doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com There are two different ones!

What most people refer to as the “Model 70 Buttplate” is a common one found on custom sporters. There is another one a little larger that at first glance looks identical to the “70” one but is a little larger. I believe that these were used on Winchester 1897 Shotguns and some 86 Winchester, but I don’t know for sure. What I’m trying to learn is how late the larger one was used or sold by Winchester?
Model 70 Type,

Early Type,

The M70 plate is steel but the 86 plate also came in hard rubber. Rifle plates had a sort of widow's peak protrusion at the top, whether hard rubber or steel. Shotgun plates had flat undersides. There are Winchester guys on this forum who can clarify all of this.

I own an 1897 made in 1897, actually owned 2 made in 1897 but sold one. Both have the larger size smooth steel plate with the widow's peak. Later the smooth plate was changed to a slightly thicker and sharper-cornered checkered plate, again of the larger size with a widow's peak. Basically it looked like a person could have taken a later checkered plate and cut it thinner with more-rounded edges to duplicate the earlier smooth plate except that it would be working backwards so to speak. I believe the larger-size checkered plate was used on some 1897s especially trench guns up until WW2 even though the hard rubber flat plate seems to have been used as early as the 1920s.

I know that some 1886s had steel plates but all of mine with shotgun butts have had the smaller-size hard rubber plate with widow's peak. Believe me, some of the heavy kickers NEEDED that larger plate! (G)
Regards, Joe

To me, the lower plate looks like the upper plate with the toe rounded off?

What is the size difference, width & height?

Screw hole spacing?
I assume they are both steel?

It will be several days and I'll post the measurements. Look at the bottom diamond around the screw and notice how much checkering is below each.

Gentlemen,

I was curious myself so I contacted a noted Winchester collector and researcher, Bert Hartman. Below is his answer.

Art

The answer is a bit complicated, but here goes.

The first use of that type butt plate was on the Model 1887 lever-action shotgun... not the Model 1886 rifle. In fact, Winchester never used a checkered steel butt plate on the Model 1886, instead a smooth steel butt plate was used or a checkered black hard rubber plate was used.

The second model to use the checkered steel plate was the Model 1897, circa 1903. It was exclusively used for several years, then intermittently until 1915.

Then in January of 1933, Winchester exclusively used it for the brand new Model 64 lever, and in 1936, on both the Model 70 bolt-action, and the Model 71 lever-action.

I have not had the opportunity to compare each of the various Models side-by-side to determine if or how much of a difference exists in the size or contour of the butt plates, but it would not surprise if several of the Models used the exact same size plate.

If you would like, cut & paste this information into the post on doubleguns with my name attached.

Regards,
Bert Hartman

What does Mr. Hartman have to say about Model 1901 buttplates? I have a very nice 1901 with a checkered steel buttplate. There is extra room at the peak, so I suspect that the original plate was the hard rubber with peak. If anyone has a minty hard rubber with peak buttplate, I would be interested in purchasing it.

Art

Sorry for the long delay in getting the measurements.

The plate that I call older is
5.250” long
1.815” Wide
Average rows of checkering below the bottom diamond 10

The standard later plate is
5.060” Long
1.610” Wide
Average rows of checkering below the bottom diamond 6

Thank you for the answer about the Model 1901. My gun is a high condition late gun, so I guess my suggestion may be correct. The original hard rubber peaked plate was probably replaced with the checkered steel plate. Does anyone have an original peaked hard rubber plate that they would be willing to sell? Thanks.