Got this from one of my customers. He furnished a thick hard rubber butt plate for reproduction and it is now selling on GB.

Butt Plate

Thanks Mike, at that price one could buy several of them for future use.

Well, on one hand that's cool.

On the other hand, a guy has to be careful now paying a premium for one.

Thats my opinion also,we will have guns with special order thick buttplates coming out of the woodwork !!!! all that has to happen is the s/n scratched into the back !!

In the preservation biz that's called "historic fabric" and changing it always creates a problem with discerning original from non-original. Judging the originality of the milspec universe will never be the same after the flurry of 1903s/03A3s/1917s/etc.. that were restocked with modern made wood and rebuilt on the "kitchen table." I dare you to find one at a gun show anymore that hasn't been tinkered with in one way or another by a civilian owner in the last 10 to 15-years. I'm not passing judgment here, but instead making an observation that weighs in for those who are interested in assessing the originality, or historicity, of a firearm.

Meh.

If nobody made em we'd be bitchin cuz you can't get one when you need it.

No, sorry. Nobody's bitched about it in the last 15 years.

Savage guys are a funny lot, matching numbers and all that. What if Savage hadn't numbered buttplates, would replacements be ok then?

If you have a gun with a broken plate (like the one I just had that got broken in transport for example), wouldn't you rather buy a replacement than stare at a broken plate the rest of your life? Matching numbers or not I'm glad they're available although I've never needed a thick one. Everything on the planet gets repaired at some point.

From here on out purists can replace their cars when the starter goes out rather than repair it too!

It's not a question of repairing thick rubber buttplates that are broke, there are so very few of them that I've never heard of anybody needing to replace one. If they do have one that's broken, fine, go for it.

It's a question of folks can now put it on guns that had a standard shotgun buttplates. As I said originally, paying a premium for thick hard rubber buttplates just went down a lot.

It'd be like making a run of reproduction 99RS sling studs and swivels from the 1930's. Would drop the price of 99RS's.

OK, I get that.

I have needed one for a while.

Thanks for sharing Mike, I just bought a couple for my tinkerbell box.

We maxed out the first run, they have to make more next week!

Turns out they are the same company that makes the grip caps. They also have new butt plate screws for 6 bucks a set.

I don't get a commission - just sharing.

He has some nice looking handgun grips at attractive prices as well. I've never heard of this outfit. Thanks for sharing.

I think I have two on the way. The gunbroker emails seem to be saying I still need to pay for them but I sent my paypal info to the seller. I sent a msg to the seller just now. David

Funny how things differ from one collecting circle to another. In antique tractors there is a saying that " if it casts a shadow it can be restored", and many HIGH value tractors started as a mere shadow of a complete unit with new parts being made in small foundries or scrounged from all over the world. Does not affect the value one bit . And then there is Winchesters, I'll bet there are lots of them floating around that don't have original furniture and no one is the wiser. Just saying!

When there is a massive lack of originals in good condition, the value of correctly restored pieces goes up. Turnbull has a waiting list for a reason. But there's still a lot of high condition old Savage's. Though even there a buyer needs to beware that it hasn't been "altered" to have more desirable features that increase it's value. Happens more than a guy would think, even on high end guns.

Yes I agree about the value of " correctly restored " however the amount of high value Savages available is definitely relative to where you live in the world. In the Canadian prairies they are few and far between believe me. Not looking to start a p-----g match it just seems to me that sometimes Savage collectors need to "come down off of the cross, because someone else might need the wood"

I have no problem with people replacing broken thick hard rubber buttplates with repo units, for the guys that have broken thin rubber buttplates there are plenty of repos for that fix. I,m hoping that the unethical replacement of thin ones with thick ones aint going to be rampant !!!!! i have 3 rifles with original thick hard rubber buttplates ,all special order ,and paid a premium on them. We just dont need a bunch of bogus upgrade guns coming out of the woodwork !!!

Agree, definitely not looking to start anything. But there's plenty of restored guns out there to spend money on if you think they are worth the price. There's no cabal of Savage collectors setting prices, every sale is between seller and buyer. The way to drive up prices is to start paying higher prices.

Called the guy selling the buttplates. Forgot about paypal and gave him my credit card info over the phone. Nice guy. David

Not a Savage collector, but a long time amateur stock butcher. I've used a number of reproduction buttplates on various brands of guns. They have been all made of epoxy/urethane, as stated in the ebay description for the thick Savage plate. A previous post in this thread stated the originals were made of hard rubber (as many older plates were from most manufacturers). Hard rubber plates have a slightly grainier, matte looking texture than epoxy/urethane reproductions. This difference is particularly noticeable on the back side of the plates. Anyone looking for a serial number scratched on the back should be able to see this difference in texture. Also most hard rubber plates I have seen are not smooth on the back, they usually have a raised area around the screw holes and around the edges. Repros I have used were all flat on the back. A magnifying lens should work for identifying the difference in texture when you can't remove the plate at a show.
Posting front and back pictures of an original Savage plate and one of the repros could be educational and help differentiate between them.

I hope they used a material that has little to no shrinkage, I lent out a butt plate to make a copy and got one of the repro's back as part of the deal, it was noticeably under size, It was not this maker, but I do not think the plates will come out larger than the original, which would be good so the plate could be fit to the stock and not the other way around on a gun with nice original finish. I would be nice if they built up the edges of the plate slightly before making the mold.

I found the old pictures I took of the one I had copied, again, this was a few years ago and not the same people.