Where is DOGE when you need them? I had a couple of guns show up here on Friday from my gunsmith and one of them, sadly, showed signs of serious abuse while in transit. The original buttplate on this 1901 D-grade hammer had been shattered by an impact on one edge. To be fair, the packing wasn't exactly the way I would have done it (we always wrapped the ends of each doublegun stock with additional padding to prevent just such an event from occurring).

In this case, random packing material had been wedged around the guns and the hammergun had somehow shaken(?) its way towards the bottom of the cardboard box it was shiped in (to save on weight...of course) and accordingly, an insurance claim here would probably be dicey at best.

This gun is a little short for me so I do tend to shoot it with a slip-on pad. A thicker aftermarket pad would likely be helpful here with all that but....I'm also a fan of keeping things mostly "original" where I can. Does anyone re-pop these 1901 hammergun buttplates by any chance?