Dave,
Can you carify "leather covered?"
To most that suggests a pad completely wrapped in leather, seamlessly down the sides and tucked between the base and the stock. The pros charge $250+ for such a job. It's basically an artsy affectation and thus the cost, though it's beyond me why it should take a pro 5 hours to make one.
Is your pad a rubber one with a piece of leather glued to the face? I've seen those "leather faced" ones on early 680 Berettas. If so, it's no more valuable than a new $30 Pachmayr and that might figure into how you approach the job.
Well, I have figured out a few things...
The pad has a thin black plastic spacer between the wood and the leather, so the leather is NOT tucked underneath right up against the wood. Is this one of the $300 jobbies? It certainly looks professional, but I can't imagine why you'd make something like that totally permanent?
The pad is definitely screwed into the stock, but the screw holes are covered by the leather--no plugs or anything.
I have also figured out that it's going to take some serious doing to get this to fit me...even with a velcro-on leather pad, the stock is still 3/4 inch too short, and has significantly more drop than I'm used to. It's a very light gun so it's obviously not easy to shoot consistently well for a shotgunner of my caliber...based on it not fitting me worth a darn, I'm having trouble deciding whether it's a keeper or not.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to temporarily get this to fit me so that I might get a better handle on how I will like this gun once it fits me?? 3/4" piece of wood inside the leather velcro-on pad?? How can I temporarily raise the comb without marring the finish? And will this elongated and raised rig be consistent enough to get a good feel for the gun? It will certainly wreak havoc with the balance...
Thoughts?
