Stock length

1
I have a TW Stake 16 gauge made by Neuman Freres that at some point in it's history had the stock crudely lengthened. I got the gun for a song and, being rather tall, the length worked for the way I was taught to shoulder a gun. I resigned my self to putting up with the unattractive spacer, writing it off as simply part of the history of the gun.

A friend of mine who was brought up in the british gun trade recently saw pictures of the stock and begged me to remove the spacer. I explained that the length of the stock with the spacer works for me and he said he wished we could get together so he could show me how to shoot with the 'proper' length of stock. He lives in England so this would be problematic.

It is certainly within my capability to remove the extension, and if it is simply a matter of shouldering the gun differently, well, I am not so old a dog that I cannot learn new tricks. Also it has been my impression that generally speaking that antique European guns tend to have shorter stocks than their modern American counterparts, though honestly I haven't paid close enough attention to say that this impression is accurate.

So, what do you folks think? Shall I remove the spacer and retrain a little? Or leave the gun alone and enjoy it as-is?
Last edited by TinkerPearce on Mon Feb 20, 2017 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Stock length

4
Leave it. Maybe think about ebonizing it as an accent ? Have klown paint something cool on it?
Or, remove the pad, install a flat butt plate and put a slip on limbsaver recoil pad on it to cover he spacer.

The woodgrain on the stock is pretty though.


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Re: Stock length

5
While I'm no expert, I don't think there's a single magic number for length of pull fitting everybody perfectly. Even something as small as a handgun grip can be made better with different backstrap sizes.
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Re: Stock length

8
From what I have noticed in the field, the pull of any firearm increases with the number of layers you have on.

If you are bundled up in thick wool coats you can use a shorter pull stock, and don't need a recoil pad either.

fwiw

That's mighty pretty wood, no wonder your freind wants you to take it off...
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Re: Stock length

10
TheViking wrote:Yeah, if you shoot well with it, you might want to leave it. It's ugly next to that pretty wood, though.
But that makes the pretty wood, look even prettier .

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Re: Stock length

11
Stiff wrote:While I'm no expert, I don't think there's a single magic number for length of pull fitting everybody perfectly. Even something as small as a handgun grip can be made better with different backstrap sizes.
Amen brother. Im 6"4 and the standard LOP is not a good fit for me.

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This is just my opinion, yours may vary and is no less valid.
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-Me-

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Re: Stock length

12
spara wrote:What's the difference between European and American ways of mounting a shotgun? Once I cut down my stock to the correct length of pull, I found mounting it much easier and faster to shoot.
I'm honestly not sure, but it might be posture. In old pictures of englishmen shooting they seem to have a very upright, more square-to-the-target stance, whereas Americans turn their body a bit more and lean into the gun a bit. This is the most sweeping of generalizations of course; I am sure there is a lot of in-between.
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Re: Stock length

13
Marlene wrote:What is the lop with and without the spacer? (Measure from front trigger to center of butt)
The length of pull on all three of my doubles and the JC Higgins pump-gun is 14". Removing the spacer would reduce that to 13" (I will retain the butt pad, thanks!) This LOP works pretty well for me, but the Ugly Duckling Carcano I stretched the pull to 15" when I made the stock and it suits me to a T. BUT- with the different shapes of the stock 14 inches seems to be the thing with shotguns. That being said the different amount of drop in each of the double's stocks mean the 16-gauge always takes a bit of adaptation; it has a higher comb than the other guns. I now find myself wondering if the shorter stock might work better with the higher comb?

I think that I am going to remove the spacer. If I find that I can't make the shorter length work I'll replace it, probably with a nice bit of Ebony or Blackwood. Something that will look better at any rate.
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