doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Rubber recoil pads are ugly!

Jagermeister, I like! LOL

Jim, a "well fitted" leather covered pad is such a rarity as to be irrelevant. I have two "well fitted" leather covered pad and have seen dozens, if not hundreds of leather covered pad with problems.

I felt likewise re: recoil pads up until the last Mauser I built. On a whim (and with a casual nod to my arthritic shoulder) I stuck a 1/2" thick solid red rubber pad on it (about half of the thickness being taken up by the black spacer/backer). Lo and behold- not bad to the eye after all. All-in-all, for sheer elegance, I thing the Niedner-style plate looks best though.

I am in the beginning stages of designing my own buttplate. Below is my first attempt at a design so don't judge too harshly. The design is a cross of the M70 and the one detailed on the Stoeger drawing of a 1903 done by Whelen. I have a number of iterations to go through as I fine tune it, however I think it's coming along.

I am no cognoscenti, but I spend a lot of time looking at buttplates and much more time shooting with them in all manner of positions and many different game and games, so I have lots of opinions (worth whatever you make of them).

Aesthetically, I do not care for a curved plate that meets the stock in a straight line. It looks to me like a "lazy man's" design (no offence intended) that makes it easy and cheap to install but nothing else.

I also like a lot of toe in a stock and thus a lot of curve to the plate for heavy calibers, so that there is plenty of vertical surface area to absorb shock, but the toe for helping with the hold and fit.

Just a considered opinion of one admitted buttplate snob.

Hmm, the planned material for the plate is horn....

Just thinking that in the percussion days there were no pads. The butt plates were wide and long as in my 4 bore with nearly a 2" wide plate to give more surface area.
Pads were added in the post percussion era as the rifles became lighter and the stocks were slimmer - they needed something to help tame the recoil. So, I'd say they're for function first and appearance second.

I have only one early custom rifle with a pad. It was a well worn and hardened Jostam Hi Gun on a 1934 Oberlies Springfield. I replaced it with a Griffin and Howe Silver repro, an excellent pad for a big gun. I had a great Maryland stockmaker face it in dark brown leather and leather cover the plugs. It is quite elegant and a cheaper alternative to a leather covered pad, something that is seldom done well. The Griffin and Howe pad ages well in a few years after installation.

The design is progressing:

and for those who want a curve:

Let me say this, the design is a long way from done.

Rick W,


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