[Oldnamvet]

Almost any rifle or shotgun I purchase anymore has a soft rubber recoil pad on it. Even my air rifle came with a recoil pad. My hunting jacket has a build-it recoil pad, I'm well padded myself. When hunting, the recoil pads tend to catch on my clothing so I don't always get a good gun mount which makes it hard to hit anything. I practice pushing it out further before bringing it to my shoulder but old habits don't go away when you are excited. My one gun that never gives me any problem is an old shotgun with a plastic buttplate. I was thinking of doing that to some more of my shotguns especially since the length of pull is a little too much for me anyway. After looking at the generic plastic ones, I though I would try making one of an exotic wood for something different. I do a lot of woodworking but this is something new. Has anyone done this before? Any advice before I get started?

[dfariswheel]

Some old British guns had checkering on the end of the stock, and some had a brass or steel "frame" around the butt with the end left open and checkered.

A really fancy figured wood would look much better than plastic, especially if you put an area of checkering in the middle.