Measure for Pull

[sean30ber]

Im thinking of replacing my stock on my T/C Hawkins. Pectonica offers a full lenght #3 Curley Maple with 98% inletting for the T/C. Thought it would be a good starter on building and more PC. The only thing not done is the cut for Pull lenght. The origional stock is to short and alittle uncomfortable, Im 6'3" with long arms, so how do you go about cutting it right with out messing up a $250 + dollar piece of wood. Is it cut alittle and try it over and over untill its right or is there a method to get it close the first time.
Oh, I shot today for the first time in 20 years. What a rush. But thats another story.
Thanks Sean.

 

[Birddog6]

LOP is measured from the center front of the Front trigger to the outside edge of the Middle of the buttplate.

You might consider asking them to cut it to the length you want & them inletting the buttplate for you, as that would take the chance out of an error.

Or, since you have not done one before, I suggest you get someone to help you do it on an expensive stock. It is real easy to get one shorter than ya want if you miscut & have to keep going shorter. 2-3- miscuts & you are really short now, etc.

If you decide to do it alone, I suggest you start 1/4" longer than you need & work it down from there. If you don't want to buy a book on that part of building one, I can copy some pages for you & mail them to you if you wish.

I measure from the front of the trigger & make a mark on the butt end where I want it to end up. Then I lay the buttplate just behind that mark & I draw the outline of the buttplate on the stock. Take a saw & cut to the Rear of the outline in case of not cutting straight & etc. This is tricky as just laying it on a band saw & cutting it will leave one side shorter than the other cause the butt is tapered, so you have to shim the forestock up to get the cut straight.

Then rasp & chisel it down almost to the mark & then start inletting it using Inletting Black. Then rasp, cut, chisel the high spots til ya get the fit ya need.

I will tell ya, buttplates are a pain in the butt ? :shake: Well, they are for me anyway. It is one of the tasks of building a rifle I do not enjoy, as I am very pciky about inletting & fit & etc. and I want it as close to perfect as possible to acheive, so it sometimes takes me a day alone to do a buttplate if all goes well, and that of course depends on the wood density & the style of buttplate also. Some are easy & some are hard. A Acanthus Leaf buttplate is the hardest for me as there is no straight part on any of it & you have to fit 2-3 places at a time as you do it, making it a real bugger sometimes.

Some guys take a hammer, smack the plate a few times, knock off the high spots with a rasp & call it fitted & that is OK if that is how you want it fitted. But if you want no gaps anyplace on it, it anyplace, it will take some time & determination... It will Look as good as you make it look, no more......

Good Luck :thumbsup:

 

[sean30ber]

So if I ask them to do the basic cutting on it and they ask me what length. What is the formula or method to get the right length.

 

[szihn]

Bend your elbow at 90 degrees, hand outstreched. Measure from the inside of the elbow joint, where bisep and forarm join, to the place on your trigger finger where you prefet to press your trigger. That's the "naked fit" for your L.O.P.

You'll find that shortening that measurement 1/4" is wise, because you will be wearing colthing when shooting, and sometimes a coat.

When I build rifles for customers in the north country, who always hunt in cooler weather, I shorten the naked LOP by 3/8". I hunt here in Wyoming and sometimes in Montana, and it's fine to have a rifle slightly short in warm weather hunting, but it's bad to have it a little too long in cold weather hunting. It will hang up in your coat and slow things WAY down getting on target.

SZ

 

[paulvallandigham]

For a man of your size, consider a LOP of somewhere around 14.5 inches. It will be a little short when shooting in short sleeves, but will work well when wearing winter clothes. The bare measurement described is standard, but one modifies it by looking to see where the shooter's face fits on the comb or cheekpiece. A proper LOP will keep your nose behind the wrist of the stock where the knuckle of your thumb wrapped around the wrist during shooting might hit your eye, or cheekbone in recoil. Make sure the gun is mounted based on the kind of buttplate your gun will have. The severe crescent shaped plates require the gun to be mounted out at the top of the bicep, while flatter buttplates allow you to mount the gun closer to your neck, in the pocket of your shoulder. Many old guns had a lot more down pitch than we see on guns today, and shor LOPs, but they still fit a 6' shooter, with pulls as short as 12 1/2 " . Stock design and fitting is not done with standard formula for most people. How you are comfortable holding a gun off hand will often dictate things like down pitch, height at comb, and Length of Pull. For instance, I am putting a shotgun style buttplate on my LH Hawken rifle, simply because I want to spread the recoil over a wider area, and I am more comfortable shooting out of the pocket, than off my arm.That will shorten the stock dimensions in several aspects, including LOP.

 

[Birddog6]

That is corret way of measuring one. However, even at that some like the stock shorter or longer than how that comes out.

The best way to measure on is by using what they call a "Try gun" It is a fake gun that has adjustable pieces & it adjusts to what Feels the best. Cast in or cast out, Drop at heal, comb fit, Lop, etc. I don't know anyone that has one anymore except pleces that builds very high $ sporting clay shotguns & etc.

Now, keep in mind that the fit of a rifle is not as critical as the fit of a shotgun for say.... Sporting Clays or Upland Game shooting, etc..
Most of the time on a rifle you can easily adjust to a lil longer or shorter LOP & etc & it is not a big deal & you are using sights.
Most of the time with a rifle & especially a ML you are not snap shooting like you would upland game shotguns & etc. On those type of guns you need an instant fit to be on target because you are not using sights & the gun must come up exactly right the first time with no adjustments.
On a rifle you don't need this instant fit & you surely are not going to get one with a precarved stock from someplace, as it is a generic made stock. However if the buttplate is uncut, it is left for you to adjusted to the LOP to get it close to what ya need.

What YOU can do is make the adjustments on your old stock & then cut the new stock to those specifications. Take your buttplate loose on the existing rifle, cut some plywood shims of 1/4" thick & 1/2" wide & 3/4" long.
Take some duct tape & tape the plywood piece at the top edge heel of the buttplate & on the toe edge as to make the LOP longer. Now put the buttplate over it & hold it on with some duct tape.
Try the fit. Need more LOP ?, take the tape off & and add another shim top & bottom, put the buttplate back on & try again. Need 1/2" more, cut the shims & do it again with 1/8" Do this til ya get the LOP ya want........

Now measure it & you have the LOP that feels correct to You. :thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

 

[sean30ber]

Thanks a lot guys. I really appreciate it. :bow:

 

[bob1961]

i bought a replacment stock from them too but after i did i wish i went full stock....if ya think ya can do the work yerself....i took a big index card and taped it to my old stock over hanging where the buttplate was and traced the cut pattern on the card....cut it out on the line of the buttplate line and after marking top and bottom lines on the new stock and using the pattern on both sides of the new stock got the lines of the plate matching up pretty good so that i didn't have one side marked shorter then the other....brought it to my buddys house who has a bandsaw after i made a level jig fer it to cut a even line from side to side on the stock with bout 1/16" off the line fer inletting...........bob

 

[rich pierce]

Steve Zihn has it nailed.
Just another warning: anyone can actually hold a shoot a gun with too short a pull. Yes, you'll get smacked in the nose if it's an inch and a half short, but you can hold, aim, shoot, and hit. If a pull is too long for a shooter, they cannot shoot it. Unless it's for a NBA player-style body, a 14" pull is adequate for most tall men.