Cutting great plains stock ?

[brudford]

I have a Lyman GPR rifle kit on order. I do not
like the crescent shaped butt-plate. Do you think there is enough wood there to cut it straight
and then maybe add a rubber or leather pad ?
Maybe a leather pad that laces up ?

 

[BrownBear]

I measured my GPR for you. LOP is 14" as-is. If you cut off enough to get past the inletting for the top of the butt plate, that reduces LOP to 12". I don't know of any way to restore the 2" if you need them, as most recoil pads are no more than 1" thick. If you could live with that big ugly notch at the top you could cut somewhere between the extremes and cover it with a lace-on pad such as you are considering.

As an alternative, you might browse the gun building section. Several people in there have reshaped their butt plates, creating the potential for you to straighten out the hook at the bottom while keepin the top as-is. The metal up there is fairly thick, so you might even get rid of most of the top hook simply by grinding.

Are you unhappy with the looks of the hook, or concerned that it will do real damage to your shoulder in recoil? If the latter is the case, you need to know that hooked butts are not intended to be nestled into your shoulder like conventional rifles. The hook actually goes a little out on your arm, and in position they never contact flesh in recoil. Along with the substantial cheek piece on the GPR stock, the gun kinda naturally pushes itself out there when you shoulder the rifle. And in fact, they seem to recoil a whole lot less when the butt is out on your arm rather than nestled into the pocket in your shoulder.

Food for thought.

 

[J.D.]

Hmmm, would it have been better to find something that fits your needs before you ordered?

That said, I suggest that you try it before you begin cutting. That deep crescent butt is made to shoot off of the bicep, not the shoulder, so give an honest effort to try it out, as is, before you begin to cut.

IMHO, since the GPR has a LOP of about 14 inches, there probably is enough wood to trim the butt if you can be satisfied with a much shorter length of pull. That is up to you.

Another thought is that the more material that is removed from the butt, the less drop the stock will have. So, the question is, can you put up with a 13 something length of pull, and reduced drop, which will make it harder to align the sights.

My suggestion is to cancel that order and find something that better fits your needs.

 

[longcruise]

The butt plate as it is does have the potential to bite you but can be held to the upper arm so as not to.

If I were going to change the butt plate on mine, I'd find a butt plate with less curve to it that would come close to the length and width of the GPR plate. Then you could remove some of the curve and inlet the tang of the plate into the stock so as to look "right". then, you could always add a pull over leather or rubber "sock" with built in recoil pad if you liked.

I don't think you will need a recoil pad to comfortably shoot the GPR. Even with heavey round ball loads, it is not uncomfortable to shoot when held correctly.

You might consider that you are contemplating fixing a problem that doesn't exist! :shocked2:

 

[wwpete52]

Man, think long and hard before you cut that beautiful stock. Buy one of these instead:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Brauer-Leather...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

 

[brudford]

Looked at that pic thanks, however you are still going to have open space from the inside of the
pad to the curve of the butt plate. I would think it would collapsed in on it's self, unless you could put some type of filler in there.

 

[Joel Lehman]

I put a piece of soft rubber about 1/2 inch thick in the curve of the butt plate to talk up the room before I put on the lace up pad. It works great on a 54 Leman indian trade rifle made by Oregon Trail Rifles.

 

[AeroncaTAL]

The butt plate of the GPR is designed to fit up on your bicep, not the shoulder. Also, since it is a heavy rifle, the recoil is not very much, even with large loads of powder. Give it a try as is before you do anything...
Scott

 

[Old40Rod]

I have a Lyman GPR rifle kit on order. I do not like the crescent shaped butt-plate. Do you think there is enough wood there to cut it straight and then maybe add a rubber or leather pad ? Maybe a leather pad that laces up?

41Aero is right.... try it "as is" or borrow someone else's to try before you do anything. If you are shooting mostly target loads 50-70 gr, I don't think you are going to have any problems. They are pretty comfortable rifles to shoot. I can shoot my GPR with target loads all day and not feel a thing. Adding padding probably won't gain you much.

If you are shooting lots of hotter loads 90 to 100gr, put on a thicker shirt or jacket if you think you need some padding. That way you won't mess up an otherwise fine rifle, or goof up the trigger pull length. If you are hunting, buck fever deadens the blow :grin:

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

:hmm: I guess you could order an Early Lancaster iron buttplate which would be quite flat in comparrison and inlet it in place of the one that comes with the kit - it would look something like this:

 

Johnson,

Actually that is not a bad look at all.No real way to get hc or pc with a gpr anyway so that would be a nice lookin' compromise shape.

Jay