doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Opinions on Skeleton Buttplates on SXS custom

Gentlemens:

First of all, let me say that I have handled the Parker that Mr. May posted pictures of. It turns out that, unbeknown to me, he stocked it for a friend of mine. The stock on that gun is as good as it gets. Very fine work.

The skeleton plates I offer are 5-1/16" long and 1-5/8" wide. Unfortunately the stock is depleted to exactly one plate left. Howsomever, they are also available in the same configuration but instead of simple curve surrounding the the upper and lower screws, there is a tab of metal to allow the stockmaker to form a scallop shape or whatever else may come to mind. These plates I do have a good number of available.

Also available are heel and toe plates and a plain solid two screw plate.











And for the man who has everything... The damascus skeleton plate...




Best to all,

Glenn Fewless

gfewless@tds.net

Glenn, that damascus plate is beautiful. It looks like the grip has a skeleton matching grip cap as well?

Is that, by chance, on a damascus barreled gun?

Stan

Sent a note to my stock guy asking him if he wanted to tackle this and of course asking what the cost of fitting might be. Looks ungodly complicated to me, but I'm not a stock guy. Thanks for the responses.

Hi Glenn:

That Damascus butt plate is a real work of art!

I was wondering if matching Damascus screws would really be the cat's meow.

Franchi

I'm with Tanky on this one. While there's no question that a skeleton or heel/toe set is classy looking, they're not so practical for real use, IMO. Furthermore, a "self butt" looks to me like a cheap air rifle that wasn't finished. The bare wood is even more vulnerable to scratches and damage. My guns will end up with at least a thin pad on them. Stays in the rack better, soaks up at least a tiny bit of recoil and mainly because they ARE my guns.

A nice custom gun the likes of which we've seen from Doug Mann and Glenn doesn't belong in a gun rack at the range. Like anything very nice and expensive, it should get treated with all the care possible. Walk back to your vehicle and put the thing in the case. If that's too much trouble, you shouldn't fret about the damage or shouldn't bring a gun like that out.

It's no different than a nice car vs one not as nice.

Gentlemens:

Thank y'all for the kind words.

Stan:

It does indeed have a damascus skeleton grip cap. That was a one of kind hand filed affair. If I ever catch up I may start producing skeleton caps as well.

There are some pictures of the rifle on this site...
http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbt...=32&fpart=1


Franchi:

Damascus screws... Interesting idea. I am unsure how it would look as the pattern would not match with the plate, but it would be an interesting experiment.


Jim Legg:

Not liking the looks of a skeleton plate is certainly sound grounds for not choosing one, and there is no argument that it is hard to beat a rubber pad for practical. I too thought the checkered wood/ skeleton plate would be extremely fragile and somewhat impractical. As it turns out, that is not the case in my experience. The damascus plate shown in the above picture is on one of my target rifles and has been shot many thousands of times in outdoor competition and really looks none the worse for it. The steel edge protects the wood quite well, and the checkered wood is a wonderful non slip surface.

While I would not choose a skeleton plate for a duck boat gun, I think the wrist and forearm checkering is more vunerable than the butt.

A very attractive and practical alternative to a skeleton but is a well done leather covered recoil pad.


Chuck H;

Thanks for the kind words. BTW, Mr. Mann has been selected to do the stockwork on the 2012 ACGG raffle gun. I have seen the gun, which is a finely sculpted Remington (1894, if I remember that correctly) and it is going be a thing of beauty when finished.

Best to all,

Glenn

This is a Fox factory skeleton butt plate on an XE grade gun.

I like them, and am planning on doing one on my current (just beginning) Fox 16 project that Doug Mann will stock. As for durability, I have heel and toe caps on a Fox 16 that I have hunted hard for about 18 years. It is still in very good shape without any 'divots' in the checkering on the butt. I also have H&T caps on a 20 ga, Lindner Daly restoration, and have had no issues. I think the skeleton will provide even more protection.

I shouldn't think a skeleton buttplate would suffer any damage in a wooden gun rack. I've owned a number of Parker Repros with skeleton butts, which I think look classy, and never noticed any damage from leaving them in the rack at the clubhouse. You go to a sxs shoot, you'll see guns far more expensive than Repros, but I think the back end of the Repros looks as nice as any of them. And custom skeletons, per the above, can be even nicer.

Certainly no question about the beauty and classiness of the job. Enjoy the wonderful work of art.