At the Hoot and Shoot,I shot Rich's 550 Gibbs, my buddy Kim ( KR ) shot a 505 Gibbs. We both commented how punishing my 140 Merkel in 470 was compared to those big bores. It would slap the face, and do a number on the Fingers. Mark (400 Nitro) showed me a proper English stock. He explained why they worked well, and showed me what proper recoil relief looked like.

I got home the first thing I did was to add 1/2" to the LOP. When I cut the stock for its recoil pad I added a 1/2" LOP but it was not enough. It is now 15 1/8" long. It does not punish the hand any more, I have 80% loss of nerve function in my right hand, and I can now hold on to the gun, after I get my surgery at the end of the month I expect I will have even less problems.

I wet my face and marked the comb of the stock, you will be surprised just how little of the stock you use. Now for the pucker part of hte story. I got my high speed sander out and flattened the comb line out. Where my face hit the comb I avoided and removed as much stock at the nose of the comb as t I could and still keep the line of the stock pleasing. It is not dead flat and still has a little drop,but less than it came with. I dropped the entire comb just a little to get my eye to align with my peep sight, not quite a 1/8" (Just a guess) That allowed me to blend the change I made at the nose of the comb into line of the comb and make it a little straighter. The next thing I did was to change the angle of the cheek piece to more flat or vertical plane. (I sanded in some "cast off" so to speak. It better aligned my eye to the peep sight. (You have to worry about how high your eye is and how far off center it is.) Now for the hard part. You have to sand in the recoil relief at the same time. What you do is thin the nose area of the comb, without changing were your eye aligns with the sights. Looking from the top, the Comb will be thinner at it nose and gets wider at the butt. This long wedge shape allows the stock to leave the face as it moves back instead of pounding the face. I also sanded in some cast off at the toe. The rifle now comes up faster and the same each time,with sight just about on target! My head is more up right instead of laid over the comb. The lines of the stock looks good but not perfect.

Once you grasp the concept it is easier to do than to write about.

My 400 gr Hornaday pistol bullets over 98 grs. of H4350 ( 2250 fps) use to sting, now they are more fun to shoot than my 350 gr TSX loads in 416 rem mag (81 grs of rl15). I tested some 500 gr Woodleighs over 98 grs. of H4350 and 86.5 of Rl 15. I shot 4 of each from the bench, and I also shot two Federal Trophy bonded bear claw solids (Chronograph only recorded one shot at 2236Fps) The factory ammo shot side by side and within 1 " at fifty. Federal must be using Dacron filler,I found some down range after those two shots! That was 10 full power loads in 30 Minutes from the bench,I was able to shoot the double with out pain, no head ache,or punch drunk feeling. Kim also found the rifle more pleasent

I spent a summer or two refinishing gun stocks during high school. Its been 30+ years, but I can still work a sander. Before you start working on your own very own double, be honest about your own skills,and do so at your own risk. I did this on my Merkel, it is only two grades up from a fence post as they come from the factory. They do shoot very well though, all loads tested shot to the same POA and were accurate enough to hunt with. The worse group was a little less than 3" rl 15. the other groups were about 2".

If you even begin to think of doing this to your Prudy, H&H, or Wesley, please call your nearest DRSS member, we are required to shoot you to prevent any more damage to the gene pool.

May I suggest "Gunfitting" by Michael Yardly Stack pole books. "Dangerous Game Rifles" by our own Terry Wieland. "Rifles for Africa",and "Safari Rifles" all have chapters on recoil and some info on gun fit.

A special thanks to Mac for the Ammo, Mark for the instruction, and Rich for letting me shoot a real big bore.


JD