I am building a 10wt 4pc Legend Elite and bought a FA-12 handle kit. It looks like this has a removable fighting butt. I am not sure how to put this bad boy together and would happily take any advice. Also, how do you make a recessed reel seat fit in a pre - made handle? I really don't want to add a separate cork ring because I am really happy with its current length. Thanks for your time,
Ryan Chris

Is this the recommended handle kit for that blank? Although I have certainly not seen all the reel seats that are available with fighting butts, removable or otherwise, I have not seen this type of seat in an uplocking inletted style. Unfortunately, the St. Croix site doesn't show a picture of it. There are uplocking reel seats where the hood is not inletted, it just butts up against the cork. Are you sure this needs to inletted? If it does, I would call your supplier and talk with them about it. If you buy a kit, you should not have to do something like that, it should be ready to use.

As far as the removeable fighting butt is concerned, I'm doing my first one now, so I can't offer any advice that would be worth much, but the peices I got weren't too hard to figure out.

Hey, thanks for responding. As far as I can tell, this is not a flush fitting reel seat. However, the kit did not come with the handle inletted, or an extra cork ring like I am used to. As far as the removable fighting butt, I've not done one before either, but it's a friends rod and he wants it. Anyway, thanks for the info.
Ryan

Ryan,
From the pictures I have of the St Croix reelseats it looks like your handle kit is built on a seat similar to the Pac Bay A7 or A8 which are not inletted into the cork. Not a particularly big fan of removable butts as they invariable end up installed in the reelseat all the time. The customer can never find the buttcap to fill the hole when the fighting butt is not in place. Just an extra piece to lose and extra weight on the rod.