RHP,
I highly recommend you buy a little 100 page book by Michael Yardley entitled, Gunfitting.
http://www.amazon.com/Gunfitting-Perfect...ords=gunfittingIt details the effects of the various dimensions on features of a gunstock.
2 7/8" is a large drop at the heel (DAH) in todays trends, but not necessarily a showstopper for a lot of shooters. The heel dimension alone doesn't tell the whole story on the effective drop. It is a combination of at least a few dimensions, drop at the comb (DAC) (front of the comb), drop at the heel, cast, and to some lessor degree, the pitch.
Your cheek doesn't rest on either the front of the comb nor the heel. Depending on a lot of things, it's somewhere in between.
A 2 7/8" DAH combined with a 1 1/2" DAC may not be unacceptable for a person, but a 2 7/8" DAH with a 1 7/8" DAC may not work for the same person.
And there are solutions to the 'too much drop' issue. You can have a leather strap-on comb riser, you can have the stock bent, or you can have it restocked.
Bending has a risk of breaking the stock. But perfectly aligned grain in the wrist will provide a better probability that bending won't break the stock (check for grain alignment in the pix before buying, if bending is your plan).
