiths, some who did that work almost every day.

I've had plenty of worm eaten horn, however. The 125 year old piece, posted above, seems to be from a worm free part of the world, and could be dramatically improved with the fine hand polish sold by Griot's Garage, and an aggresive nylon brush, followed by a light recut of the checkering.

The worst treatment to a buttstock I ever owned was an old, leather covered, pad. I suspect some idiot smeared armor-all on it at one point in time, and it was never the same, but, don't know that for fact. It was slick. I got rid of the gun for other reasons, but, the pad didn't help.



Best,
Ted

Doug M. I just posed your questions to Steve and here is his response:

The extension, which is just about an inch thick, is epoxied in place. Exact technique and glue is a trade secret, but it is not Acraglass. You might add that horn, the obvious alternative, this thick is very hard to find, very expensive, HORRIBLE to work, and very difficult to lighten to get the balance right.

I agree with Stan, if a gun is used a lot, it needs a pad or thin rubber plate. If you ever had one slide down in a blind, you would understand. On the other hand, if they are not used, a horn/steel/or checkered butt look very nice.
Mike

Pit blinds and duck boats almost always have some water in the bottom of them, in my experience. A 3/4" to 1" recoil pad keeps the water off the wood as well as helps prevent it from sliding. I understand that many posters here hunt grouse, or other upland birds that do not require the rough use of doubles that mine receive. Understand, I do not neglect my guns, nor abuse them ......but, I do not pamper them either. They get dings and scratches. Duck hunting with doubles is a paradox.You know, going in, that your guns are going to get used hard and roughed up. You try to protect them the best you can, but you know that, if that double could speak, it would tell you that it is much happier being used .....even used up ...... than sitting in a rack.

I like the looks of a nicely checkered butt, or one with heel and toe plates and horizontal grooves cut in the wood between them, like my Hollis. But, my opportunities for hunting with a gun that nice are few and far between, unfortunately. I'm much more likely to be drifting some creek or river in my "kayak", getting muddy water and mud all over my gun, than I am cradling it in my arms as I follow a grouse dog around. Thus, my preferences. Fortunately for the rest of the world, they are only mine.

SRH

This is the last gun I own that was in a blind, of any sort:



I did not bring it to the blind. It went to Canada, with a rather strapping young man, who had recently completed his hunter safety training, and had been invited there by a relative. Said young man had a wonderful time and trip that there is no way his single Mother parent could have provided. The gun and ammunition for the trip were on me.
The gun was used for duck and goose hunting. It slept in the duckboat, or, on a nail pounded into the exterior of the cabin if it was raining or snowing.
For those that question how it worked, know this-the trigger group was tuned by a Marine Corps amourer, and it wears a fixed modified choke replacement barrel, and a Wolf Creek powdered metal safety. The amourer told me that when the chips are down, it would be tough to find something better to trust to work. Not sure I'll ever be in a place where the chips might be down enough to contemplate that, but, hey, the gun works really, really well.

I don't doubt him. Kid had the time of his life, by the way.

The gun with the recently fitted ebony buttplate in the photos above is a V19 Darne in 28 gauge. There MIGHT be an individual out there who believes it should be used in a duck blind in Canada, but, I am not that guy. It has different uses, for a bunch of different reasons, that I'll not get into, here, but, I will say I try to use it in a manor it is best suited for. It wouldn't be in a blind, anywhere, while I own it.

I have guns I could use in a duck boat. But, I don't fit them with ebony, horn, or leather covered pads. I'm not wealthy enough for that. One of my failings as a human is, I like things to work to the max, and, when we were handed steel shot in the early 1980s, and told it wouldn't work as well as lead, but, tough shit, I quit waterfowl completely. Well, that, and my Mom had a perfectly capable Irish Setter that was being left at home when Dad hunted ducks, but, I digress.

I have less money into the blind use pump gun, than I have into the checkered ebony buttplate for the Darne.


Best,
Ted

Had a great day afield with the DMB and EC Green today, 32 brace fell to the duo. Fit was perfect and the gun functioned flawlessly with RST 1 oz loads. My friend captured what I believe to be a MOI photo of a hen. Look closely in the upper right hand corner...