doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Fine tuning a buttstock and pad............

Ok. I am having some problems here. I can't get a pad to really look good on my shotgun. It (a Miroku Model 500) had a curved stock and I wanted to put a KICKEEZ pad on it for now and then later put a leather cover on it. I have had a little problem in the past because the stock would not fit perfectly when I held it up to the light, but the leather would fill the small gap between the stock and the pad. But today, I can't get it to look right. I can't get the gap out from between them. I have used a piece of sandpaper on a wooden block but that doesn't get them perfectly straight and leaves a gap in the middle when I hold it up to the light. I put two dowel rods in the old screw holes in order to drill new holes, and they seem to be harder than the stock and it seems to be sticking out in that area. A file doesn't work much better. I also have a Ryobi vertical belt sander that works good, but the stock teeters and it ends up being crooked. Now, there is a small gap between them on both side and it looks kind of messy. What's the secret? How do I get them on the gun perfectly? A little help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Jimmy,
I sand the butt with a 6" belt sander. It has a miter gauge and I made a vertical fence and attached it to the miter guide. It helps me keep the stock straight. The dowel inserts need to be trimmed off even with, or below the butt surface. If the butt is still curved, straghten it. Bending a pad to fit a curved butt looks like crap, the sign of an amateur job. The front surface of the pad may also be curved and that needs to be sanded flat, as well. My preference is Pachmayr Decelerator pads but that choice is yours. You will get better at it, the more jobs you do.

Once I've lost dead flat surfaces and true angles, I find it very difficult to re-establish them with sanding. Do you have a chop saw?

BINGO!.......or table saw

CJ

I have both, but I have always been afraid of the wood tearing out. Can that happen?

Yes it can. I score the cut line with an Xacto knife and never cutoff more than about 3/16" of an inch at a time. Mike Orlen called it nibbling up to the cut.

You need a good quality "sharp" carbide blade and a good holding jig. CJ

Also it will help to cover the cut line with masking tape before the cut. That helps prevent tear-out.

A blade lubricate helps also.

Use the table saw, but you need to make a sub-table with a piece of 1/8 mosonite attached to a piece of 3/4 wood to be attached to the miter gauge, hope that makes sense. You have to have the sub-table to be able to shim the stock so the cut is square to the centerline of the stock, a deck of playing cards work well (some of them) to get it square. The miter gauge will set your angle. Use at least 5 layers of masking tape, especially on the down side of the cut to eliminate tearing out on the cut. I use a sharp plywood blade, not carbide, as I have to sharpen it with a file often. Go so slow as if you think it will take forever to make the cut. Take the tape off slowly, one layer at at time, very easy on the last one. Ever so lightly break the edge with 400 grit, one light swipe, so when you scribe for the pad you don't chip the finish. If the stock has been finished with Truoil keep your rosary in your pocket as the tape likes to take it off at the cut. Nothing against Truoil, but the facts. If you get any chipping, apply Truoil to the butt to seal the edge. And apply some to try and seal the butt anyway. Hope that helps.