Well I am at the local B&N looking thru Double Gun Journal - and see an article by Ross Seyfried . Basicaly he is hunting buff in Africa with a Faquartsen (sp?) single shot with "Selous plates" - says they never got hot or anything. Basicaly looked like metal cladding from the action back to about the first 1/3 of the buttstock also covering the pistolgrip.

My question is WHY? What purpose does it serve? The only thing I could think of was strengthen the pistolgrip area due to a poor choice in wood?

I have never seen it anywhere else and was wondering if I missed out on some major development in firearms?

I have a M&S in 9.3x57 that was brought out of Kenya sometime around the late 60's, and it has two brass plates, formed and fitted to the pistol grip area, right up to the top of the tang,where the pop up peep lays, they appear to be held on , by several screws evenly spaced and time to each other, its very smooth and doesn't effect the handling at all.

Teal325,
I saw a reply to an ad recently and have copied and pasted it. I often wondered the same thing. Here it is.

In fact, they have a name, "Selous plates" after the famous explorer of the "Dark Continent". The wrists broke so often on the "straight" (no pistol grip) English guns that Selous ordered all his guns from the makers with "Selous plates" installed already to prevent breakage. Rather than a detraction, Selous plates are a sign of authentic use and should bring a premium.