Rifle Fitment

Status
Not open for further replies.

Majja13

Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2020
Messages
6
As I am figuring out I have a slightly shorter LOP to be in a true proper shooting position with proper eye relief on my scopes. For years I have just made due pulling the gun in real tight and leaning more forward into the scope to get the proper sight picture. I am wondering is it better to have my stocks cut down or would it be better to just put rails on a couple of my rifles. I wish I could go to scopes with longer eye relief. I am only about an inch to an inch and a half out depending on the rifle scope combination.
 
can you just slide the scope back to correct the eye relief? or mount a different scope?
 
You have a few avenues.

Alter the scope positioning further to the rear if possible. Easy and cheap if it can be done.

A new stock with a custom LOP (I did this with a new Boyd’s laminated stock on a Win Mod 70 7mm Rem). This was under 200 bucks, and I could put the old one back on of it didn’t work or to sell the gun later.

Have the current stock cut down to your preferred length. There is no going back on this one and it may cost nearly as much as a laminate stock after adding and fitting in a new recoil pad and touching up the stock.

Try a new gun to see if another style of buttstock fits you better.

Try a new scope for the same reason as above.

Or, Keep on scrunching...

Good luck finding what works best :thumbup:.

Stay safe.
 
While fit is critical with a shotgun, where one's eye acts as a rear sight of sorts, we normally try to adapt to "stock" rifle stocks. That is probably because doing a good job of shortening the buttstock takes more skill and effort than we might realize. If the gun is intended to be sold for a profit, best keep it original. If it's a user, I will recommend asking a gunsmith who has experience to cut it down, fit a pad, and save the offcut for a later owner. You may also want to investigate an aftermarket stock such as the Mag-pul, that allows use of spacers to adjust, or a chassis that features adjustable LOP.
 
@Majja13 welcome to the forum. Is it the lop or scope position? You could try a set of offset to go to move the scope farther back. What rifle and scope combinations are giving you trouble?
 
Thank you all for the info. What has led me down this path is I put a rail on an Abolt 300 MW that my scope had absolutely no room to move in. I recently picked up a CZ557 with a walnut stock and it came with a Manners stock. I will post some pictures after I am off work.
 
IMO, cut the stock or get a replacement stock to cut....and make it fit like a glove. Very few good wing shots, or competitive shotgun shooters “do not” have their shotgun properly fitted! Then the scope set-up should be easy......then go with a rail! No matter what.....make the rifle fit you! memtb
 
Too long a length of pull will also cause the shooter to 'stretch' to get proper trigger-finger placement. Even with a longer eye relief scope. That tension of stretching will give bad results in shooting.

Put on the coat, jacket or parka you expect to use when shooting (hunting). Hold your 'trigger side' arm with the forearm 90 degrees to the upper arm. Measure from the inside of the elbow angle to the first joint of the trigger finger - curling the fingers as in holding the rifle and trigger finger on the imaginary trigger. That is pretty much your length of pull. Actually, it sounds like you've done this or similar as you started out saying your LOP was too long.

You seem to have the choice of shortening the stock you have (depending on the rifle, that could be financially tragic when selling the rifle) or get and fit a replacement stock. (Which in my case would mean hiring it fitted. I tried it once and then found a stock maker before I fouled it up past redemption.) Or just getting used to it, which is usually more effort than it's worth.
 
I suspect rifle stock fit is a bigger problem for shooters with shorter arms than long ones.

With my long arms (I'm 6' 2" tall), good stock fit is more important for managing the recoil of a hard-kicking cartridge than for pointability or sighting. The French army and the folks shouldering contemporary pistol braces have discovered you can choke up quite a bit on a short rifle stock. My 5'-tall wife, on the other hand, needs an even shorter LOP than on the MAS just to get her head into position to align the sights on this rifle.
 
Last edited:
Thank you all for the info. What has led me down this path is I put a rail on an Abolt 300 MW that my scope had absolutely no room to move in. I recently picked up a CZ557 with a walnut stock and it came with a Manners stock. I will post some pictures after I am off work.


You've probably already done this, but if those rifles have removable thick buttpads, I'd pull them off and check eye relief, bolt manipulation, and trigger placement. For verification of needing a shorter LOP, of course.
 
You've probably already done this, but if those rifles have removable thick buttpads, I'd pull them off and check eye relief, bolt manipulation, and trigger placement. For verification of needing a shorter LOP, of course.

Bolt manipulation - for me, is the problem.

When I reach for it, my pectoral muscles push the rifle forward at least an inch.

...like the damn thing is runnin' away from me.

:D




GR
 
Last edited:
so, LOP from the video is only determined by your nose being 5 3/5 inches back from the trigger?
 
I have trimmed down both rifle and shotgun stocks. You can always add spacers for someone else. My Beretta O/U and a couple others I had done by a good gunsmith who also checked out cast off and fitted me. Resale value is for someone else to care about. Replacement stocks aren't that hard to come by. Plastic stocks are a bit more of a problem
It's your gun, make it work for you. Fit is important for more than eye relief..
 
so, LOP from the video is only determined by your nose being 5 3/5 inches back from the trigger?

Appears so. Which might be fine for most rifle actions for most adults with most optics... but it befalls the same criticism he makes about standard stocks not fitting 62% of people... this nose position isn’t ideally universal.
 
The Army taught me to rest my cheek on my thumb which would be closer than that. But I haven't measured it. Also a common way of LOP measurement is to put the butt in the crook of your elbow and measure to your first knuckle of your trigger finger. It seems to work for most people.
 
I don't think the Boyd method would work well on kids that have to lean back to balance the rifle. It might work for most shooters.
 
Better still is to ensure the young shooter doesn’t have to support excessive weight of the firearm by firing offhand. Two-fold adult error in that case.

My son at 7 shooting clays with his Iver Johnson, 5th generation of our family to leave fingerprints on this shotgun in its 100+ year life. Nice and light, properly fit to ensure he’s in a natural position, and not fighting to support the shotgun.
8264B7F9-6C88-4408-81AD-AB398C947236.jpeg

At 4 shooting his Marlin 60 from shooting sticks. Supported with simple sticks, using a stock which fit his LOP and necessary comb height to align with the RDS on top. A manageable weight to maneuver, but still too much, even as light as it was, to sustain hold for shooting - such the shooting sticks bear the weight and stabilize his shots, the same as I use a Trigger Stik monopod for supported field shooting as an adult.
24ED5D3A-2E34-4E2D-AFAC-55607A82684C.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top