Finished a P-14

Hi everyone,

Just finished this Enfield P-14! QUite pleased with the result.

but, there's one thing I still have to finalize. The butt plate isn't making good contact on all of the butt surface. There's a little bit of free space for the top third. I am wondering what would be the best move; I'm leaning towards plugging the top screw hole with a dowel, and repositioning a new hole a little bit forward, thus drawing the plate forward, making solid contact with the surface of the wood. Advices?

Lou

https://www.milsurps.com/imagehostin...8c81430042.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/imagehostin...8c81470b5a.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/imagehostin...8c814b1a5c.jpg

Looks Great.

Is the problem that the wood surface has eroded, or that the buttplate is slightly bent out of shape?

Have you considered shimming under the buttplate to avoid having to redrill the hole?

Shimming might actually work, I didn't think about that possibility. I do believe the butt plate is Winchester-marked; I doubt they would have had very slight variation between the three arsenals?

I do not think the plate is bent though. So shimming may get the "go", if that can't work then plug'n'drill I will...

I guess my main concern is that if the plate isn't making solid contact, the recoil will be absorbed by the top screw and over time the wood will get damaged.

Lou

Skennerton says that mag parts are not necessarily interchangeable between
Win, Rem & ERA, so maybe same applies to Butt plates. I would look at
bending the Butt plate or trying another one.
Stu.