Cutting down a 870 synthetic stock

[willyworm]

Over the past year I've successfully cut down the wood stocks on my two older shotguns to fit my length of pull, but was struggling to decide on what to do on my 12ga 870 with a synthetic stock. My length of pull is about 12.5" and most shotguns I've seen come from the factory at 14+" and my trusty 870 was no exception.

I initially bought Remington's 20ga compact stock set that's in the trading post, hoping it would fit and it did...kinda. It bolted up fine but you could tell the 20ga receiver it was made for is slimmer than the 12 ga, so there was a lip where the stock met the receiver. I didn't like it. So I said screw it, I'll cut that bitch down like the others and do a custom job. It'd be cheaper anyway cause the only material cost I had is the recoil pad. I started by measuring twice, then taking the chop saw to it and went from there.

Having the right tools is key to this job here. And since I didn't, I went to my brother in law's house. He's got all the cool stuff, primarily a vertical belt sander. Four of em to be specific.

I purchased a Limbsaver grind-to-fit pad and custom made an aluminum plate to mount it to. I had to trim away some plastic inside the stock so that the aluminum plate was flush with the end of the stock.We countersunk the heads of the screws that held the aluminum plate to the stock, then marked the holes for the mounting screws on the butt pad. I didn't use the provided wood screws but instead drilled and tapped the holes and used 8-32 machine screws. Gun fits a like a champ now.

Any of my fellow short people should look into measuring your length of pull and changing your guns to fit. I've noticed my wing-shooting and skeet scores have improved since shooting guns that truly fit me.