The editor at
Sporting Life was unimpressed by the development
http://www.la84foundation.org/Sports.../SL2020015.pdf
Feb. 11, 1893
Sporting Life
MODIFIED GUN STOCK. "Something New From England Which Isn't Popular"
A representative English gun firm recently devised a new gun stock which is quite a novelty, but not likely to find favor with many sportsmen. The firm terms the new stock a "modified stock." This stock, while retaining the extreme drop at the butt, has a parallel bend along the face line from the comb to five or six inches back, giving the same alignment at any point between these limits, subject in some cases to slight modifications.
It is generally conceded that shooting is greatly improved when the stock fits easily against the face at the moment of sighting. This cannot always be obtained when the drop of the stock continuously increases from the comb to the extreme butt. As most guns used by American sportsmen have a bend of one and three-fourths inches at comb to three inches or more at butt, there is an increasing slope of about one-fourth-inch between these points. It follows that in shooting a high-flying bird the face presses against the stock nearer the comb than when aiming at a low-flying bird or ground game; therefore, according to the flight, high or low, so the sight is taken at various distances from the comb and practically increasing or diminishing the bend of the gun at each shot.
English and continental sportsmen for years have used stocks parallel from comb to butt, but the extreme drop of guns which has prevailed with American sportsmen, although there is now a tendency to use straight stocks, has interfered with, the attainment of that desideratum - easy and accurate shooting.
