Unusual DIY rubber butt pad for SKS

Flying Beaver

Flying Beaver

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So, was out at the range again. A fellow came in with an SKS, stock except for a rubber butt pad on the back - added maybe 3/4" of length to the stock. There was kind of an odd pattern on the shoulder side of the rubber pad.

I asked him where he had gotten it. Answer was he had made it from a chunk of a tire found beside the highway. A big lump of Bandag, probably from a semi-trailer tire that disintigrated. He'd made a paper template of the buttstock, used a razor knife to cut out a chunk of rubber, working from the "inside" of the ex-tire. Mounted it up and then trimmed to a nice fit.

Not much "give" to in, in terms of recoil, but did extend the stock to a more comfortable length.

Wish I'd had a camera with me. Ingenuity indeed. It's probably been done many times, but this was the first time I'd seen such.
 
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Flying Beaver said:
So, was out at the range again. A fellow came in with an SKS, stock except for a rubber butt pad on the back - added maybe 3/4" of length to the stock. There was kind of an odd pattern on the shoulder side of the rubber pad.

I asked him where he had gotten it. Answer was he had made it from a chunk of a tire found beside the highway. A big lump of Bandag, probably from a semi-trailer tire that disintigrated. He'd made a paper template of the buttstock, used a razor knife to cut out a chunk of rubber, working from the "inside" of the ex-tire. Mounted it up and then trimmed to a nice fit. t

Not much "give" to in, in terms of recoil, but did extend the stock to a more comfortable length.

Wish I'd had a camera with me. Ingenuity indeed. It's probably been done many times, but this was the first time I'd seen such.
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That's a good idea, wish I'd thought of it!!!!

Was the tread mounted inside or out (out being against the shoulder).
 
I took the steel buttplate to WSS and just tried lining up recoil pads till i found the closest fit. But now that the rainbow flipflop idea has been advance i think i will go to wally world this weekend!!
 
shredder said:
That's a good idea, wish I'd thought of it!!!!

Was the tread mounted inside or out (out being against the shoulder).
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Tread (what little there was) was on the shoulder side. It was actually pretty smooth and even. I don't think rubber from a car tire would be thick enough; keep your eye on the ditches for chunks of blown-out semi tires.

Somehow I just can't bring myself to put layered rainbow flip-flop material on my SKS. Maybe on the back end of a VZ-58 factory folder, :D but not on an SKS.

Now if I see some plain colored flip-flops at the dollar store.......
 
firemachine69 said:
Still doesn't beat the flip-flop recoil pad. :D
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If you're patient, and cheap, you could buy about five plain jane mouse pads at the dollar store, plus a couple of tubes of contact cement. Get rectangular ones made out of wet-suit material. Cut out butt-end patterns and glue in layers.
<snip>
Why would I bother, you might ask. Well, I was in the gun store today and the cheapest butt-stock pad I could find was $45. Thats a couple of boxes of ammo, or a couple of boxes of beer, take your pick.
 
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If you happen to go to a US walmart, they sell a limbsaver slip on recoil pad in med for $20. Remove the steel butt plate, Make a 1/2 or 3/4" spacer out of plywood, c'sink it and attach to your stock for a bit more distance. The put on the pad. Well , that's what I did. It works well, but I am impressed with the flipflop idea.
 
The flip-flop one is particularly nice because that closed-cell foam is practically immune to water. Mouse pads, on the other hand, seem to fall apart at the slightest hint of moisture. ;)
 
firemachine69 said:
The flip-flop one is particularly nice because that closed-cell foam is practically immune to water. Mouse pads, on the other hand, seem to fall apart at the slightest hint of moisture. ;)
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Quite right, and although the mouse pads I tried were made of something like wet-suit material, they're not all like that.

Still looking for a pair of Rainbow Barbie flip-flops to do my VZ-58 folder.
 
LarryG said:
If you happen to go to a US walmart, they sell a limbsaver slip on recoil pad in med for $20. Remove the steel butt plate, Make a 1/2 or 3/4" spacer out of plywood, c'sink it and attach to your stock for a bit more distance. The put on the pad. Well , that's what I did. It works well, but I am impressed with the flipflop idea.
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$20 strikes me as a reasonable price for a Limbsaver slip-on. Unfortunately, I live a good long way from the border, and the Wal-Marts around where I live shudder and get all goose-pimply if you mention things like firearms accessories or ammunition. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I'd like to do what you suggest - make a 3/4" plywood spacer and then slip the pad over it. Just not prepared to shell out $50 for a $20 item. Thus the DIY work-arounds.

P.S. I did come across a 1 inch slip-on pad for the SKS for $25.00 from a site sponsor. Unfortunately, they quoted an additional flat-rate shipping charge of $20. *Sigh*
 
firemachine69 said:
Still doesn't beat the flip-flop recoil pad. :D
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Was in Wally World today getting some acetone for a batch of Ed's Red bore cleaner.

Passing the boys/girls shoes, all the plain-coloured flip-flops were clearing out at $1.50/pair. Fancy multi-colored ones were $3.00/pair.

Found a pair in dark brown rubber that stacked up were 1 3/8" thick - enough to add some useful L.O.P. to an SKS or a VZ-58 factory folder. If the finished product turns out half-assed decent, I'll post some pics.

They were all out of Rainbow Barbie flip-flops - probably a good thing. w:h:

A P.S. to this: I came across a post by CGN member jjbkozack in which he mentions freezing the rubber pad before doing the final contouring and shaping. Having had ugly results experimenting with trying to sand the edges of the foam rubber at room temp, I'm going to give the freezer trick a try.
 
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boltonscouter said:
R:d::dancingbanana::dancingbanana::cheers::cheers:
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Ran into an acquaintence of mine today who hunts - won't have anything to do with black rifles, milsurps, etc., and he was horrified by the idea of gluing together a couple of chunks of flip-flop and using them as a butt-stock pad/extension. You'd have thought I'd suggested spitting on the Queen's picture or something.

Can't understand why someone would get all in a swivet over the idea - I guess that's how I know I'm a redneck at heart. I'd rather save my money and buy another SKS than outfit all my milsurps with Limbsaver pads at $45 a hit.

Now if it was an H.S. Precision or something, that would be a different story.

P.S. Here's the link to the original post about making a flip-flop recoil pad, something I had not come across when I made my original post about meeting the guy with the tire rubber pad, then buying some flip-flops, etc.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=608164&highlight=flip-flop+recoil+pad

I guess we've just re-invented the wheel; on the other hand, prior art is never wasted.
 
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