Hi all,

I recently bought a Pedersoli SxS hammer gun for grins to use at my university's trap and skeet club (they also go to sporting clays events). The LOP is too short for my 6'8" frame, so I got an orange Silvers recoil pad from Kynoch - figured a typical black pad wouldn't look right at all! - and plan to have it installed in place of the current flat steel buttplate. By doing so I should be able to gain about an inch of pull.

Do you guys have any recommendations for who to do the pad installation? I'd like it to be fit and shaped properly with a smooth finish, and I worry local smiths won't have experience with this particular pad. At the moment, I was leaning towards sending the buttstock and pad into Griffin & Howe because it looks like they've installed these previously.

Any thoughts and advice are appreciated.

Kip

Edit to add: I'm looking for a smith that knows how to install these particular pads, and then finish and shape them properly. I see a lot of pads that are left blocky and with the surface finish of an eraser. I'm aiming for an end result more like the pad on this John Dickson round action rifle. It's sculpted nicely and has a smooth finish.

Brian Dudley is good. Really, just about any of the reputable double gun smiths can do it.

Most smiths charge $85 to $100 to do this, and take weeks to get your gun back. My local guy does a flawless job, won't let me leave the gun with him, finishes the job in twenty five minutes, and the pad and the gun are separated after the initial scribing. He doesn't use a vice or a jig, only the scribe, some wedges, and a sanding block. He is reluctant to charge ten bucks. What's the deal here?

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have a look at his site.


I live in a small town in Illinois and the local guy only seems to work on Bubba's Deer Blaster™, I'd really rather spend a little more and know that it's going to be done correctly the first time. There's also a top nib to inlet into the wood.

Who ever you have do the job ask them to seal the end grain. I’ve seen too many pads installed that had the wood swell if they got wet later. Takes just a few minutes to guard against this. I do my own with a jig and scribe. Funny how .010 proud or over trimmed looks like a major problem. I’ve done a couple twice because when you do it yourself you notice every blemish like a zit on your nose.

Worse were the gooey pads which were so popular 10 years ago. Few knew that they trimmed best if put into the freezer to stiffen them up first. Hated them and quickly tossed them into the trash bin and replaced them with a better, classic, pad. I’d even use a white line pad before using them again. You can always color that white line if you want. Gooey might sound soft and comfortable but they were mostly tacky to touch and picked up dirt and grime like a eraser.

to pad or not to pad...

that is the question...

is it noble to add rubber to wood...

or wood a nobler thing, be to add wood to wood?

pads are stupid and ugly...

they add extra weight...

and change the balance and handling dynamics of fine guns...

be good and add wood...

or be bad an add a pad...

I'm planning to ask them to seal the end grain and the lock plate inletting. Should be nothing more complicated than an oil rub into the grain, right?

Some of the club guns have the gooey pads, they feel awful to use and stick to my shirt when shouldering the gun. Hard pass on those. This Silvers pad seems quite hard and I've heard they take a good polish, looking forward to having it put on.

It's a $2000 Pedersoli, I don't think it's worth enough to have a wood extension put on.

Pretty sure mine came with a leather covered pad from the maker as a between the wars gun. There is nothing wrong with them.

I haven't used him in years but Steve Downs does good work. He used to be in Sterling IL, 815 718 2861
It won't be $85 though

I did some looking online and it seems like he may not be active anymore, perhaps he's retired?

Has anyone had pads installed by JJ Perodeau? He seems well regarded in the double rifle circles, not sure about his reputation on the shotgun side of things.

A recoil pad is a recoil pad whether it’s on a shotgun or a rifle. Don’t overthink this thing.

He is certainly capable, but for putting a rubber pad on a shotgun, it's sort of like hunting sparrows with an 8 bore.

Is Mr. Nitrah implying that $85 is higher or lower than Steve Downs would charge?

$85 is way cheap for a leather covered pad done right

No way anyone would do a leather covered pad for $85.

Someone put together a step by step video of the process not so long ago. I'm thinking it may have been Cole's shop, but could be mistaken about that. He did excellent work, it seemed to me. The finished product looked very, very nice.

Can anyone else remember that video, and exactly who it was?

Yes it was Cole's. I posted it with several others. It can be done well by anyone willing to make the jig, or buy it, and having a good belt or disk sander.

Silly me. I thought we were discussing a hard red pad.

I think I paid my doublegun smith a couple-few hundred bucks to fit a silvers recoil pad with a spur. He said it was a lot of work shaping the spur. This was after I tried and failed at an amateurish fitting effort. This was not even leather covered either.

Brief update - had the gun apart for its first-time cleaning and lubrication. The Pedersoli build quality is utterly dismal (tempted to make a separate post detailing all the ridiculous errors I found in it) and I wish to be rid of the gun, but since I bought it through Bud's I don't have a 3 day inspection and it is thus a "used" gun...

Lesson learned: don't touch Pedersoli with a 10 foot pole, and don't buy from Bud's. Thank you all for your responses, I'm afraid the pad will have to wait for a nicer gun.

On a side note, anyone know of any 12 bores on the market that'd fit a 6'8" weirdo like myself? Going to need around a 16" LOP - being tall is great until you want a gun that fits

There are such 12 bores on the market and here is a superior one that only needs a 3/4 inch leather covered recoil pad. http://www.elderkinguns.co.uk/products.asp?productID=832

Bushveld,

That's a lovely piece and I would certainly like to own it, but I'm afraid I'm in the US and on a slightly tighter budget (grad school is expensive!).

I'd also hate to muck up a Best gun like by chopping off the checkered butt to add a thick recoil pad.

If you want a modern hammergun without breaking the banks, check out a Mi-Val made by Beretta. They were made in the ‘60s. There are a couple on Guns International. They were well made guns and are not expensive. Certainly better than what you recently bought. LOP will need extending but a good wood man can put an extension on.

Bernardelli also made a hammer gun similar to the Beretta Mi-Val. I've owned two and still have a 20 gauge. They are nice guns.

The Mi-Val looks like a decent choice, but I only saw two on GI and sadly the better of the two was sold pending funds.

Just about anything will be better than what I bought, which turned out to be a Huglu finished and proofed in Italy by Pedersoli. Needless to say, I'm never buying a Pedersoli again.

Does anyone have any experience with the restored guns from Heritage Guns in the UK (working through MacNab in the US)? They've got some lovely pieces for sale, including a Joseph Lang with a long LOP I've got my eye on.

I have purchased from McNab and can recommend them.

I highly recommend both Heritage Guns in the UK and McNab.