AS the man said the crescent butt plate goes between the shoulder and the chest (there is a pocket there. They were
to be used for offhand shooting, not from a bench. The old
timers stood up to shoot.
This.
Also, those old rifles were meant to be shot with open sights. Put a scope on a rifle with a low comb and hold your head higher to let it get a running start at your cheek and the comb will karate chop you in the chops every time.
I've been shooting an older .30-06 1895 Winchester with the steel crescent buttplate and was skeered to death it was going to hurt when I first shot it. All that angst for nothing. From off hand or kneeling with the peep sight on it, it isn't bad at all. I mean really, not "'not too bad!', he said as he wiped his bleeding nose", but truly nothing a modern .270 wouldn't dish out. Certainly nothing like a scoped Marlin .444 that brutalized my poor face. Now take that same 1895 and fire 30 or 40 rounds from benchrest working up a load and the resulting big purple bruise will last a week.
