doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Souce for skeleton butt plates

Mr. Hurst; let me say thank you for encouraging your friend to make a quality product. There is indeed a market for the skeleton buttplate. I don't know how many are sold by Brownell's per year...they seemed to be out of stock a lot.

Doug Mann is not the only stockmaker looking for this item. I have been asked several times to sell my inventory of two(2) items. When another supplier comes on line, then it is time to think about doing so. Again, thank you.

Gentlemen:

The great Skeleton Butt Plate experiment is indeed underway. The die is complete and will be tested soon, hopefully in the next couple of days. I am sure we will have to do a small amount of tuning to do on the die to get it all just right, but the hard work is done. Our goal is to have them for the ACGG show in Reno at the end of the month.

The plate will be similar to what has been offered by Dakota, Brownell's and Galazan. It will be a high quality plate made of mild steel .100" thick. The inside edges will have a 2 degree relief angle to make it easier to fit, and the outside edges angled to match the contours of the stock with a return on the top of the heel.

This is uncharted waters for us. It is difficult to do market analysis on such a small market item as this. Hopefully there will be enough demand to make it all work.

Right now the only item in the works is this butt plate. If there appears to be enough demand to justify the cost Skeleton Grip Caps can be made. They should be a less formidable challenge than the plates. We also plan to make plain, unskeletonized skeleton butt plates for folks like Mr. Hurst to scratch up.

Curiously enough this whole project began with the desires of a certain individual we are building a rifle for, a gentleman who's taste runs to the far side of subtle elegance. (Think large gold rings and a Fedora) This gentleman (No need to use names) longed for a skeleton butt plate made of Damascus steel. This has not been forgotten, and will have some Damascus steel and intend to make a few plates from that as well. It will be most interesting to see how these come out.

Any and all input is most welcome. Hopefully in a few days I can report back with some good news.

Respectfully,

Glenn Fewless

Please post a notice when you are ready to take some orders.

Jim

please make matching grip caps too!

Do you have a web site? I will be at the Show, but how can we find you before or after?

Glenn,
When they're ready I'll buy 2. My market analysis: I hope you don't sell out the first run before I get a pair.

Gentlemen:

I don't have a web site, but I reckon if I am going to continue in this direction I had best get one set up. In the mean time I can be reached at the email address listed in my profile. It is gfewless@tds.net. I lurk on this board as well, visiting frequently.

I'll have a look at the grip caps. I assume you are looking for a skeleton cap that compliments the butt plate. Are there any particular features you would want on the cap? Do you have any feel for ballpark ratio of butt plates to caps? I would expect that the numbers would be quite small. It is possible that they could be completely machined, avoiding the cost of building a die.

Glenn

OK - so fine, you can HAVE the window seat! See if I care!

Guys Glenn still hasn't forgiven me for insisting on a wedding band transition on my Steve Earle Wesson rifle. Just for that I'm gonna have Ken inlay a gold toad on the side!

Doug

Just as a total SWAG, I would guess that the ratio of skeleton grip caps: skelton butt plates would be at least 5:1. You see a lot more rifles with recoil pads and skeleton grip caps than you do rifles having skeleton grip and butt plates.

Persoanlly, I would want a grip cap matching the butt plate.

Just out of curiosity-why did the others stop making them?

I am looking forward to seeing your work at the Guild Show!

Glenn,
You might talk to Dave Weber, the webmeister here about getting a web presence at doublegunshop.com. I bet getting an advert with pics, prices and contact info would not be a big deal.

Gentlemen,Just to be the old 'Traditional, turn up the Oil-lamp. New blade in the hack-saw,clean out the files,ball-pane-hammer, block of lead,good sourse/source/sauce,(heineken)Source of heat.Make the Skeleton Butt plate, Toe&Heel Protectors.....Gun-Making....Where are the Birmingham(England)Men of those Cobbled-Stoned Alleys,Forges belching smoke,Sounds of hammers ringing on anvils?..Beautiful hand-made pieces of steel destined to become "Prized Possessions of Colonial Gun Collectors in this year of our'Brewer of Choice'2007! As my Good Friend(&fellow Hand-Worker Abe Chaber, Whos famous Quote at one of the Sandanona'Old gun Enthusiasts Get together and I'll let you touch mine, if you let me touch yours"....Most of you'Guys are 'Screwed' when your power goes off.!! I have used both Galazans Toe and Heel Protectors,With screws,Good but no good for Original Victorian Era replacements,even after filing down and re-shaping. And The Late Don Allen's toe & heel Pcs.smaller but not to good without a lot of re-shaping,and they are 'Hollowed out on the under-side'English Originals(Made in Birmingham)were close to flat on the underside.I came close to Buggering-up" a matched pair of Boss 12b Side-Levers,Hammer-EJECTORS (I belive Dallas told me, only 12 built,3 pairs.)I had cut to length,Inletted both"Bump Pcs&screws, (HEEL Pcs) Inletted both Toe Pcs & screws, on checking the Length@toe I had made the No? gun too F*# long so I re-inletted the toe-pc and filed the side of the steel pc and 'Came through to the hollow area on the underside! Ended up 'Making a replacement' Barry Hs Engraving made them look,C 1890 and 'All Original'But....I have to remember this is theyear 2007...Cnc.Massed Produced parts to be used on "Those Classic Gun & Rifles" The age of the'Hand Made" is fading into the Mist of Yesteryear...C/C