Keith Kearcher, surgeon, performed a butt transplant on my Arrietta 601
that is so good that only the cognizant could detect it. The wood matches the forearm and the grip/hand. The gun comes to my face and shoulder just like the M21 that the dimensions were taken from. Balance is excellent.

Thank you, Keith.
Dan Crowley

Am with you praising Keith Kearcher's buttstock transplant work, Dan.

Here's a pix of Keith's work that made my 1885 Lefever C 10 gauge something that I can use in the field.

Regards, Tim

Very nice Tim. Dan,can you show us yours?

Dave
I will try.

Keith Kearcher has a web site and posts prices.
danc

That's OK, Tim.

Chill.

I'd rather see the buttstock of your shotgun...

Chuck H's instructions here
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/16839920

and another Lefever as received by cc/dt that didn't quite work out as intended

I had a Lefever that looked almost like the last one. It had 4 1/2" drop at the comb and 5 1/2" at the heel. It also had about 3/8" castoff. I figured it was either for a person with no neck or was used as a rollover style shooter. When I tried to shoot it nothing on my face touched the stock. Talk about weird and impossible to get use to.

I have never understood why they made most of the guns with so much drop.What was the deal at that time in America.I know there were plenty of short necked Irishmen like me hunting as well a in the manufacture.

Good job

I don't know about 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 but I like 2 1/8 and 3 1/4. You actually need a long neck and/or shoot with your head up, not out-stretched like a turtle. If you keep your weight 50/50 on your feet you'll find you'll want to stand more erect with a more erect head and then those awful stocks will fit. And you won't be " lifting your head " - it's already up. Maybe those old guns were stocked correctly after all.

Amen, amen, Paul. Been preaching that to a deaf audience a long time.

I can shoot up to 3 1/2" DAH with no problem if other dims are about right.

4 1/2"? I doubt I could.

SRH

One advantage of 3" DAH is the price is lower.

I think the length of the neck has little to do with proper drop required. The factor that is much more important is the location of the cheekbone.

Interesting infro regarding vintage double stock fit and gun mount
http://docs.google.com/document/d/1c7UkkNyMTZ9NAztILpzjSLKvgIneAw5i7eqkZ3d3Eno/preview




Richard Baxter (1615-1691), A Christian Directory, Part 1, Chapter IV, Directions Against Covetousness
"Be more careful to use what you have, than to get more."

Drew, that was so interesting I think it would make a nice addition to the BBS FAQ section. Thanks for sharing.

Me? Head up like an ostrich. I wanna see everything going on......

Can a butt transplant be done by making a new wrist and head and attaching it to an old buttstock? Anyone have experience with that?

DGM,
A friend of mine had a 12 bore island lock Purdey ejector which suffered damage to the head of the stock & wanting to save the nice wood in the butt & preserve the originality as much as possible had exactly what you describe done.

The result was a virtually undetectable repair but the gunsmith who did the work said the job was many times more difficult to do than a standard butt to sound head transplant & he never wanted to do another.

I'm sure the fact that it was done on an island lock gun increased the level of difficulty somewhat but transplanting a new head to the original butt makes it extremely difficult to maintain drop & cast dimensions & 0 room for alignment error on any type gun.

That does sound like a nightmare sort of job for a stocker. I'm guessing it would take a real pro to get that job done right. Im also guessing it would be very expensive. It might be cheaper to just make an entire new stock?? For some ancient old French walnut that is impossible to get in this day and age, it might be worth the trouble, at least for me. A guy would really have to be in love with the old wood, I would think.

I have done a Greener SLE and am doing a Pieper now. It takes planning but can be done and it will work well. It is not a semi-inlet proposition. It is from a block only that I found it works as cutting the abutment angle is critical.