[USAF_Vet]

I'm looking at a $75 single shot 12 gauge pawn shop special. Nothing fancy, made for S.S. Kresge (K-Mart) by Boito of Brazil.

Condition wise, it's got some minor cosmetic issues, but it locks up tight and the trigger is nice and crisp. I plan on having it for a truck gun.

My plan is to cut the barrel down to 18 1/4" and reposition the bead or possibly throw on a cheap fiber optic front sight.

OK, so here is my question. The stock on this is about 14.5" LOP, and I want to get the OAL down to just over 26" to meet Fed limits.

Eyeballing it, this gives me about 5" of stock I can cut down, which brings the stock to just beyond the pistol grip. It still must be fired from the shoulder in order to still be a shotgun, so how much stock is enough? I'd still like to be able to shoulder the gun, even if only barely.

[Fred Fuller]

The shortest I've ever cut a single shot's stock down was to about an 11" LOP (measured from the face of the trigger to the back of the recoil pad in a straight line). It could still be shoulder fired as long as the shooter remembered to keep the shooting hand thumb on the trigger finger knuckle so it didn't whack him in the nose.

The hammer is a consideration on most single shots -- don't let get it so close to your face it bites you while in recoil.

[RaceM]

Wow. Cutting the stock back that far is really gonna decrease the contact patch at your shoulder, increasing the OWWWW factor. I'd give up on the 26" limit and cut the stock to give me an 11-12" LOP.

[evan price]

My coach gun, I left the stock at the same length. I'm a big guy and making it smaller didn't seem like it would gain me anything concealability wise, versus making it nicer to shoot. Since it's just wood, try taking 1" sections off of it at a time, shoulder it in between cuts and stop when it feels good. You can always add a grind-to-fit recoil pad on the end to bring the LOP back longer if you need to and haven't cut off too much.