Was the first 577 N.E. rifle fired using a hard metal buttplate? How about the first 416 Rigby? When did they start putting soft recoil pads on hard kicking rifles?

H. C.

I figure they just nutted up & took it like a man

Flinch.

Canuck

Laminated leather. No wonder it was rapidly replaced with rubber!

Can you say, download?
s

Grin and bear it ole chap, keep a stiff upper lip

Drank more Beer than we do

My father also tells me they were;

Tougher

Faster

Stronger

Smarter

Could do everything with .22 rimfire

Generally they were a highly intelligent advanced species of beings far superiour than us weaklings today

This may or may not be due to the consumption of more Beer

On a final note when they were kids they also walked a lot further to school

They wore a lot more clothing back then than we do now, so they had more padding.

Hmmmm, no clue.

ALthough, we have a never touched Holland .500NE made in 1907 that has the original red pad on it.

BUt we also have a 4-Bore with a steel plate. Ouch! EH, probably wouldn't be that bad since it's black powder

Larry: Those pads are used by design.

The idea is this:

To make sure you kill the animal, you don't want to pull the trigger until it's in the 3-10 foot range from you. With such pads on the guns, flinching was a major problem, as well, so, needless to say, you wanted the animal almost at the front of the muzzle, so you hit it.

The hunter, after having fired 3-4 shots, with a steel butt plated 4 bore, knew that the damage from firing the rifle was going to be severe.

Therefore, he would wait until the elephant was right on top of him, hoping the elephant, or animal, would turn, sparing both the animal, and the poor guy pulling the trigger on the rifle.


Also important, was that with black powder, if you didn't hit, and turn, whatever was coming at you, no second shot was going to occur, due to blindness, recoil, and bodily injury

The secondary theory behind such a rifle, was that at point blank range, the black powder would burn, and blind, for a little bit, the animal charging you, and, after firing, and recovering from the knock out blow the rifle would give you, and your broken shoulder, you might be able to crawl away, undetected....

s
PS sounds like you have a GREAT job

ROFLMAO at Socrates!

Thank you, BearClaw...
(bows to crowd...)

I had a good time writing that one...


However, it's always funnier when it's true.

I've always heard that when they shot one of those things whichever got up off of the ground first, the elephant or the shooter, was the winner.

Don't forget, with that much black powder NO one knew where the other was.

The other thing you really had to make sure of was that you didn't have a tree behind you...

Only drawings I have of the 2 bore, shows the hunter falling down, with the elephant over him.

I guess you win if the elephant does not fall on you, after you shoot it.

s

I had a 577 BPE that had a leather covered but stock, that seemed to be origenal. I removed it because it was so cracked up, and the stiching was trashed. Inside was three layers of wool felt about 3/8" thick each. The stock did not show to have ever had any other type of pad on it from when new! I installed a silver's pad on it!

I have no idea if this was origenal, but I believe it was!