Quote Originally Posted by Peter Laidlericon View Post
If I was you Slater, I wouldn't even bother with the recoil plates. In fact, they were nothing of the sort but a decreasing cam that between them and the butt socket, would draw (hence the word 'draws' - after their purpose in life) the rear end of the fore-end into contact with the butt socket. I'd just replace the draws as per an article some time ago about replacing them in a worn out fore-end.

The notion that you could hold them in place with 7mm or so long screws, going into the end grain of the wood was a fairy story
Interesting. I was led to believe that they were a requirement in coachwood-stocked SMLE's because of the tendency of this rather soft wood to split under repeated recoil. So they proved to be ineffective?