Doverman,

I presume your gun is a reasonable age, if so then the sticky problem may be due to the pad breaking down with age. Not an easy problem to solve without replacing the entire pad, however you could try a leather lace on stock boot. They don't look very pretty and they do add about 1/8th of an inch to the LOP if they're unpadded.

I don't believe that varnish would work, rubber butt plates are slightly flexible and that could cause the varnish to crack and peel off.

Harry

Biology is the only science where multiplication can be achieved by division.