doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Which is less ugly, wood extension or spacer.

a well done wood extension is a display of craftsmanship, which is to be admired...

plus a wood extension is least likely to affect the delicate shooting dynamics of a fine gun...

I would rather have a wood extension if you have to have a spacer over 1/2" and a pad also. I am even ok with a wood extension that is obvious, as long as it is done well. My gunsmith keeps so many cut butt ends that when I asked for an extension he found a pretty good match with perfectly checkered butt.

I like a well done wood extension.

A polished black horn spacer or spacers with an original buttplate mounted at the end. Now the trick is to find someone who can perfectly fit and polish the horn spacers.

Over in the UK they just slap on a piece of wood. Don't really care how it matches.

Bottom line for me is if the gun doesn't fit & hit correctly for POI, what good is it. Basically, it comes down to you need to do, what you need to do to get the gun to work for you. Another option not discussed is to leave the gun the way it is and use a slip-on pad to extend the LOP.

As far as extensions goes it wouldn't make a difference to me one way or another, either direction you go, it will always be seen and if you decide to sell the gun in the future an extension could be a deal breaker to a potential buyer. I know it would be for me!

Try as I might, I can't fully warm up to the extensions on more stylish guns. If it's even remotely art or a collectable of some form then it's a turn-off. I don't mind slip-ons and artfully executed spacers, but there is a limit.

I know some talented people can hide the extension and maybe I'd be ok at that point...but I'd have to see it.

If I had a gun with a 13" LOP I would have put a 1" KICK-EEZ pad and a leather cover and let it go. That would have given me a hair over 14". If you can shoot with a 14.5" LOP, 14 inches shouldn't make any difference in performance. And a leather covered pad on a Webley Scott would really look nice. But that's just me. Here's a Beretta Silver Pigeon ll I bought a couple months ago. You can easily see that someone lopped off the butt stock. They had a small Pachmayr pad on it, too. For $1500.00 it was like new, so I jumped on it. Now it's about 14 3/8 LOP. I just had the auto safety removed and now it's a great skeet gun.You have to remember too, what is the gun going to be used for? You'll probably shoot a gun with a shorter LOP in the winter because you'll have more clothes on.

I do not even consider firearms that are too short that I cannot make them work with a pad, one inch or less.

If a 1inch or less pad won’t get it. I pass.