Butt plate

[mudd turtle]

I have a CS Richmond repro. that I bought about fifteen years ago . I got it out of the gun safe the other day to wipe it down lightly. as I was inspecting it I noticed that the butt plate had a gap between the wood of the stock and the plate it's self. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem. Mudd Turtle.

 

[bioprof]

It may just be from wood shrinkage which occurs over time or was it just made that way? You could take it off, put some inletting black or lipstick on the inside of the plate and see if there are high spots on the wood that could be removed to get a better fit. The other idea is that you could get some colored beeswax and fill in the gap. No one will probably know but you.

If the butt plate is brass, you could close up the gaps by hitting around the edge of the butt plate (not on the wood) with a ball peen hammer. You would have to do some sanding to get rid of the hammer marks. This is the way a lot of builders close their gaps once they get close.

 

[mudd turtle]

Thank you for your reply to my post. I tightened the butt plate screw and that closed the gap a great deal. Is it possible that screws will back out -due to presure changes or long storage in the gun safe.mudd turtle.

 

[Zonie]

Wood is a flexible material and any screw that is screwed into it and under load will cause it to move over the years.

The non-fitting butt plate was producing a load on the screw. It was trying to pull the screw out of the stock and eventually the wood moved enough to allow the butt plate to flex away from the wood.

The remaining small gaps can be filled with the darkest wood filling putty you can find.
This is the stuff that is used to plug the holes left by finishing nails after their heads are sunk into the wood. It is available at most hardware stores.
zonie