Installing Recoil Pads and Butt Plates on Finished Gunstocks

Installing a recoil pad or butt plate on a finished wood or composite stock might seem simple, but can actually be one of the most exacting jobs in gun work. To accomplish this correctly and produce a very close fit will require attention to details and some careful hand fitting. There are several priorities that are important to the success of this type of project.

First, you must prepare the stock; and throughout the alteration, installation, and reassembly process you must be extremely careful to avoid scratching or marring the finish on the stock. The new recoil pad or buttplate must be shaped while separated from the finished stock, but the final fit must appear as if the pad were formed and contoured as an integral part the stock. The lines of the stock must continue to flow smoothly to the back of the new recoil pad or plate.

And finally, the fit and balance of the gun must work for your customer for whatever type of shooting he intends to do. Keeping these priorities in mind, in this article I’ll go through the procedure I use most often. Getting Started I start by measuring the existing length of pull and record it on the work order. I don’t want to get too far into proper gun fit here, but this is the time to adjust the length of pull and pitch. The stock may have to be shortened or pad spacers may have to be added.

Molded or composite stocks must be handled differently from wood gunstocks. On occasion, I’ve had to make a temporary softwood pad for a shotgun, starting on the thick side, and have the customer shoot at a patterning plate. Hopefully this drawn out procedure will not be required. Once the finished dimensions are determined, remove the stock from the firearm and determine the amount of material to be removed, if any.

I don’t usually cut the stock at this point; it’s best to have the new pad on hand before any cutting is done. Place the end of the stock on a sheet of paper and trace around it. Measure and select the new pad or plate from this paper template. Order recoil pads large enough to carry all stock contours to the end of the pad, but not so large that when grinding, so much material has to be removed that it results in cutting into the interior of the new pad and destroying it.

Most manufacturers of recoil pads provide good installation and sizing instructions with their products. If the stock is to be made longer, spacers will have to be added to the front of the new pad. These are bonded and fastened to the front of the recoil pad Also shown are helpful tools including a machinist’s protractor, a square, hand sanding blocks, and a "broken-in" 80-grit sanding belt.

The tool is then readjusted for step two, grinding the toe. Here, the jig is positioned here to shape the sides of a recoil pad or butt plate. with additional small, countersunk flat-head screws. The spacers can now be finished as if they were apart of the pad. If too many spacers are required, the recoil pad can become quite large and the balance of the gun can change. Take this into consideration. Longer pad-attachment screws will also be required.

The Brownells catalog has a good assortment of all required components. Remember to select pads and plates that complement the firearm; conservative and simple usually looks and works best. I use two or three layers of clear packaging tape wrapped tightly and smoothly around the back of the stock. A black felt tip pen is used to mark the correct cutoff line on the tape. I also pad the sides of the stock with cardboard and use wood shims to raise the grip or hand area of the stock and secure all of this with tape.

I want my cut to be as close to perpendicular to the center plane of the stock as possible. If pitch adjustment is required, a spacer may be needed at the comb area. I now drill out the old screw holes to 1/4- or 5/16-inch diameter, being certain to control the drill so it doesn’t break through at the toe area of the stock. Than use hardwood dowels and exterior glue to fill the holes when working with a wood stock. Don’t hammer wood dowels into the holes, since it’s possible to crack or split a wood stock.

A slip fit is all that is required. I use a fiberglass filler for composite stocks. Some injection-molded plastic or composite gunstocks will not permit shortening or repositioning of screw holes due to their design. If this is the case, you will have to put new holes in the pad to match the holes in the stock. This can become involved and careful measurements are required. You can order butt plates and some pads without holes, which makes things easier.

Now this taped up assembly goes into a 10-inch power miter box. Some repositioning may be required to get the cut in the right place. I usually cut the stock about .050 inch on the long side. The cut is made from the side of the stock, with one clean slow pass, right on through. The blade is a carbide-toothed, precision molding blade (which has all of its teeth), and is razor sharp. Get a good grip on the work. No slips allowed here.

I then hand sand the butt to achieve symmetry or equal angles on both sides of the stock. This requires a little tedious and careful sanding with a course abrasive to get things perfectly flat. Typically, most pads require a perfectly flat fit, but if a curved butt is involved, plastic or hard-rubber buttplates can be heated in boiling water and can be hand formed to the required contour (while wearing leather gloves). This will not work with thick recoil pads.

Don’t attempt to bend pads cold; they’re sure to break. The front face of new recoil pads must be sanded flat. I use a flat steel or granite surface plate, with 100-grit aluminum-oxide paper on top of the plate to straight-line sand the face of the pad perfectly flat. The back of the stock must also be worked to a perfectly flat plane. If the end of the stock is not ground perfectly flat, the pad will be drawn into any hollow areas and a gap around the edges will be apparent.

Use a straightedge and keep at it for a good fit. The pad is installed per the manufacturers instructions. Position and drill the new holes in the stock. Be certain to position the pad so you have enough material for all stock contours to be carried out. Everything should be centered side to side. Attach the pad and tighten the screws. Look for any gaps between the pad and stock, and correct with additional sanding if required.

Now stand the stock up and, using a very sharp drafting pencil or scriber, trace a clear, sharp line around the front face of the pad. You can ignore the thickness of the clear tape when

The sheetmetal screws on the left attach the spacers to the front of the pad. The long screws on the right then attach the entire assembly to the stock. scribing this line’unless you put it on six layers thick. Remove the pad from the stock. Grinding the Pad I use a commercial sanding fixture for "off-the-stock" recoil-pad shaping. B- Square, Miles Gilbert, and Brownells offer a selection. You usually get what you pay for here. These little fixtures position the recoil or butt pad as if it were on the stock.

The back of the pad goes against the fixture support bar. Three positions are required for grinding a pad. If you are working with a curved pad, a spacer in the middle for better support may be required. The instructions that come with these fixtures are easy to understand. You start with the top or comb end of the pad. The base of the fixture is held against the butt. A medium-size square is laid on the comb, and the front of the recoil pad (screwed to the fixture bar) is squared up.

Then the fixturebar locking screw is tightened, and you are ready to start grinding the top of the pad to the scribe line. You then set the square up on the bottom of the stock, adjust the fixture, and grind the bottom or toe end of the pad. I then position the fixture bar approximately parallel to its base and finish up the sides of the pad. There is no adjustment on these fixtures to permit grinding side draft on the sides of the pad.

Unless a thick stack of spacers or thick pad is being fitted, this will usually not be a problem. However, I always leave a little extra pad on the sides to allow hand sanding the sides of the pad. Don’t get carried away and grind off the scribe line. For shaping, I use a slightly worn 60- or 80-grit two-inch-wide belt, mounted on a small belt sander. Then I finish up on a 10-inch disk sander with 80-grit abrasive. Coarser abrasives can get aggressive and can tear or distort some pads.

Use a very light feed or pressure with coarser abrasives. Check for any distortion or tear- Some customers will prefer highgloss buffed edges as shown in this photo. ing before you get close to the scribe line. The base plate of the sander must be adjusted to produce an accurate 90-degree cut. This is important. Set this up with a scrap wood block. Some belt sanders "set back" excessively against the belt backer plate as the work is pushed into the belt.

This can produce a curved rather than a flat surface on the work. Disk sanders have a stiffer working face. The fixture is held at the base, and using moderate pressure, is fed into the belt or disk. Keep the work moving and keep the base of the fixture down on the work base of the machine. Do not let it bounce around or ride up on rubber dust. Clean the work plate as required. The pad material is removed quickly so pay attention to that scribe line.

I use a shield behind the sander made of folded-up cardboard to confine most of the rubber or plastic dust. Wear your safety glasses, dust mask, shop apron, long sleeves, and pants. Rubber dust will get up to your elbows and even into your shoes. A good shop vacuum is a must for clean up. Hand-sanding of rubber recoil pads is time-consuming, but is essential to get a really good fit. I use the "fit and sand a little more" method. When you get close to the final fit, carefully remove the protective tape from the

Notice how all stock contours carry out to the end of the recoil pad. The pad is the same thickness on both sides. end of the stock. Hold the pad on, check it, and sand as required. I use an 80-or 100-grit abrasive paper with a small wood sanding block for this final sanding. I also sand around, or top to bottom on pads and plates. I don’t like to see the sanding lines on the black pad-support section. The tops of recoil pads and back edges should have a small radius.

If sporting clays is your customer’s game, I put more of a radius or angle on the top. I always fine sand and buff the edges of plastic butt pads, and I polish and black-oxide steel butt plates. When you’re sanding the sides of pads and plates, be careful not to round off the front edges where they attach to the stock. Reassembly When you have a perfect fit all around with the proper contours and radiuses, it’s time to assemble things. Vacuum or blow out the rubber dust stuck in the pad.

I always stain and seal the end grain of wood gunstocks. When this is dry, a few spots of contact cement or varnish are used between the pad and the stock to prevent any movement. Reassemble the stock to the gun using anti-seize compound or perhaps a semipermanent threadlocking compound on the stock-bolt threads and fasteners. Use the correct torque on all fasteners. Do not split or crack the stock by over tightening. Now you can mount the pad and tighten the screws.

I use a small amount of silicone grease on the screws and on the end of the Phillips screwdriver to ease the friction in thick rubber recoil pads. I also use the smallest-diameter screwdriver shank that will work with the screws. You don’t want see any trace of the holes in the back of a rubber recoil pad once the screws are installed. Before final tightening of the screws, check for fit all around. It is sometimes possible to shift pads very slightly to achieve that perfect fit.

Always be careful not to mar the gunstock finish. A Few Additional Tips Good lighting at the sander is important. When grinding rubber on a belt or disk sander, use a light pressure to keep the rubber from distorting under grinding pressure. Should you run into a very soft pad material you can put the fixture and mounted pad in a freezer for awhile, and then proceed quickly with the sanding procedure.

A light coat of silicone grease applied and then wiped off will gloss up a rubber pad and make it a bit more supple for awhile. Leather-covered recoil or butt pads are fitted in an entirely different manner. The cover is put over a sized, internal section. If you must have one of these for a fine, English double, try to get one from the gun manufacture that will fit the firearm. Don’t overtighten the attachment screws on plastic or wood buttplates excessively, as splitting or cracking can occur.

Hardwood checkered butt plates look very nice, but are impractical, in my opinion. They are easily damaged and make the butt of the firearm very slippery; if you lean the gun up against something, it’s likely to take a tumble. Stocks can be cut off with a handsaw, but be very careful about edge chipping. (Masking tape might help.) Carefully holding the butt against a disk or belt sander will remove material faster, but I have always felt some hand sanding was required to get things perfectly flat and symmetrical.

After you do 20 or 30 pad installations, the process gets easier and you can proceed more quickly and with more confidence. It would also be better, of course, if your early attempts at this work were not performed on someone’s $60,000 imported game or trap gun. I