I came across a French SxS at a local store that had a 1" wood extension. The wood matched but the grain did not and the joint is very obvious. The length is perfect for me. Would you remove the wood and replace it with a 1" rubber but pad? or leave it as is? I don't have pics for it.

If it fits you well and you shoot it well, leave it be and just enjoy it. I use to try to make everything perfect but 80 plus years have also bought me that it is ok to accept some imperfections (as in people too) and enjoy8 it for what it is. JMHO.

While it would cost more than the pad, assuming the gun is otherwise worth it, I might have Mark Larson do a faux grain paint job on it. He did an extension and grain upgrade on a British SLE for me and it is spectacular. The joint is completely invisible.

Depends on how much you want to spend and how much it bothers you.

That is a great idea Remington40x however I would be upside down on the gun. It is not an expensive gun. Just one that appeals to me right now. If I shoot it well it is a keeper but if I don't then it goes. Thanks.

Walt, thanks for your wisdom. Putting on a pad is something I would enjoy doing if it makes sense. It is a small investment of time and money. I think the way it looks bothers me although I like the gun. I could live with it the way it is also. Winter is coming and some metal cleaning and wood refinishing might also be in order if I get it.

I was wondering how others feel about it. It is a decent job but it is obvious. We have all seen similar, maybe done by the local gunsmith as opposed to the stockmaker. Which looks better, the 1" extension or the pad?

I would take it off. A proper pad always looks better than a wood extension in my book.

I don't like pads at all, but if I have to pad a gun to get the right LOP, I think it might look better with a 1/4" spacer and then a 3/4" pad. My feeling is that the pad is less of a sore thumb if it's not as thick.

Is the wooden butt checkered? I feel like that could be nice, especially if there is a staunch color difference between the two wood types. Or does the gun have a plate on the end of the extension?

Like Replacement said above, I'd go with a 1/4" spacer and then a 3/4" pad. 1" of pad is a bit much visually.

I'd go with a lace on leather pad and forget about it.

When you want to get rid of the gun, take it off and send it down the road and keep the pad for the next gun.

The gun has a plate, not checkered.

I have had wood extensions checkered with the pad left on. A checkering line disguises the joint and any wood mismatch.

Ed, do you have any pics?

I vaguely recall Mark Larson or his brother doing some interesting and original effects on stocks but I have no idea how to find ten year old pictures.

Amen.

SRH

I would also cut off the extension and add a pad. I recently did this on a LC Smith Specialty grade 20 gauge with 32” barrels.
It Looks so much nicer. It had a well fitted wood extension but still looked like a wart on such a nice gun.
Found and purchased an old stock new Hawkins pad for $35.00 and another $55.00 a local custom gun shop cut off the extension and fitted the pad.
At $90.00 it was an easy decision.

I'd love to see pics of that Smith, GR. I've got a thing for long barreled small bores................heck, I've got a thing for long barreled 12s, too. But, you know what I mean.

I've got a 32" 16 ga. Smith that I dearly love to shoot on crows and doves.

SRH

If I understand it right, cutting off the spacer and adding a 1" rubber pad would work. Why not cut it off, add a plastic or metal plate that looks right, and use a slip on rubber pad for the correct length? I use to put on 1 or 1 1/2" pads from CS for the correct length. Then found out they were a bit long in the winter. Now I just use leather or rubber slip on pads. I even made up some 1/8" leather spacers that go in the pads to fine tune them for length.

This is a Specialty Grade FW 16 that had a pad added and was still only 12 1/2" LOP. I'm not a fan of recoil pads, so I found a piece of walnut and attached it with 2 wood screws, no glue, if I decide to take it off no problem. Plus I could not afford to have the stock replaced it would cost more than the gun and then some.


While you can see the line, to me it looks better than any recoil pad with a plastic extension. The LOP is now 14 1/4".

Here you go Stan. I have a VH Parker 20 with 32” barrels. I too love long barrels.

That is a waaay above average job of matching the wood grain and color, David. With some careful work I believe that joint line could be completely hidden. AnVery few extensions I've ever seen done were that well planned and executed. Any chance that was the original piece that was sawed off, and put back on? But, I'd still have to slip a KickKiller later pad onto it, simply to get it out to at least 14 3/4".

GR, thank you for the pic. With two 32" "twenties", I'd say you do have a thing for the long barreled smallbores. What do you use the two guns for? Do you get to give them workouts on doves?

SRH

Stan, that piece of walnut is not what was cut off but a piece that I had laying around. A black tip Sharpie helped with some of the grain.

As to L.C. Smith 16 and 20 gauge guns having 32 in barrels, there weren't many made. A club in California I believe it was the Widgeon Club, where quite a few of the members shot both Parker and Smith's 20 gauge with 32" barrels. Your field grade was one of 220 out of 38,678 made, and Ghostrider's 20 there were 133 made of out 30,924. They are at a premium in the small gauges. There was one 34" barrel made in a 12 gauge but I don't think it has surfaced at least I haven't heard it mentioned.
Short story, there is a friend in Louisiana who's uncle market hunted ducks and he shot a Ideal grade 16 with 32" barrels. When this friend asked his uncle how many ducks he shot with it, the uncle said a trunk full. The friend thought he meant a car's trunk but it was a box car full of ducks. The island that they shot from was not too far from a train railway and the train would stop and take the ducks and bring them to Baton Rouge.
Gun is still as tight as can be and he has brought it to the Southern SXS and wrote an article that I put into our Journal.

If you have the need to be rid of the extension, nothing would look better than a leather covered pad, but the expense of a well done installation might startle you. I would shoot the gun as is, warts and all imperfections as is. If a gun can put up with my shooting imperfections; I can live with its cosmetic imperfections. Gil

Stan I have used both 20’s quit a few times on dove and they really swing nice. I have shot a few duck and Band-tailed pigeons. The Parker also helped me take a turkey in New Mexico this year.

I wanted to post one of my favorite pictures of my first Band-tailed pigeons. I only straighten the pigeons feathers and took a picture where he laid and placed the 20 beside him. Picture turned out really nice for a IPhone.

Gil it has had the extension removed which also shortened the LOP which was too long for me.
I did debate about installing a leather pad but since the LCS Specialty grades were offered with Hawkins pads I ended up going that route.
Gil you are right about how nice a leather pad looks. I had Doug Mann do a leather pad on a DH 28 gauge that lettered as having a pad. His price was fair and the pad looked excellent and really added to the Parker.

A wood extension with grain and figure that doesn't match or a conspicuous line between the extension and the original stock may be a "wart on the gun", high quality extensions can look extremely good. John Foster in the UK did some beautiful ones. Pete Kogut in New Hampshire did a couple of fine ones for me, but I do not know if he still does extensions. Currently, Mark Larson in Tacoma Washington does the finest work of this kind. The joint between the extension and the stock is seamless and, with his skills as an artist, Mark perfectly matches the grain and figure. On work he has done for me, it takes a lot of study to see that there is an extension, rather than a 14 7/8" original stock. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and people may have different preferences, but you can see Mark's work by Googling Mark Larson Gun Art.

Low value guns are all about function not beauty. That’s because you can just dump so much money into making them beautiful you end up hating them because you regret spending too much on them. So you have two economical choices. Take the extension off and add a pad or just shoot it as it is. Call it your rainy day gun. I have got a few of them. Funny thing is that I don’t shoot very much in the rain but I still have them.

sometimes slip on pads will cover the wood extension and give you padding as well. simple but effective.

Builder - check your PMs.

Ed