Stock Placement, arm or shoulder?

[Bob J]

With a crescent-shaped buttplate, such as on a GPR and others,is it best to place stock against shoulder or upper arm?

 

[robinghewitt]

The American bicep butt plate :hmm:

I have a theory :grin:

The colonists came off the boat and the locals set out to relieve them of their money asap and get them started on the long trek west in the sure and certain knowlege that they were unlikely to come back and complain.

Somehow the colonists had a notion about what an American rifle looked like, that's what they wanted, so that's exactly what they got.

I think some artist drew a pioneer long hunter/mountain man leaning on a banana gun with an exagerrated crescent butt plate and his picture was used to advertise a new life in the colonies.

You may now tell me why I am wrong :rotf:

 

[robinghewitt]

Apologies to DF, that was not aimed at you. I just don't think there is any comfortable way to hold one of those things if you are expecting any kind of recoil :thumbsup:

 

[rebuse]

I agree, DF, that's one of the reasons I got rid of my T/C Hawkins over other guns that I have...AND why I like the Lehigh Valley Rifle that I just got. It's got a nice comfortable shape to the stock and butt-plate...I...I...I think I'm in love... :haha:

Preacher :hatsoff:

 

[davy]

Its simple .. it takes a "real" mountain-man he-man to shoot a proper crescent buttplate with any hefty powder load from the shoulder! :shocked2: I'm glad I don't have one like that! :grin: :rotf:

Davy

 

[Ridge]

My Berks County rifle is most comfortable when it hooks just outside of my shoulder socket.

My Lancaster and Fowler fit best in my "shoulder pocket". I think it just depends.

 

[roundball]

With a crescent-shaped buttplate, such as on a GPR and others,is it best to place stock against shoulder or upper arm?

All my rifles have the cresent butt plate and I'm not known for shooting powder puff loads...I mount it with the toe curving down into the crease of the armpit...no problem at all

 

[SAJones]

Interesting thought; never considered anywhere but on the shoulder, even w/ deep cresents. And like the above posts, never had any problems. Incidentally, many target rifles, old & new, have a projection of several inches from the toe that fits under the pit for a more stable hold. Only shot one, an Anshutz, & it fit my sholder fine at standing, sitting, or prone.

 

[Zonie]

"...is it best to place stock against shoulder or upper arm? "

Yes.


Boy does it P1$$ my wife off when I say things like that to her questions.

I'd say it depends on how you are built.
If your a skinny dude like me, the crescent buttplates don't fit too badly from the shoulder but if you have any meat on your bones holding them out on the arm just a little bit works better.

I think some people think that "holding it on the upper arm" means way out there where it can smash the H out of your biceps when it's touched off.
I think if it's held out just far enough to let the pointed toe fit into your armpit and not gouge into your pictorials it is about right.

Robin: you may have something there! Hopefully it isn't contagious. :grin: :grin:
The only thing wrong with your theory is these deep crescent buttplates were very popular on the Ohio Rifles and they were made a bit inland from where the immigrants got off of the boat.
Now those folks in Ohio might have been putting something over on the immigrants. I mean, Ole Mooskeetman is from Ohio and you dont think Ole Mooskeetman would snooker a new immigrant do you? :rotf: :rotf:

 

[Stony]

You know, those deep cresent butt plates can really do a number on someone's teeth when you get a good swing or stroke with them. Perhaps making that cresent butt plate was just one gunsmith's idea of giving someone an extra weapon that didn't need to be drawn or fumbled with in the heat of hand to hand combat. Of course once one guy had it, someone else wanted one as well and it may have just snowballed from there. They (the butt plates) could also do a number on someone's skull if swung right. Watch Burt Lancaster's The Kentuckian sometime. Walter Matthau "trips" and gets a cresent shaped hole in his head. (The movie also has a great sequence where a fellow reloads while being charged by Burt on foot.)

 

[robinghewitt]

The only thing wrong with your theory is these deep crescent buttplates were very popular on the Ohio Rifles and they were made a bit inland from where the immigrants got off of the boat.

I didn't know that about Ohio gun makers, but I have yet to see a credible explanation for this particular monstrosity. If they'd wanted an additional weapon they'd have fitted a bayonet.

I have a Bown rifle with one of these things on, made at the East end of the Oregon trail for selling to colonists. It's agony to shoulder, but if you look at the woodcuts in his advertising the butt crescent is more pronounced, even worse than on the guns.

It has to be a selling point, the Bown rifle is definitely made for selling and not for shooting.

 

[2172]

I have an old , really old, ohio style crescent butt plate on one of my rifles..I shoot it off the bicep...the other crescents, the Lymans and such, I have no trouble shooting from the shoulder..I rarely shoot more than 60 gr FFFg..Hank

 

[loophole]

If you put the buttplate on the muscle just outside the shoulder it is a natural fit for offhand shooting, sitting or cross sticks. Even very heavy charges in my .54 Hawken are pleasant to shoot if you don't try to hold the rifle like you would one with a flat buttplate.

 

[Bob J]

Apologies to DF, that was not aimed at you. I just don't think there is any comfortable way to hold one of those things if you are expecting any kind of recoil :thumbsup:

No apologies needed.Your story was humorous,if not exactly factual :blah: Actually, the recoil on a Plains-type rifle is not bad with roundball (heavy conicals = heavier recoil, however).

 

[Bob J]

With a crescent-shaped buttplate, such as on a GPR and others,is it best to place stock against shoulder or upper arm?

...I mount it with the toe curving down into the crease of the armpit...no problem at all

I thinks that's the answer, I'll try it. Thanks. :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

"...I have yet to see a credible explanation for this particular monstrosity..."

I've read a couple of references over the years that the cresent shaped buttplate was designed as an aid to reloading it on horseback, hooking the cresent shape buttplate into a stirrup brought the muzzle down to a working level, and kept the rifle from falling to the ground.

They were passing glances through articles I stumbled across on the Internet and unfortunately I have no earthly idea what articles they were, or how to find them now, or if they were even accurate...but it makes more sense than anything else I've heard.

I think they look great and wouldn't have a muzzleloader without one I like their looks so much...but they serve no functional purpose in my present world that I can think of.

 

[SavageArcher]

The only thing I can add that cresent buttplates did and are still doing this day is confounding and confusing the English. :rotf:

I'm sorry Squire I couldn't resist. :v

 

My ancestors emigrated from Old Blighty in the early 1600's. And they told me you were full of IT. What ever "IT" is ... LOL!

Bill

 

DF, the so-called crescent butt plates are usually called "rifle" butt plates. The flat butt plates are more properly called "shotgun" butt plates.

I have read, that rifle butt plates were designed to be shot off of the arm, just below the shoulder joint. This is what I have read in many rifle history books. If I had to bet on it, I wouldn't bet.

However, I wouldn't bet on anything anyway ...

Because of bum upper right arm, I shoulder my rifles INSIDE, with a ballistic pad under my shirt, from the shoulder joint.

Bill

 

[Dave K]

I will say that the crescent butt plate is fine on squirrel gun. But I personally find them punishing on a big game hunting load. When I got a Lancaster with that wide butt plate, life was good! Yes, I shot the crescent butt plate, off of the shoulder. If on the shoulder it really punched you.