Taming Slug Guns

One of my earliest memories involves a visit to the farm in rural Arkansas where my dad grew up. My grandfather kept an old Bay State break open .410 shotgun handy to add the occasional rabbit or squirrel to the dinner table. For whatever reason, I was fascinated and granddad offered to let me shoot it. He picked up a metal paint can lid from the barn and set it up in an open field. He knelt down next to me and, while holding the shotgun under my arm, had me pull the trigger.

I was overwhelmed by the blast and delighted by the million holes (or so it seemed) that had magically appeared in that old can lid. Down deep he must have realized what a life changing experience this had been and told me the shotgun would be given to me when he died. A few months later, true to his word, the shotgun was mine. I was four years old. Recently, I decided to return to my roots and put together a nice single barrel slug gun for deer hunting.

It would be light weight for long stalks and rifled for best accuracy. I searched for something simpler, lighter and, with my tiny budget, cheap. A gun show was coming up and I figured there should be an excellent chance of finding a good, used shotgun for less than $100. Imagine my surprise when I spotted anew Rossi 12 gauge single shot for only a few more dollars! When I showed the shotgun to fellow gunsmith Verne Trester, he asked if I had gotten the chance to shoot it.

I told him no. "Good," he replied, "because it would have kicked the (expletive deleted) out of you." That brings up an area seldom considered: Proper gun fit, which applies to both rifles and shotguns. For me at least, the fit felt all wrong. Verne explained the angle of the rear portion of the stock would serve to make the kick feel worse than it needed to be. The first and most commonly addressed dimension is length of pull.

This is the measurement from the center of the trigger to the rear of the butt plate or recoil pad half way between the top of the stock (heel) and bottom (toe.) Correct length of pull is not only an aid in hitting the target but shooter comfort as well. For example, a stock which is too long will slide from the shoulder onto the arm muscle and can cause bruising (and flinching.) In the process of hurting the shooter, this condition also has a tendency to cause the shot to go left of the target.

A stock which is too short can make the shot miss because the muzzle is being pulled to the right. Worst of all, if the shooter tries to compensate for a short stock by not pulling it tightly into his shoulder, the shotgun gets a "running start" and makes the kick seem even harder. Before any alterations are begun, remove the butt plate or recoil pad, or add thickness (pieces from a cheap yard stick can be sawed to length and taped to the end of the stock) for a final check.

The gun should be raised into position and the shooter can discover if the fit appears to be better. It will help speed the process of finding the correct length if the gun can be test fired. The shooter should aim at a dot in the center of a large piece of cardboard. This is similar to patterning but the goal is to have the aiming point in the center of all the little holes or the one great big hole. This will show if the gun hits where it is pointed or if adjustments will be required.

The gun may or may not have a recoil pad, so shooter comfort is quite important for getting correct feedback. I recommend Winchester Featherlite shotshells using a light load of shot and powder to keep recoil and noise to a minimum. For slugs, use "tactical" or other reduced recoil ammo. I kept in mind the purpose for this gun and wore heavy clothing, specifically, my hunting coveralls. On the other hand, a duck hunting shotgun should be fitted while the shooter wears chest waders.

Different shooting conditions dictate different lengths of pull.

Field guns should generally have a slightly shorter stock as it makes mounting the gun from a carrying position much quicker, while the trap shooter and other target games have the luxury of having the gun already in place before hollering "pull." When the correct dimension is found the stock can be modified by cutting, adding a recoil pad (they come in a variety of thicknesses) or butt stock spacers (hard plastic pieces designed to add length.) Next are two additional measurements: The height of the comb (top of the stock) and the angle (pitch) of the butt plate.

A correctly dimensioned comb should allow the shooter to get a good sight picture without head lifting or having to shove their face into the stock. If the comb is too high, wood can be removed; if too low, install a comb raising kit. The comb raising kit is a neoprene pad with different thickness inserts to adjust the height. It easily slides into place making the adjustment process a quick one. This item also slightly softens the feel of recoil against the shooter’s face.

Another cheapo idea is to trim apiece of two by four, cut the top portion of the stock down approximately 1.5 inches and glue the piece of two by four in place. Using a rasp, continue to remove material until the shooter’s eye is in line with the sights by fitting and trying until right. I kept removing a bit of wood at a time until the alignment was correct and the gun hit where it’s pointed. Then use Bondo or wood

Middle stock with 2×4 raised comb. On bottom is a "stock" stock. putty to fill in any gaps, sand until smooth and hit with a coat of "rattle can" black. I’ll get around to doing the forearm one of these days Another area related to shooter comfort is pitch angle, the angle of the butt of the stock to the barrel. I prefer to start with zero pitch angle, that being when the end of the stock is at 90 degrees to the barrel and the one that suits most shooters.

After the shooter gets used to the feel of his gun, plastic pitch angle wedges can be added experimentally to check for more comfort and accuracy. All shooters are different and I have yet to find an "average" shooter that a factory gun will fit perfectly. And, the better many shooters become, the more they seem to want to fiddle with the fit to gain an extra target or two.

With critical stock dimensions addressed, it was (using football terminology) time to work on "blocking the kick." Since the stock had to be cut to length and correct the pitch angle anyway, I went ahead and added a good used recoil pad from my stash. Something else to be considered is porting the barrel. This modification redirects some of the gas pressure upwards, thus reducing barrel lift and felt recoil.

There is a nice jig available from Brownells for this task, well worth the expense if this work is done frequently. Keeping the small budget in mind, this can also be done with a drill press, a punch and apiece of masking tape. First, find a flat surface such as apiece of glass (the nearest window will do) and clean it well with brake cleaner. Lay out apiece of tape five inches long and start to work with a ruler and pen. The holes should be 0.093 (3/32) diameter and spaced at 0.200 inch intervals.

For starters, there should be 10 holes down the middle (more can always be added later) with each side, all keeping the same spacing. The finished pattern is removed from the pane of glass and attached to the clean and dry barrel with the middle mark on the very top lined up with the front bead. The porting holes should not be drilled into the choke, so the starting point should be 3-4 inches back from the muzzle.

Marking the holes with a punch can be tricky as the barrel needs to stay in place and even using a padded vise could be a problem. The solution turned out to be the sand bags I take to the range when sighting in a rifle. The barrel was worked into the bags and the first spot was marked. The process continued with an occasional reset of the barrel to insure all punch strikes were at 90 degrees to the bore. The tape was stripped off and the drill press vise was readied by padding the jaws.

Good padding can be anything from leather (a cutoff piece of holster is my favorite) or lead sheet that is installed around chimneys for weather sealing. When this project is done, the mangled piece of lead can be cast into bullets. After a quick trip to the hardware store for fresh drill bits and center drill, the porting process was under- I’m a great believer in using a center drill to start the holes, much less chance of damage and a much neater looking job.

With the barrel clamped firmly in the vise, assuring the punch marks were oriented at 90 degrees to the drill press table, the assembly was set in place. With one hand I gently held onto the breach end of the barrel while lowering the spinning center drill with my other hand. If the barrel/vise is given some room to move, it will allow the drill to seek its own center in the punched spot. The top holes were all center drilled, drilled and cleaned up before the barrel was moved for the next series of holes.

The exterior portion of the holes were finished by gently touching them with a slightly larger sized drill bit to remove any burrs around their edges. The vise was then loosened and the bar-

rel was rotated to allow the next series of holes to be drilled. When that part of the job was done, I got out a length of dowel rod and slit the end for a bit of abrasive cloth. Several passes up and down the inner surface of the barrel were needed to remove burrs left from drilling all the holes followed by a quick smoothness test. Push apiece of paper towel through the barrel. Any clinging bits of paper will highlight the rough spots.

A final polish with very fine grit cloth coated with a few drops of oil finishes this portion of the transformation. For those wanting a ported barrel, particularly rifled barrels, but are leery of drilling all those holes, check out Mag-Na-Port (magnaport.com, They do a beautiful, professional job on smoothbore and rifled barrels. While you can do smootbores as outlined here, don’t try doing a rifled barrel at home as it will only end in disaster. Another way to soften recoil is with lead and mercury.

Starting with the simplest and cheapest, one or two holes drilled into the rear of the stock will accommodate a quantity of lead pellets. I use 7-1/2 shot as more will fit into a hole. The holes are filled with shot and the butt plate or recoil pad is reinstalled. In addition to softening recoil, this is also a great way to balance a gun if it’s muzzle heavy.

The shooter needs to see how the balance feels and, when the proper amount of shot is discovered, mix in Acraglas with the lead in the holes and set aside to harden. Another way to lessen the kick is by way of a mercury recoil reducer, which is merely a 7/8 inch diameter tube partially filled with the heavy liquid. As this shotgun has along bolt attaching the stock to the receiver, this task was apiece of cake.

The bolt hole wasn’t the required 7/8 inch diameter, so I fired up the computer, brought up eBay.com and found a set of large one-inch diameter wood drill bits for about $25. Your local hardware store might have the same thing. When my package arrived, I took the stock and secured it in a padded vise and selected the bit one size larger than the original hole. Realizing this was a delicate process, I took time to drill slowly with frequent removal of the bit to clean out the wood chips.

After using gradually larger bits (doing it in one step is almost guaranteed to split the stock) the final drilling began. With the recoil reducer in hand, I continuing boring the hole until the reducer would fit in all the way. After determining how far the smaller hole extended into the stock, I cut apiece of heavy wall fuel line to that length, installed the mercury-filled tube on top of it and a thick rubber washer on top of everything.

This way everything is held in place but remains easily removable if there is ever a need to take off the stock. If the stock doesn’t come with a bolt hole, Brownells has a recoil reducer drill fixture that turns a possibly tough job into a walk in the park. It’s well worth the price. Shooting is done in all kinds of weather from bitter cold to a 98 degree, 99 percent humidity afternoon. As in many other sports, consistency is very important.

This can be difficult to achieve if the stock is slippery from sweat or rain. Fine checkering is certainly an art but, as I’m not an artist, I decided to go the cheap and easy route. A simple way to add some additional roughness without checkering or stippling is to apply spray-on grit (Brownells #083-044-001.) This stuff is exactly what it sounds like. Rather than paint, the can contains a liquid loaded with tiny abrasive particles.

The area to be coated should be masked off to cut down on over spray and the material applied. The area can cover traditional checkered areas the entire stock could done. After a few moments drying time, it’s ready for the hunt. The spray-on grit only works with certain finishes. It will not stick to ones that contain oil but works well with an epoxy-based coating. Planning ahead will prevent a problem. Now I have a sweet shooting, soft kicking, hard hitting slug gun. With deer in range, I’ll be happy. AG