I must admit that I shamelessly "borrowed" and cropped this picture which was originally posted by Brent over on the Gunsmithing Forum (nice checkering, by the way!). The pix below is his beautiful rifle, not mine...

But I am hoping that Brent or another forum member could please provide me with some leads on where one can acquire a nice Palm Rest like this? (see below)

I have a Winchester-marked Model 1885 High Wall (made in Japan, imported by Browning) Limited Edition and the wood on the forearm seems much too thin to support the Pope-style palm rests which are attached to a post screwed into a base on the forearm.

This style, which attaches only to the lever (is that a brass screw/clamp?) seems to be just what I'd want, as I support my .38-55 by the lever when shooting offhand.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Old No7

I can't tell you where to get one of these. I can tell you where mine came from. The steel parts were made by a friend of mine. The outer diameter of the steel insert is about 1" or a shade less so it will just fit into a 1" hole drilled into the wood.

The wood is Sonoran Desert Ironwood - hard stuff to get in such dimensions - but I found a wooden duck carving for very little on ebay. A second wood-working friend turned it for me.

In my case, the position on the lever is perfect for me, and the ball does not hit the forearm when the action is opened. This may not be the case for some actions - so you might want to dummy up something to see what works.

This palm rest seems to be responsible for increasing my 50 foot indoor league score by 0.5 points per shot. That's not trivial to me.

Brent

PS. The checkering was done by Doug Mann - I really like it and hope to convince him to checker my Zischang Borchardt when the time comes.