Poor boy question

[oldarmy]

Have a few questions on the "poorboy" style.
This is a .54 smoothbore that I am building.
Started out will just planing on a plain, simple smoothie.
Now it has a steel butt-plate. Just a simple one, the ground up here is hard and stony. Was thinking about installing 2 tang bolts. Left the tang long and squared. There will be plenty of room to install the bolts, using a pinned trigger.
My question is..is it still a "poorboy"

[/img]

[/img]

 

[stude11]

Well, until somebody more knowledgeable than I comes along, I'll offer my opinion. I don't see where the addition of a flat steel butt plate should make any difference in the style. Even in specific schools of design, there's enough variation by individual makers to account for that change. While it may be 'typical' for that type of rifle to have no butt late, shooters have been personalizing their guns for what, 300 years? If you're building a poorboy, then a poorboy it is.

 

[Birddog6]

Lots of "poorboys" have buttplates, but no entrypipe & sometimes no nosecap , etc. I have seen them with just about all withs & withouts , and a few with no furniture at all except 1 RR pipe, they are still all just plain "poor boys" or sometimes referred to as "barn guns".
Personally I don't like building a rifle without a buttplate & few that I would build without a toeplate. It would have to be a very special grain for me to build without a buttplate. I am building a Lancaster right now that would have been a perfect grain for no buttplate, had it been a dif style of rifle. :hmm:

 

[oldarmy]

Thanks for the reply.
Left the butt-plate hanging out just a bit to act as a toe plate.
Might heat the plate up and bend it over after the shaping is done.

 

[paulvallandigham]

MY Tenn. Poor Boy has a toeplate inletted into the bottom of the butt stock. Held with two screws. It extends to the bottom of the stock, altho my gun has NO butt plate on it. I generally rest the stock on my shoe, when loading it, to prevent the butt stock from being scratched or covered in mud, dirt, grass, etc. A piece of antler forms the heel plate for the stock, and defines the curve of the butt.

 

[oldarmy]

Paul.
I think leaving a 1/16 to an 1/8 extension of the metal plate should work.
Would have loved to use horn/Antler. Had a few nice pieces of Moose that would have worked, but made knife handles out of them.
Lets see your rifle. Need some ideas about finishing her.