Building a Muzzleloader - Fitting the Buttplate

Fitting the brass buttplate was the first step in building this rifle.

More of this Course • Page One: Intro • Page Two: Fitting the Buttplate • Page Three: Fitting the Lock • Page Four: Fitting Barrel to Tang • Page Five: Fitting Barrel and Tang to Stock • Page Six: Installing Trigger Assembly • Page Seven: Polishing and Fitting the Nose Cap • Page Eight: Polishing and Fitting the Trigger Guard • Page Nine: Fitting the Sights • Page Ten: Inletting for Wedge Pin Plates • Page Eleven: Sanding the Stock - Initial Sanding • Page Twelve: Final Sanding & Patchbox • Page Thirteen: Staining the Stock • Page Fourteen: Polishing and Bluing • Page Fifteen: Finishing the Stock • Page Sixteen: The Tools I Used • Page Seventeen: Conclusion

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I'll tell much of the story with photographs, so each page may be a bit slow to load. Click on any photo for a larger image.

The buttplate wasn't too bad when I started, but it was a bit rough, as you can see below.

I started by facing the wood side of the buttplate with a file - this removes the mold marks and provides a uniform surface to mate with the stock.

Here I've just started to face the top portion - the rest still shows the mold marks from the factory.

Facing the top portion. This must be done carefully, to keep it square and prevent rounding of edges where it will mate with the wood.

Then I evened the edges with a file, and further polished to remove the rough mill marks, using 120 grit sandpaper. Final polishing will come much later.

Here's a shot of the stock's butt, before I did anything to it.

This shows the "gaposis" between stock and buttplate after initial polishing and before fitting. This gap was more pronounced than the photo shows. Most of the sanding was needed at the toe (bottom).

I worked the wood using the file rarely and sandpaper often. To prevent low spots in the sanding, I often held the buttplate in place and worked a strip of sandpaper between it and the stock shoeshine-fashion (though being careful not to let the edges of the wood get rounded), using the pressure from the buttplate to remove wood only from the areas needed.

The screws provided are steel, and after fitting the plate and drilling pilot holes, I attached it with these. I'll switch to brass screws from the hardware store for the final product, for a more uniform look. The buttplate will stay attached during the sanding of the stock to keep from rounding the edges of the wood and to provide an almost seamless joint between the two.

This shows the fit after installing the buttplate, and the large amount of wood that needs to be removed from the stock, especially on the right and at the toe.

And this out-of-focus shot shows the wood that needs to be removed at the top on either side.

So much for fitting the buttplate, I won't mess with it again until I start working the stock down. From here, I moved on to the lock.

- Russ Chastain

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