I contacted Dave Brush, the current owner of Morgan Recoil. He's the nephew of the company's founder, the late Bill Morgan. Dave was not aware of this all aluminum model and could find no record of it in the company archives.
The casting is marked W. J. MORGAN. Some additional markings below that were worn away long ago. My best guess would be "Youngstown, OH", based on other Morgan rubber recoil pads I've had over the years. The inside of all the castings are marked "ALCOA".
The "base plate" on this unknown model is identical to the base plates on the first generation rubber Morgan recoil pads. "First generation" sounds so old, but it just refers to the interlocking grooves between the base plate and center plate used to hold the pad's vertical adjustment The manufacturing molds were damaged several years ago and Morgan updated the plate design. They're not cross-compatible.
There's a missing hard foam spacer that should go between the shoulder "pad" and the center plate. The upper and lower screws will then allow you to toe, or tilt, the pad up or down a few degrees.
I purchased a current foam spacer from Morgan but it didn't fit quite right. Ended up making my own from a piece of 1/4" thick closed cell foam. The one I made is pictured here.
Glued it to the aluminum with a quick setting two-part epoxy.
Attached to the center plate and ready to go.
Bolted right up to the base plate already on the .20 cal Benjamin Sterling.
I'll keep looking around for additional info. It'd be interesting to know when this was produced. Morgan's website notes that the company was started before WWII, so it could be pretty early. Maybe some old gun magazine advertisements would shed some light.
Thanks for checking in.
2 comments:
Another great post, Derrick. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading each of the posts you and Nick put up over the years. They were extremely informative, well-written and illustrated, and witty. Sadly, it seems we might be coming to the end of the ride for this blog, as the time between posts seems to be ever-increasing. That’s not a criticism – I know you do this as a courtesy to others, have other more important duties in your lives, and are certainly under no obligation to any of us.
I just wanted to post a “thank you” for all your hard work on this blog, and I think I speak for a lot of people when I say you’ve certainly enriched my experience as an avid airgunner and neophyte metal/wood worker.
Best of luck!
Paul, I don't think we have any intention to stop posting. Though given how many airguns we've covered, it has been difficult to come up with content we haven't previously blogged. I don't want to speak for Nick, but as I've acquired more airguns, it's easier to put off more major repairs or modifications. Less of a rush when there are 30 (or more) functional airguns I guess. All that said, I do have a long list of projects in the "que". I'm very humbled to read that you've followed us for so many years and I hope Nick and I will be writing for many more.
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