Straight Stock and Pitch

[Bindlestiff]

Originally Posted by Austin W Hogan

Harry; I am not sure of the issue, but the last draft was March 07. I need to compress the table to post it here in the FAQ. Send me a message at austin.w.hogan@valley.net, and I will send you the stock dimension table.

Merry Christmas,

Austin

Austin, I tried to attach your data table on this thread as a PDF file for viewing. I had to hide a column to get it to fit, the notes can't be seen but I think the real data is there for you to see.

Robin

[Austin W Hogan]

That looks great Robin; the last column wasn't really pertinent to this question

Merry Christmas, Austin

[Ron Scott]

Although almost 10 years old this thread about "pitch" is very interesting and informative. I've never given pitch much thought and now knowing what I know I wonder how much pitch matters.

There is a photo of a highly modified and personalized stock used on a "live bird gun" in Parker Pages 2007 Vol 14 Issue 2 in an article titled: "The Influence of Stock Dimensions, Stock Finish, Butt Plates, and Pads on Parker Desirability"

Obviously whoever modified the stock thought pitch was important. Anything for an extra bird ...

I thought the pitch on my H&R A grade made in the 1880's (photos elsewhere) was excessive when I measured it at 4" but then I checked my modern day Beretta 686 that I use for skeet and shoot fairly well, found it too has 4" of pitch. The stock is straighter but the pitch is the same.

Some say pitch is used to control the way the gun recoils or kicks, others claim that the proper amount of pitch is determined based on the shape of shooter's shoulder pocket. Maybe both claims are right -- maybe it's a combination of the two?

I'm not going to get too hung up on it but I do find it interesting. I also find it interesting how much we have changed the way we mount and shoot a shotgun. Straighter stocks being the norm now. Why did it change? Maybe it has to do with the fact that the old timers did more live bird shooting and we do more clay shooting. An overhead live bird takes a much different gun mount than a straight away trap presentation. You can lean forward when shooting trap -- you can't when taking an overhead incomer.

The H&R that I mentioned has 3 1/2" of drop at heel -- it feels weird to mount in the normal way but when mounted and pointed straight up everything lines up. The right barrel is choked tighter than the left -- a live bird gun... as in driven birds. Birds that are taken almost straight about the shooter. There are so many nice vintage guns with lots or drop at heel -- it would be great to learn how to shoot them well.

Just some food for thought...