Learned a valuable lesson

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Glock4ever

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So I went out yesterday to make the rounds through the various gunshops yesterday as is the tradition when I come back to Edmonton. I ended up buying a whole pile of rifle accessories and learned one important lesson: Never believe the advertisements!

What happened: As I was at Wholesale Sports, I was looking at a bunch of recoil pads in one of the isles and I thought to myself "Man I sure would like to swap out my LTR recoil pad as it isn't very absorbent, blah blah blah!" So I saw a Pachmayr Decelerator Pad for the Remington 700, for those of you that don't know these are one of the best recoil pads out there (next to the limbsaver) I have two others on McMillan A5 stocks and they are fantastic. Anyway, they say "Pre-fit" From the ad:

The Pre-Fit Pad concept was originated by the experts at Pachmayr combining their decades of experience providing the world's leading gunmakers with factory recoil pads and the remarkable recoil-softening Decelerator material. These unique Pachmayr Decelerator® recoil pads provide superior recoil control and great looks and, best of all, you can install them yourself. Designed to fit within .050 inch tolerance on factory stocks, these pads will enhance the look and feel of the gun, improve your shooting performance to help you shoot tighter groups, bag more game or break more clay.

* Easy "Do-It-Yourself" installation
* Replaces hard factory pads
* Proven Decelerator® Recoil Reduction
* Custom "pre-ground" fit

So long story short, they aren't even close to matching the stocks measurements. I know, I know, this isn't news to anybody here but darn it I was so hoping to beat the odds. I spent last night pulling off the crappy Uncle Mike's stock recoil pad (BTW HS Precision glues these bad boys on) and sanding down all the epoxy. I then mounted the new recoil pad with the provided screws only to find that there is more like .5" of material at the bottom of the stock. I have spent over 3 hours grinding the pad and I still have a pile left to go. As I had ripped the old pad off I was pretty much committed to finishing this pad off. Anyway, I thought I would share my experiences. I have the rest of my afternoon planned out though.
 
They were refering to the basic remington stock, you have a remington rifle with an HS stock. My buddy had the same problem with a Remington R3 pad on his 700P, no where near the same fit.
 
I tried one years ago because I was in a hurry. Although it fit better than yours did, it wasn't good enough for me and of course it wasn't at the decreed by heaven perfect 13 7/8" LOP.
In the end it went to the gunsmith to be fitted normally, so it cost me the difference in price of the two pads. It did get me shooting in a hurry though, which was the original idea. These days, my gunsmith seems to get my little jobs done in a day or two, or sometimes the same day so the time factor doesn't matter much.
 
I am almost done fitting this pad. I will put up pics when it is done. It is coming along nicely. DEFINITELY not a simple fitting job. I think I inhaled like 500 grams of powdered rubber/plastic. I would never ever do this type of job again unless I could guarantee that the recoil pad was a perfect fit. I am just glad I didn't get a limbsaver or R3 type pad because I would have been totally hooped as I am pretty sure those pads don't allow significant re-shaping. The decelerator pad allows you to shape the sponge and plastic easily but you do need to grind carefully as it is very easy to remove too much material. Since I already have the stock off, I patched a bunch of small chips with epoxy putty and I plan on bedding the sling studs when everything is finished up. The LOP is a little bit longer (~1/2") then the original LTR stock but the decelerator pad is much softer then the Uncle Mike's one so it is difficult to say if there is a significant length difference. I am done for today though because I think I am high on powdered plastics.
 
So, I finished the recoil pad replacement. I ended up removing the decelerator as the pad started to crumble with all the reshaping I did to it. It probably would have worked but I didn't like the final results. I changed the pad out to a limbsaver recoil pad. I also filled in the chips in the stock with some putty and painted her up. Not a project I care to repeat. I swapped out the factory trigger and all that remains is to bed the action. I also swapped out the Leupold Mk 4 scope covers with Alumina covers and changed the sling to a ACU pattern sling from Browning. All in all, I think she is coming along nicely.

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If you don't mind me asking, which Limbsaver pad did you end up going with and how much shaping was required to get it to fit well? I'd like to change out the pad on my 700P stock to something a little more forgiving and don't want a repeat of your experience.

Thanks!
 
You need to go to the limbsaver webpage (google it) and print off the templates. When you remove the old recoil pad you put the stock on the template sheet and find the one closest to your stock. I can't which one will fit your stock as the Police stock and LTR stock are slightly different. I ended using a pre-fit pad for a Savage rifle and the fit was pretty darn close - I didn't have to shape the limbsaver at all. Be aware that the HS precision pad is glued on.
 
Over 40 years I think I have installed thousands of recoil pads... and when I first heard of the 'pre fit pad' concept I said that's a load of crap. I have never seen two stocks the same. Then I had a customer bring me a scope mounting job and to install the pre fit Limbsaver pad he had purchased for his rifle.

The pad hung over the bottom quite a bit and wasn't a great fit anywhere. It left installed that way at no charge. The Limbsaver has ribs molded in the edge of it and when you grind to fit; the pad cleans up in some places and where it was close to fit, the 'ribs' still show. You get this with grind to fit Limbsavers too if very little grinding is required to fit them.

I much prefer the grind to fit Pachmayer Decelerator pads. They work as well as any, I have never seen one deteriorate, and they look good.
 
The problem with the decelerator was that I didn't buy a grind to fit - if I had it would have worked out. I had bought a pre-fit and tried to grind it down to the right size and the pad wasn't designed to lose so much material. The limbsaver was almost a perfect fit without any grinding. I took the template which I had traced the stock onto to the store and found the pad that was the closest which was the one for a Savage rifle. In all I ended up buying two recoil pads when I should have returned the original.

As for a McMillan Stock, I would get another one but I can't find one that will look good with a 20" pipe and I don't want to change it to a pure hunting stock. Their forearms are meant for longer barrels.
 
When I bought a new pad for a Rem 721 I took the old pad in and found one that was close....it was a PreFit for a Pre '64 Model 70........no two wood stocks are exactly the same...
 
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