Antique Shotgun Buttplate Repair

When an ancient Wm. R. Burkhard double barreled 10 gauge shotgun came in for major stock repair, it also needed anew buttplate. The 130 year old shotgun had a big chunk missing at the upper right corner of its plastic buttplate. Unfortunately, a diligent search failed to find a replacement part and all I could offer was an attempt at repairing it. My customer gave me the nod. The missing piece of buttplate included about a square inch of surface with the upper screw still intact.

There were no anti-slip horizontal lines involved in the repair. My mode of repair was to apply a form around the side of the stock to include the damaged area. I used two layers of common electrical tape for this. As repair material I used Brownells Steel Bed epoxy colored with the coal-black dye in the kit. The black stock required about three full drops per cubic centimeter of epoxy. I stirred the material in the bottom of a soda can until thoroughly mixed.

A cut down tongue blade was used to fill the form, making sure it filled completely in without voids, includ- R. Burkhard shotgun. Finding a replacement part was out of the question. Below left and The prepared mixture is being put into the form.

It is ready for final finish after this. ing the upper triangular depression commonly seen in many of the older buttplates. After 24 hours of drying, the stock surface was refinished, including the buttplate. Conclusions Sometimes unusual repair methods must be resorted to when replacement parts can’t be found during the restoration process of an old gun. It can mean the difference in saving the old gun or setting it aside as a broken down relic.

AG Despite its 130 year old age, the stock is restored to alike-new appearance. R. Burkhard shotgun stock is now totally repaired, restoring a fine old antique shotgun to a thing of beauty.