On week 2 of a 3 week safari I had a 1/2" crack develop in the tang area of my Dakota M-76 416 Rigby. When I got home, I called up Dakota and they had me ship the gun to them at their cost. They agreed to replace the stock and I told them I would also like to upgrade the wood to exhibition grade and I would pay for the upgrade blank. They agreed and offered the replacement upgrade blank to me at 50% discount ($350). They emailed me photos of 3 bastone exhibition blanks, 3 turkish walnut blanks and 2 english walnut blanks. The original stock was XXX english walnut. I selected a beautiful turkish walnut blank for the replacement. Now for my question: I'm thinking a "red" recoil pad would look better on this stock (more traditional). What is your preferance on "pad" color, if any? I am also having them fit the gun with a secondary fiberglass stock while they have the rifle. They use MPI blanks (I already have MPI fiberglass stocks on 2 other rifles) for their fiberglass stocks and it will be black with a black pad.

I really have no preference, but I must insist on no white line spacers.

If it helps any, here's some unfinished stocks I'm working with brown pads (which I usually prefer) and one in red. The black pad on the maple stock is the only black pad I've ever used (it looks appropriate on this particular gun).

I like red, but the most effective ones seem to come in black only (or maybe brown, but I prefer black to brown so I haven't really studied this option).

The Silvers is as red as a brick but as hard as one too.

The red Decelerator comes only in the medium size. So all of mine are the large-sized black ones.

Red is traditional on big bores...

Leather covered is real class and it has the real function of never hanging up on clothing and in a DGR this is a plus, just another edge in your favor.....

fla3006,

I really like the black on maple. Call me weird but I like black on darker shaded stocks or stocks with a lot of figure. Red goes good on straight grained lighter shaded stocks.