doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What's behind your buttplate??

I'd be curious how many people have found notes with names on them, called up the person, and heard...."Yep, that's my gun - it was stolen from me 25 years ago! What'd you say your name was, sonny?"

In the old days, before caller ID, you coulda just hung up real fast....

But what if the gun has a recoil pad? Then you gotta pull the plugs out, take off the pad...yuck! On my Sterlingworth 20ga I know the guy I bought it from put the pad on, so if there was anything cool there, he already found it!

I thought you were posing a trick question and was prepared to tell you there is nut behind far too many butt plates!

A couple of years ago I bought a 1886 Winchester lever rifle in 33WCF caliber. One day I took off the rubber buttplate and found a period tobacco pouch with an assortment of front sights, a Winchester rear sight and elevator, and a Marbles broken case extraction tool. I still have them although I traded the rifle off because of some problems. Silvers

I found a former owners name written in that old school Spencerian longhand, and my Great Grandpa's old Hardware Single Shot 12 Guage has lead shot that he added to reduce felt recoil.

I still have a note I found under the buttplate of an early A.H. Fox I bought from John Allen at Game Fair Ltd. in Nashville about 20 years ago. It reads "William Schuettemeyer. 424 West 12th. St. Covington, Ky. Bought (with a hand-drawn arrow pointing towards "bought") Thursday October 26th 1916 4:30 pm."
JR

I just got a Remington B grade shotgun and pulled the plate. It is stamped with the owners name, town in Iowa, County in Iowa and the date September 20 1897. The serial number places it quite a ways into 1898 according to the Semmer book.
Ross

The first year Superposed that I currently own has a wine cork and a short piece of bamboo under the recoil pad.

I called the seller to see if he put it there, but he knew nothing about it.

The owner previous to that posts here occassionally, maybe he'll see this and let me know if he put it there.

It didn't affect anything, so I put it back for the next owner.

This was posted earlier this year by a man on the nitro express forums.

"I have been in love with the following quote since 1994 when I first read it in Peter Capstick's biography of John Taylor, " A Man Called Lion." For those who arn't familiar with it. . . here's a brief background.

C. Fletcher Jamison, a Rhodesian professional hunter in the 1930's & 40's, was a friend of Taylor. He supplied the photos for Taylor's " African Rifles & Cartridges." Because of a wrist/hand deformity Jamison sometimes had a spot of bother in handling his Holland double. . . especially when excess pressure caused the action to be strained and difficult to open. After years of service he finally disposed of the Holland and purchased a Jeffrey .500 magazine. Behind the butt-plate of the Holland he placed the following letter. . which was not found until more than 60 years had elapsed. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Zambezi Valley, 14th July 1934

This rifle, No. 17892 .500/.450 has been one of my best friends. She has pulled me through many an encounter with Elephants, Rhino & Buffalo. She is one of the most accurate rifles in the world & since being in my hands has achieved a very fine record. I am positive that as far as her record is concerned she is second to none. I have shot with her the following species of animals: Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Hippo, Leopard, Eland, Roan, Impala, Warthog, Bush-Pig, Crocodiles, Snakes, Hartebeast[sic], Baboons, Duiker & Bush-Buck. But I have used her mostly for Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo & Hippo, & find she is all that one could ask for.

My battery of rifles consists of one Double barrel .577 Express, one D.B. .500/.450 Express, one 6.5 Mannlicher-Schoenauer, & a .25/.20 Winchester. This I consider as the most efficient battery of rifles any Big Game Hunter could wish for.

Whoever may be the proud possessor of this rifle after I am finished with it please treasure it for my sake.

C. Fletcher Jamison, Big Game Hunter"

I thought that was pretty interesting. Has anyone ever found anything under grip caps? I have! Along with the usual name and phone number, I found what I believe to be a drivers license number under the grip cap of a spanish economy double. I once heard a guy sold a gun of his and he forgot to take out a decent stash of money he had in the buttstock. He ended up selling the gun to a guy for quite a bit less then he had in the buttstock! Makes you think twice about checking the buttstock before selling or trading your pre owned guns You never know what you might find. I hear those old hunting and fishing licenses are going for a pretty penny on some online auction sites :p

I purchased a 3 grade L.C. Smith in the mid 60's. Under the buttplate was a Kansas hunting license. I was able to locate relatives of the original owner who told me the gun was taken by a scoundrel relative who pawned it. I was told the gun originally had 2 sets of barrels (damascus) and two forends. The owner had given one set and a forend to a friend who had blown up the barrels on his Smith.