What were they thinking back then........

[NEKVT]

when they produced rifles with curved butt plates? These things are downright painful even in relatively light recoiling rifles like this 1908 Model 1899 303 Savage. At some point the idea was dropped and for good reason I guess. But they sure do look purdy!

281628

And the rest of it. Appears to have been professionally refinished when I got it which kept the price out of the collector range. It is a takedown model but I couldn't get it apart with reasonable effort so left well enough alone. Better too tight than loosey goosey.

281626

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[Mk42gunner]

Tradition dies hard in the firearms world.

As I understand it, the deeply curved rifle style butt was designed to be held on the upper arm, not the pocket of the shoulder like we do now. I still think a heavy recoiling rifle would hurt with the butt held on the arm.

Robert

[Winger Ed.]

If properly fitted, they come up and hold on your shoulder better for a quick shot, especially while wearing heavy clothes.

Flat butt plates are an attempt for a 'one size fits all' sort of thing.

[sharps4590]

When used as intended they're no worse than a shotgun butt when used as intended.

[hoodat]

gotta remember also that most guys 80 or so years ago were probably, on average, 50 or more pounds lighter than today. And they were HARD. I don't spose that recoil from the 300 or 303 Savage was much of a concern. jd

[hithard]

They also didn't shoot a whole lot as ammo was expensive and the store wasn't so easy to get to.

Suck it up, we are way to soft these days.

[Chill Wills]

I have a good fit with them, even on hard kickers. They fit me fine and I am not small. I can't speak for anyone else but for a sporting rifle they are great and work to hold the rifle in place without slipping.
If it bit me, and I am sure it does for some people for what ever reason, I would hate it too.

[bigwagon]

I find that style to be just fine on the two rifles I have with it, but we're talking about a Colt Lightning in 44-40 and a Win 1892 in 25-20, so not exactly thumpers. The most unpleasant gun to shoot I ever owned was a Ruger #3 in 45-70 with the carbine buttplate. That thing was brutal to shoot. I sold it 25 years ago, but kinda wish I had it back now.

[Shanghai Jack]

Its extremely painful on my .54 plains rifle with a full house maxi. Two shots and its not pleasurable any longer.

[cwtebay]

Load your rifle, rig your (moving) targets. Put on your favourite Carhartt coat, leather gloves - pull that rifle up to your shoulder and fire! I actually enjoy the curved buttplate, it encourages good sight picture (awesome tang sight on your '99 btw!!) and thereby marksmanship. You either love it or hate it. Pretty polarizing buttstock style.

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[Larry Gibson]

NEKVT

I'm with you, hate those suckers...

[cwtebay]

Oh, and BTW 45-90, 50-110, 30-03, 30-06, 405 WCF, 30-40, 35 WCF, 7.62x54R, 303 British, 303 Savage.....etc, ad nauseum - have never deterred me from shooting with that butt plate!!!
Will I shoot them prone? From a bench for 30 rounds? HECK NO!!

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[indian joe]

Stand up ! Trigger hand elbow parallel to the ground - now with yr left hand thumb in yr right armpit and pointer finger over the top just outside the shoulder joint ----whats the shape formed?????? wanna mount flat buttplate there ?????? not me thanks ......................

[pietro]

.

That's one fine piece of wood there, NEKVT !

My ca. 1914 Savage 1899-H lightweight in .303 Savage has a flat buttplate, as issued.

https://i.imgur.com/B5v1LLLl.jpg
.

[popper]

Take a look at some Arab & really early stocks. Much more curve, possible to make one-hand shooting from saddle easier. And as they were BP guns with long barrel, you get 3 point support vs just 2. As they got more 'hunting' style the need to mount quickly eliminated the curved butt. Early Chinese just had a stick that went in the armpit or against the ground.

[robg]

to stop a rifle slipping on your shoulder try some skate board deck tape on the butt it works a treat .

[Scrounge]

They also didn't shoot a whole lot as ammo was expensive and the store wasn't so easy to get to.

Suck it up, we are way to soft these days.

You are so right. Summer of 2012 I started a new job, very physical labor, after more than a decade of going to school, sitting at a desk, or standing in a classroom running my mouth. Loading industrial laundry machines. Typical load would about about 450#, loaded by hand into the machines, times up to 50 loads a day. Old guy I was working with was 76 when I started. We also got loads of food service towels. Usually wet, stinking, and often quite hot from decay. Up to 1100# when wet. Ralph could empty one of those baskets into the machine in about 10 minutes by himself. Best I ever did by myself was about 20 minutes, and that after 2 years of practice. Last year we worked together, he was going to chemo for mouth cancer on Fridays, and coming back to work on Monday, and working my poor tired butt into the ground. He was born in 1940, started working at age 15, the year I was born. I'll be 66 next month. He was 77 when he started the chemo, when he finished, just before he retired, and dead from the cancer about 6 months later. That was one tough old man. If I manage to be even a third as tough as he was, I'll be doing just fine. And when I was 17, I worked with a guy who was 77, and he could run me into the ground then. Mac was another tough old man. There were giants in those days.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

281679

This style was a happy compromise between the pointed and flat styles.

DG

[hoodat]

The thing I hate most about a curved butt plate is installing one on a straight cut stock. jd

[JoeJames]

My old CVA 50 caliber muzzle loader had such a butt plate. Almost preferred going to the dentist rather than trying to sight it in.

[TNsailorman]

I made my own 50 Hawken in the mid 70's using a set of blueprints that I bought from the Colorado Museum of an original Modina rifle. Of course it had a curved butt plate on it and wanting one as authenic as I could get, I put a curved butt plate on mine. mistake that I will never repeat. If you hold the rifle the way they did way back then, no problems. But I do not hold the butt on the inner ball of the shoulder socket in my other rifles. As a result when I shoot the Hawken in my normal style (I forget and hold it as normal) I get a very bruised shoulder or in the case of one day at a Black Powder Match, I came home with a big old bruise that had a small hole right in the center of it and a bloody undershirt from the blood that was oozing out of the little hole. Took a couple of weeks to heal up too. So I will never again have one of those type butts to kick mine. james

[NEKVT]

I tried holding it against the upper arm as some had suggested but couldn't line up the sights without tilting my head to the side over the buttstock to compensate - very awkward. The 1899 hasn't been out for a while so taking it to the range tomorrow. Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet...or maybe not...have some cast RB with a light charge of 700X wimpy plinking loads.

[Texas by God]

I've never had a shotgun butt slip from my shoulder; so I'll pass on the rifle style, thanks.

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[JFE]

I have a 25/20 and 50/90 with this type of butt stock. The 25/20 is OK but the 50/90 is a killer, even when using one of those sissy pads. A shotgun buttstock is preferable and, for me, more comfortable and practical for quick follow up shots when hunting.

They also make the toe of the stock quite vulnerable to damage. You see quite a few older rifles with a chip missing from the toe of the stock.

[T-Bird]

I guess I must be a sissy. Years ago, I stopped loading anything hot enough to make me bleed at the recoil of it. I actually like the curved butt plate. I quit shooting conicals out of my muzzle loader for this reason (reduce recoil).

[cwtebay]

I made my own 50 Hawken in the mid 70's using a set of blueprints that I bought from the Colorado Museum of an original Modina rifle. Of course it had a curved butt plate on it and wanting one as authenic as I could get, I put a curved butt plate on mine. mistake that I will never repeat. If you hold the rifle the way they did way back then, no problems. But I do not hold the butt on the inner ball of the shoulder socket in my other rifles. As a result when I shoot the Hawken in my normal style (I forget and hold it as normal) I get a very bruised shoulder or in the case of one day at a Black Powder Match, I came home with a big old bruise that had a small hole right in the center of it and a bloody undershirt from the blood that was oozing out of the little hole. Took a couple of weeks to heal up too. So I will never again have one of those type butts to kick mine. jamesBleeding at recoil!!!! Holy buckets!!!
OUCH

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[.45Cole]

The curved buttplates were made to be shot off the arm rather than the shoulder. You can see where by cupping your non-shooting hand into a "c" and putting it on your shooting arm just outside of your armpit - the perfect fit. Most were shot from here (actually works better than shoulder as you don't get caught up in clothes) and many people didn't rotate their thumb over the comb of the rifles either. Shoot a 1895 in 30-06 with curved buttplate, hurts if you do it wrong and is just fine if shot off arm.

[meh]

I've got a few rifles with crescent buttstocks. I know I tend to hold them more towards the arm, blading my body to the target more than with a flat buttstock, but I'm not actually sure whether I position the crescent on the outer shoulder or upper arm. I just go by comfort, so I'd have to check to see where I'm ending up. But none of mine are in hard kicking calibers, anyway. I can neither confirm nor deny, but Leverguns 50 on YT has some thoughts about why people think hard-hitting rifles with crescent buttstocks hurt more than they need to. I think he's got a good point about not holding the rifle in tight.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsQZz6Z6CJM