All of my guns have recoil pads. Checkered butts, plastic or horn butt plates, skeleton butts and heel/toe plates can all look nice and are considered traditional, but I like recoil pads for 2 reasons. 1) Recoil reduction. 2) Protecting the butt. My SxS guns all have Pachmyar Old English Decelerator pads. An excellent looking pad that has decent recoil reduction. My O/U target guns, which get shot a lot, have Kick-Eez pads.
If you put a 0.6" Pachmyar on your gun without cutting the wood it will be about the same LOP. I think they look okay.
A good gunsmith can put a pad on a curved butt - it does take a little more skill, but allows one to keep the stock original as recommended above.
Regards,
Jeff
