doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Getting stock pitch right on a side by side

Dr. Sane,
I shoulda' mentioned that I like to see the barrel or barrels roughly parallel to the wall. But, if I don't get that, the 1 1/2 -2" figure works out OK, for me, anyway, regardless of gun type, or barrel length. From the shortest barrel here, to the longest is a difference of about 5".
The other guys need to find out what works for them.
We've agreed on a few other things over the years. Actually happens enough to cause me to wonder if I just might be legit.

Best,
Ted

Pitch is the foundation of the stock on the body. How you perceive recoil and cheek slap depends on pitch. It also influences barrel rise on recoil and recovery for the second shot. For these reasons it seems to be as important as other dimensions.

I have come across three ways to measure pitch: as an angle in degrees of the butt to the line of sight, by the floor and wall method and by measuring from trigger to toe and heel. The last one seems the easiest to do and record.

Have you considered that each time you bend a stock up or down, to increase or decrease the drop, you are changing the pitch as well? That may well be the reason for the bruising you experience with some of those guns.

In my experience, bruising of the cheekbone is much more prevalent when I shoot a gun that does not have enough drop. I am highly conscious of how much rib I see when I mount a gun, and will cheek a high stocked gun harder to try and make it shoot nearer flat for me. I am in the process of putting add on ribs on top of the gun's rib on a Verona 410/28 O/U right now, to cure that issue. I could have bent the stock, but adding more rib is easier and less risky. And since it's a target gun mostly I don't really mind as far as aesthetics. I may take some before and after pics just to show what they actually look like.

SRH

Thank you Stan, your advice is well taken. I will try to measure some of the stocks I have bent to see if I have negative pitch.

OK I got the Garbi out and put the barrels along side a straight plane and measured out to the heel of the stock and got something like 2 1/2". I did the same on my 20 gauge Arrieta and got close to the same maybe a little less. I then measured my Purdey and got approximately 2".
I understand that I did this quickly as I had to leave for work but I would say the maesurements are close.
So would the 2 1/2" measurement be extreme?

PALUNC, I believe you are measuring Drop at Heel (DAH), not pitch. Pitch is related to the angle your buttplate or buttpad forms with the straight plane you lined your barrels up with, and is usually described in terms of how much different from a 90 degree angle that angle is plus or minus. I would hazard a guess that most stocks would display a pitch between 10 degrees plus or minus from that 90 degree angle.

And, in case I have misunderstood the nature of your question, 2.5 inches is not a extreme amount of DAH in my opinion.

Emmett Boylan

I have just this week measured several of my guns to try to figure out why I have such difficulty shooting a couple of them. I measured pitch using the method described by Rollin Oswald in his excellent book on stock fitting. He used the gun against the wall technique but specified that the measurement be taken where the barrels would be 28" long. You can use a straight edge against the barrel if it is less than 28".

I tried 7 guns and got readings that ranged from 4" to 0. Several measured around 2.5", so your 2 guns must have a pitch that is common if you measured them the way described in this thread - butt flat on the floor and receiver against the wall. The gun that I measured at 0 is the one I shoot best. It's probably a long shot, but I've ordered a couple of tapered spaces to use on my problem guns to see if that will help me any.

Emmett, you are correct as what I was measuring. I guess I had a brain malfuncion.
Anyway the Garbi seems to have the most pitch of all my guns. I am taking it in a couple of weeks to a guy to have a leather pad installed and will get his advice.
I did watch some YOU-TUBE videos today on stock pitch.