About Me: A certified yet non-professional gunsmith learning the trade through trail and inspiration

Sunday, August 7, 2022

Making your own butt plate

One of the parts I almost always need for my projects is a butt plate or recoil pad. It seems they are either broken or missing on the project rifles I pick up.
For those that don't know or understand, the butt plate does two things, One: it protects the rifle stock from chips when being leaned up against something and Two: it provides traction against your shoulder (although not as important as the former).
Recoil pads of course offer additional cushion for guns with .....you guessed it recoil. 

When attending gun shows I am always on the lookout for thin rubber recoil pads or generic plastic butt plates that could be ground to fit different stocks.
The problem with many of the butt plates I find is that they are hollow, which limits the amount of fitting you can do.

I picked up another project that is missing its butt pad and although there are some replacements available, I decided to make my own.

While looking at it I contemplated all the different options and decided to author a blog post about them.

One thing you can do is make your butt plate from stainless steel like the one below:


You can also use aluminum, this one was stippled with a Dremel tool


I made this one for my Night Stalker project Marlin, I tried to checker it, which was not easy, next time I may try some simple, straight horizontal lines


If you had an original for a mold, you could cast it from old beer cans


Here are a couple made from brass




This builder used rubber mat material



Something popular is using a contrasting hardwood



or laminating one from veneers


A piece of wood and some indoor/outdoor carpet



Here is one made from Water Buffalo horn

see the making of it here

  
Of course you could use a flip flop like I did on my Marlin model 81 DL




and my Pink 10/22



....and my 10/22 Target Rifle Project



............and my Savage 325A project


One of the people who have inspired me is a guy on the Rimfire Central Forum by the name of Hipshot. Below is a custom stock he created and added a custom curved butt plate made from kydex, he heated it and bent it to fit.



Here are a couple made from hard plastic.


















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