GANGGREEN
45 Cal.
So I'm intending to build a fairly generic PA barn gun. It's not intended to be historically accurate or to mimic any style or gun, it will just involve features that please me, including a stock profile reminiscent of the PA barn gun on Cabin Creek's website (which looks to me to be a copy of a Lehigh poorboy maybe), a muzzlecap made of horn from a Highland cow that I raised and a cheekpiece inlay from a piece of Mammoth ivory that I've had lying around for a number of years. The stock is being made of a piece of wormy Chestnut which has already had the barrel inlet and the hole drilled for the ramrod. I'm toying with the idea of going with no buttplate, but perhaps an antler treatment on the top of the comb at the butt and possibly an antler or bone toe plate. I've never done a gun without a buttplate before and while I know that they were at least somewhat common, I'm a bit concerned that perhaps there's some possibility of splitting or checking, specifically with the Chestnut, which isn't as dense or as hard as Maple.
Has anyone done guns this way and do you suppose the butt will be safe enough without any plate? If so, do you treat the end grain with wax, epoxy or anything? Thanks in advance, I'm just trying to figure out the plan.
Has anyone done guns this way and do you suppose the butt will be safe enough without any plate? If so, do you treat the end grain with wax, epoxy or anything? Thanks in advance, I'm just trying to figure out the plan.
