Need advise on Dh stock restoration
 

Hello
I am restoring the wood on a DH #3. The LOP on the stock is 12". I am most comfortable with a 14" Lop and I would prefer a skeleton but plate.
Someone in the past has glued on a 1 1/2" walnut spacer with the grain going
at odds with the stock and a modern recoil pad.
Options:
Restock it, but I don't think I can get a stock blank of comparable quality.

Cut off the spacer and mount a correct recoil pad to produce a 13" Lop.
Question: What are the brands of acceptable vintage recoil pads?

Replace the spacer with one that is approximately grain matched and fake grain across the joint. Has anyone successfully done this?

Any advise?
Regards
Preston Chaney

The cheapest way to go and while not the best looking but acceptable are the solid red pads that are 1.5" and would give you 13.5". Then if you wanted to shoot it you can always put on one of the slip on leather pads, all of the above sold by Galazans.

Other options for using the original wood: having an extension added and the skeleton buttplate added, and then having the grain painted. But now you are into big money.

If you want to be financially prudent, go the solid pad route. But I personally think those thick red pads look odd. I'd add a 1/2" black spacer, then a regular Galazan solid red pad. But that's just me.

Someone like Mark Larson can add wood and re-grain it to be perfect to the wood you have, and it opens the door to your skeleton butt. But open your wallet too. I'd budget at least $1000 for the job.

the 1-1/2" silvers style pads have their purpose, but that is a lot of Orange on the back of a stock.

You have to decide what way to go with the gun and what you want it to be.

The only way to fix it right is to restock it.

Preston:

Another option would be to perform a "butt transplant" if the stock head is in good condition. This procedure is well-described by stockmaker David Trevallion in his book "Shotgun Technicana" (2002).

Transplant
 

There are several good stockers out there that can do a transplant and if they're good enough you won't even know its been done. It will look correct, have the drop that you want and need and have the length that you want and you can probably get it done for $1,000 or less.

Mark Larson does a great job of adding wood and matching the grain so that is difficult to see that there is an extension. I think he can do the checkering and refinishing is included in the cost of adding the extension. His cost is a lot better than restocking or grafting on a whole transplant. If you choose to go the spacer/recoil pad route I would check out Galazn's they sell repo as well as original Silvers (which I prefer) pads that are correct for your gun.

Hello,
Thanks for all the advice. I have decided to cut off the stock extension and mount an Ithica sunburst pad as I am not sure that the silver pads can be cut down enough to fit the stock (4 7/8 in. I don't want to do the Butt Transplant at the stock neck because I don't want to lose the existing high quality wood.
Regards
Preston C

Don't be concerned about the Silvers pad I have a Silvers mounted to one of my Lefever G grades that finished out nicely at 4 3/4 inches.