doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Changing LOP

Gentlemen, how have you dealt with the overly short standard stock LOP that comes with your pre WWII Fox? Most Foxes come with a LOP of 13"-14" and most of us 6' or taller need a LOP of 14 1/2" - 15 1/2". Can you add a pad of an 1 1/2" to the butt without it being wobbly or looking stupid?

Jim

Well, you can add the pad without it being wobbly, but whether or not it looks stupid is kind of up to personal taste...Geo

adding a pad may change the balance of the gun such that it will no longer shoot where you think it should. scabbing on wood is a better idea. email me privately for a picture of a professional wood extension job.

FairChase, I'm going to post a picture of a properly done wood extension. This extension was done in England but there are some workmen in this country that are equally capable, Dennis Earl Smith comes to mind. I'm sure there are others that do fine work also. I do not do this type of work and have no pig in this party.

A recoil pad can also be added without changing the balance of the gun by removing wood from the butt of the stock if needed.

There are some people that can do wood extensions and I applaud them. I bought this Specialty Grade 12 ga., everything about it was great, nice crisp engraving, Hunter One-Trigger, ejectors, nice barrels, but the lop was 12 3/4" to the end of wood. Someone cut it and added a Pachmyer De-excelorator pad that was 1 1/2" long and just that alone weighed close to half a pound.
I added a piece of walnut that was not grain orientated and tried to blend the colors and fauxed some grain. I like it better than the recoil pad, and there are only two screws holding it on if I get some better grained walnut in the future.

No one will believe this but the black rubber donuts from Brownell actually look pretty good when properly faired to the stock contours and a normal 1/2 to 3/4" pad added. If you're going to add a wood extension, just do it; I'm not particularly impressed by the invisible joints produced by fauxing, inking, glazing, micro-inlays, etc.

jack

Doug that is stunning work. Also, by having a specular highlight (glare) on the stock, it really allows you to appreciate how seamless the joined extension is.

JDW & all,
If a little more time and forethought had been taken with your wood extension you can now see how much better it could have been.
If that extension had been fitted 180 degrees the grain would have been a much better match.A little colour and a bit more care blending and it would have been, how do you guys say 'durn perty'

You can also cover an extension and pad with leather. If you take your time you can get very good results even with a inch and a half pad. Getting the leather around the toe is the tough part with that much leather to bring to the base but it can be done. Using the right leather dye makes a lot of difference.

Regards, Gordon

salopian,
Unfortunately the length of the extension wood was very close to the finished stock and the grain orientation wasn't long enough in the toe to do this and that is why it is "upside down".
When you have grain that is running like this one, you almost have to put the other piece on a 45 degree angle to match the stock grain.
I'll live with this for awhile, I just didn't like the looks of that recoil pad. I'm not fond of recoil pads to begin with.

The leather is a nice idea, but then you have to form the extension smaller to allow the leather to be flush with the stock. And I agree the toe would be hard to do. The leather would almost have to be wet (damp) to let it shrink to fit tight.

Thanks for your responses. This is a gun I am interested in and as you can see it has a fairly large buttpad already. It has a 14 1/2 LOP as is and I may need to add another 1/2" to that. What would be the best way to handle that or, how would you do it?

Thanks
Jim

Pachmayr, now owned by Lyman makes beautiful leather slip on pads with a velcro tab.....in several colors....they look professional and they work for the tall guys as I'm 6'-4.5"....they come in three sizes, I believe...I have one small and use it on all my guns, because recoil pads are way too ugly for my taste....I also use the same pad on 45-70 and larger recoiling guns...great for
comfort and fit-- one can just slip it on another gun and "get to gettin'"....

Best Regards,

I'd have it converted to double triggers. That would give me the extra half inch LOP and get the right triggers setup at the same time.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

sv

FairChase:

I'm 6'3" and have installed a number of black extensions on the guns I have refinished. They work fine but in my opinion I think the wood ones look much better. I will be putting wood extensions on some in the future. One good source of wood extensions is your local gun smith. There are a lot of guys out there that are vertically challenged and need to have their stocks shortened. I picked up two pieces recently that were cut off stocks for guys that do a lot of trap shooting. Nice walnut of about 1/2" thick.

I would suggest patterning the gun before you put an extension on it. You may find that it shoots just fine the way it is. Once you put an extension on it, your cheek comes down on the stock in a differant position and the point of impact will change. This is very evident if the stock has some cast. At that point you may need to bend the stock.

Up to an 1" in depth I am aesthetically comfortable with a recoil pad. Over that I wouldn't bother - better off spending the money on having a really nice slip on leather pad, which doesn't look awful, can be readily removed for other shooters and can be minutely adjusted by placing cut pieces of car or foam inside.

IMHO a recoil pad or any extension over an 1" looks just wrong - unless a perfect job is done as per Doug Mann's perfect stock!!!!

Sew a pocket inside the shoulder of your shooting vest for a 1/2" pad.

Tom C makes an excellent point about shooting before doing any alterations. I once bought a very light 20 ga. 3" mag. that was easily an inch too short for me. I almost couldn't miss with that gun, but it got a good running start at my shoulder and beat me worse than any 12 ga. I put on a recoil pad and spacer and immediately began shooting underneath targets. That was no fun either so I removed the pad and accepted the recoil 'till I gave the gun to my sister.

Thanks for the advise, I like the idea of the slip on but have a question. Will a leather slip-on stain or discolor the stock?

If not, who makes a good slip-on.

Jim