Received a Brownell's Neidner style buttplate today, for a Freischutz style stock [meaty!]. I had no idea how skinny and pointy it would be -- this thing is made for little toothpick stocks. Fortunately, I have one of those too, and I need to replace the plastic buttplate with one screw off center.

Back to the drawing board. SOMEONE must make a curved steel buttplate to fit rifles with thicker stocks. Any suggstions? Maximal thickness of butt is ~1.75+" and height about 5.125"

Todd

Todd, email on the way to your hotmail account.

Todd- I used a McFarland on mine, the Biesen is nice too, have one on my Brevex 416. You can also get a matching grip cap for the Biesen, as you can on the McFarland. The Biesens are larger and more finely checkered than the Niedners, the McFarlands are smooth, good for engraving, although mine isn't.

I believe I will use one of the McFarland buttplates. That way I can keep the butt dimensions right where they are. Forrest, did you case color or blue yours? Case coloring would look very nice, but I'd be afraid that big flat piece of steel would warp. I also will not checker it, just leave it smooth. That will match the Fisher grip cap a little better than a checkered one, although the Hill Country rifle in Rifle looks good with that combo.

It's neat how quick stock work progresses when you start employing 'tricks' you've learned in the past. Like shaping all complex surfaces before the easy ones, i.e. shaping the curved parts of the cheek piece and the action panels before worrying about the shadow line, and margins of the cheek piece. This is not taking as long as I thought, although I'm sure the Oberndorf A style I was originally planning would have been done by now. I bet the buttplate inletting will add a few hours to it though...

Thanks all,
Todd