Has anyone had a gun fitting and stock made by JJ Perodeau? Any good or bad experiences with him, or recommendations for alternatives? The gun would be a Miroku A&D boxlock, if that changes things.

For reference I'm 6'8" with a long neck and long arms so no factory gun even comes close to fitting me. To get anything resembling a good fit I'm going to need a fitted stock, I reckon.

Jim Greenwood in Kansas is the best stock fitter I know of. He makes a pattern stock first to make sure it’s right for you. He’s a pro. Champlin’s in Enid have a good reputation and I’ve made some deals with George, but I have no experience with the gunsmith, JJ but he has a good reputation.

Find someone close to you wherever you live in Illinois so you can drive in less than a day. Google is your friend and Trapshooters.com will get you numerous recommendations. There are a lot of guys out there who do this as a sideline and are relatively unknown in the wider world. Many do excellent work for less than the price of a nationally known stocker.

Greenwood looks like a good option, I'll get in touch with him and see what he thinks.


I live within an easy day's drive of Doug Mann, who's listed in the gunmaker's guild directory. Has anyone had any work done by him? I see some work done by him on various sites but can't tell if he does fitting as well.

I don't know if Doug Mann does fitting but he is and excellent stockmaker and his checkering is second to none. A fine gentleman, but busy.

I did not know Jim Greenwood did stock fitting. When he was in Augusta, KS he did an excellent job bending some stocks to measure after Mike Murphy fitted me. Jim does great work.

I have done business with JJ Perodeau and can only say great things, he is a real complete professional.

One thing you could consider as an intermediate step from the fitting is stock bending and a wood extension in order to hunt and shoot the gun a bit to see how the dimensions work.

Another consideration is that the fitting of a gun is in some respects individual to the gun, weight, balance, barrel length, and choking all play a part. I have found that similar but still different dimensions work equally well on different guns.

Looking at Greenwood's site, it's a bit ambiguous as to whether or not he actually does the fitting. I sent a message to him asking whether he does that or just the stock building. If nothing else it looks like Mike Murphy may be an option - very close to Greenwood, both near Augusta.

I'll have to call up Champlin tomorrow and get a better picture of what the relationship between him and JJ is. The "Services" list on his page is word-for-word identical to that of JJ's own site, so I'm thinking that Champlin delegates 100% of his smithing work over to JJ. The site says they have a try gun they can use; that'd be helpful considering just about every gun on the market is too darn short for me! Champlin had a lovely W&C Scott hammergun that I called over to buy (with the intention of getting a new stock made) only to find out it'd already sold months ago and the listing had never been taken down!


I can't seem to find pricing info for wood extensions out there - how much do they typically run? At some point it's got to start approaching the "buy once, cry once" jump up to a new stock. This gun will be used for sporting clays and the occasional skeet round. I know O/Us are theoretically better and that's what everyone my age is shooting, but I've picked up my father's weak spot for SxSs

Check with Mark Larson, if you're even considering a wood butt extension. He's as good as they come at doing it and making it look as if it were one piece. Go here and look through his gallery of before and after pictures.

www.marklarsongunart.com

SRH

Do yourself a favor and order from Amazon Rollin Oswald’s Stockfitters Bible. It will help you self-diagnose stock fit problems. Great reference book. Also, keep in mind (and this may not apply to you) but any stocker will charge at the minimum $3-3.5k for a stock off a duplicator, not including wood. A Miroku SxS is a good gun, but if you go with a Greenwood or a Doug Mann they will put a serious hole in your wallet and you will be way upside down on your initial cost. Been there and done that

I have had great luck doing a “butt transplant” to achieve a stock that fits me. I have used good guns that have had badly altered stocks to make a new stock that fits my 6’5” frame. Kieth Kearcher did several for me, using some stock blanks I accumulated over the years. Nice to have a good stock that fits. I think that Keith has retired, but others can do the work, which is shown in McIntosh’s book.

The man asked about JJ Perodeau at Champlin Arms. Do you think he will be any cheaper than the other stockers mentioned? I doubt it. It sounded as though Kip wanted a new stock made and a fitting. That’s expensive. If Kip wants it done on the cheap, then the cheap way to go is use 10 spacers and then either file on the comb or add some moleskin. On the other hand, if he wants a new stock and an expert gun fitting, then go to a pro and expect to pay for the service. To me, an expert gun fitter is worth paying for.

I'd second Darryl's thoughts about doing a butt-transplant versus complete restocking. And by the time you pay the costs for adding a wood extension, possibly bending the stock, and adding another $800.00 or so for fake grain painting to cover the glue joint that will often reappear as the wood shrinks and swells... then you are well on your way to the price of a complete restocking job. And if you go that far, you will be very upside-down on a Miroku boxlock.

Another nice thing about the butt-transplant option is that you can often find a very nice and high quality blank for far less money simply because it may be a bit too short for doing a complete restock job. If you can beg, borrow, or buy a copy of Shotgun Technicana, there is a very good description of the process.

If I own the gun for years, $3k (which is the starting rate listed on JJ's site for a boxlock restocking) isn't a whole lot of money - especially if it fits me properly, an achievement that no other guns I own hold at the moment. I may get some wood extensions for the comb and butt to start with, it'll make it into a bit of a Franken-gun but it would provide enough material to allow the fitting to be done on that gun itself. Larson's faux-grain looks pretty good in photos, if I decide to hold off on restocking for an extended period of time I can have it painted up and blended properly.

I'm wary of self diagnosing because I've almost certainly picked up some bad mounting habits as a result of shooting nothing short guns, I'd really prefer someone who knows what they're doing to help fix issues like that and get me sorted out.