Cast-Off question

[Sunkmanitu Tanka]

Hi gents!
The topic about LOP raised another question in my mind...
I think I understand the principle of cast-off - It goes about the rifle stock that is formed in such a manner that when you aim your gun, it just sits comfortable against your cheek, and the sights are quickly aligned ...
Do I have that right?
Does this mean that those guns leave away the cheek peace because not needed anymore?
Can you measure the cast-off that you need or is this always the same? Can you ask for it when you order a rifle say at TVM or others?
As always many thanks for the help. I daily enjoy the company of you guys on this site!

 

[paulvallandigham]

Cast off is created by either bending the stock away from your face( to the right for right handed shooters; Left for Southpaws, and we call it "Cast-On" in that case), or carving the stock so it has the Cast shaped in the stock. How much varies from person to person, but can be measured by a competent stock fitter. He will have you hold up a gun you feel works for you, empty, and look down the barrel from in front of the gun to see how your Eye aligns naturally with the sights or center of the barrel. Using a "Try-gun", he will test you with his adjustments to see what works BETTER for you to determine the amount of Cast you need.

Cast can vary depending on the kind of shooting the gun is made to do. Prone shooters not only need higher, straighter combs, but a different amount of Cast(off) for the guns to fit as well as a gun used for off-hand shooting. Cast is an idea that became popular in Sporting Shotguns- The British BEST guns, for example, altho the rest of Europe's elite hunters and shooter followed the "craze".

Cast has Nothing to do with whether the gun as a pronounced "Cheek Piece" or not. Any gunstock made with Cast(off) can be had with a cheek piece, too.

You have to talk to the gunbuilder you hire to make your gun, and its stock, about putting cast(off)on the stock to fit you the best. He may have you hire a local( to you) stockfitter to measure you for this Cast(off), and send him the information for him to use when making the stock.

I was fortunate in that the gunbuilder who made my fowler lives here locally, and I went to his shop twice for him to check the Cast-ON that he put on my LH stock. Before that, I had measured the comb height, the LOP, and the pitch on several guns that felt comfortable to me, and he worked with those numbers for my fowler.

Because the fowler has very low mounted front and rear sights, we used the comb height from a field grade stock I have on a modern shotgun, but the LOP from another gun that fits me better. Pitch was chosen as an average of a couple of gunstocks, including my off-hand BP rifle. :surrender: :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[rabjr]

You really don't need much! I had Roy put 3/16" cast off on my guns and I can shut my eyes, shoulder them and I'm looking straight down the sites when I open them. :thumbsup:

 

[Zonie]

I agree. It doesn't take much cast at all to make a noticeable difference in how a rifle mounts.

My answer to the question is as follows:

On a rifle or shotgun with no cast the center of the buttplate will be directly in line with the center of the barrel.

This is how most factory guns are made and for them it makes sense. They don't know if the buyer is left handed or right handed and most folks who shoot the gun will be happy.

For a right handed shooter, if the center of the butt plate is moved to the right from the center of the barrel, cast is introduced. When the shooter mounts the gun to his/her shoulder, because the center of the butt plate is further to the right it will position the center of the barrel pointed more towards the shooters head.

As little as 3/16 or 1/4 inch of cast is difficult to see just looking at the gun but as soon as you mount it to your shoulder you will be amazed to see the sights much more aligned with your right eye. You won't have to move your head much if any to be looking right down the sights.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the cheek piece although the cheekpiece should not be so pronounced that it interferes with your cheek while aiming.
In my opinion the cheek piece will be automatically located so it just touches or just clears your cheek.

The presence of a cheek piece is more a feature of architecture than a truly functional piece.

Almost all of the original rifles had one. Many of the shotguns did not.

Because the cheek piece is almost a natural part of the longrifles IMO they should have one whether the stock has any cast or not.

 

[Sunkmanitu Tanka]

Again gents, many thanks for your explanations. There is not one week passing or I have learned something here on this place! :bow:

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

How much cast you need has a lot to do with how you are built and how you use the longarm. You mount a shotgun very differently than a rifle. My old competition shotguns had 5/16 cast off at the heel and 3/8 at the toe of the buttstock. With those dimensions I learn never to look at the barrels for alignment and I could just mount the shotgun look for the bird and dust it. Those dimensions allow the shotgun to clear my chest.

My target rifles were made with a lot less cast off. With my frontloaders with a deeply crescent buttplate that I mount on the ball of the shoulder or on my arm I don’t need any. Skinning guys rarely need much if any. Fat guys, like me, sometimes need a lot in our shotguns. The more cast you have on a gun the more susceptible the gun is to sting your cheek by recoil if the stock maker doesn’t know what he is doing and doesn’t adjust the pitch to compensate.

All this is very intricate and you should not guess at what you need. If you feel you need to have cast in your stock find someone who knows what they are doing or at least find some guns that were built with cast and try them to see what might work.