after some sulking, I decided on a path forward and began working the 97 stock.
In my parts bin I have an early checkered metal buttplate with the widows peak. While watching the Super Bowl I got most of its curve fit, and just need to settle it back until the toe makes full contact. It has plenty of border below the checkering to grind down flush and not look weird. Needs some delicate filing to clean up but it'll blue up nice I think. I'll need to also glass bed it to the receiver to clean up the slop in the fit.
For the model 12, I'm going the file off the Boyds logo on the generic plastic buttplate that came with it, and give it a high polish. This will allow me to get the project quickly (relative to my shop's clock anyway) finished before I make any final decisions. I don't want to plug and redial the stock bolt hole just to fit a plastic repop buttplate. Brownells sells repop winchester solid red rubber, but is out of stock. My searches for 1/2"+ thick horn blank of suitable size found none. There is a company that offers blank horn buttplates, but out of stock wherever I could find. So I'll wait patiently. I'm leaning heavily towards horn today with lofty goals of checkering it myself or carving it one day, but by the time I finish my morning coffee that mood could change.
I will never buy anything from Boyds again. I sent a polite email and a week gone by with not even an acknowledgment.
The 1897 stock is done. I'll post a pic in that thread.
I'm getting ready to start the model 12. I confirmed again there is no correcting it. Even with the shorter repop buttplate, the lower hole sits over hole for the stock screw - so I'd have top plug that and re-drill higher up, connecting with the existing hole for alignment. No thanks. Moreover, the shorter buttplate will still overhang by 1/8+ inches, and there isn't enough border around its checkering to make it look right.
So, as my coffee brewed, I went on a search again for an alternative. My last search did not yield suitable horn blanks at a reasonable price, but today I found a supplier - x2 blanks, 2"x6"x1/2 thick buffalo horn for $25. And, I found a video too!
Here is a link if it doesn't show up for you...'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5A6mBOZncA'
So that's the plan - sans the starting from raw horn part. I will also not plug over the screws for the obvious reason. I'm not an artist, so no carving other than rounding a bit, with a little curve from heal to toe. I thought about checkering it, but no good way to polish it out when done. Unless maybe if I can impress something in to it by boiling in a form, similar to the video. Nah. My initials on the underside will suffice.
PM
