doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Making my own leather covered recoil pads

I have to recognise that I was not aware about recoil pads covered in leather. Here in Spain they are not used and there is no tradition. I asked for them to local gunsmith's, but no one had ever made them....

I was fascinated by the Dewey's article on how he makes them, so I had to give it a try....


https://shootingsportsman.com/leatherpad/

Also Larry Potter has a great video



I bought some pig skin, about 0,5mm thickness and made some tests.

It is very hard to make it without wrinkles, but yes, it can be done with some practice and some tips:
-always fix the pad to a wood held in a strong vice
-Use an automatic stapler to fix the leather
-Use rubber tube to wrap strongly around it
-Soak leather in hot water for an hour, not very hot, but hot.
-Important, extreme tips for curved in the pad are your enemy... Specially the classic pointed lower one. All leather pads I see have much much less pointed, rather curved. This makes it far easier

I post some images of my progress , still need to make the plugs, but so far I am happy and wanted to share