Nice old man at the trap club, too infirm to shoot, but has been the mentor and coach of a great many new shooters, and intermediate shooters looking to improve (myself included). A wealth of practical knowledge on chokes, reloading, equipment who gracefully never volunteers much of anything- but will answer in what ever detail, what ever question you've got. So when he asked if I could replace the buttplate on his favorite old shotgun, how could I possibly say no?
Laminated some aluminum and ebony scrap that was kicking around the shop and found a 1935 Buffalo nickel (his birth year), refinished the stock, and put it all together. Came out OK.
Attachment 101663
Now for the nostalgia- it is a JC Higgins model 60, lightweight 12 gauge auto- with a wicked rate of fire, almost no cycle time at all. According to the literature that could find, it is a rotating bolt design borrowed from the M-1 Garande and state the cycle time is 5 rounds per second!!! As Clarence phrases it- back when Sears sold real things to real people.