Guys,

I have a .338 built on a McMillan stock with a Decellerator pad. LOP is too long for my short self, so I want to shorten the stock. Have lots of tools (disk and belt sanders for knifemaking) and lots of patience.

I cannot find any obvious holes in the pad through which pad screws might have been used. Looked at it very carefully with a loupe.

What might the typical methods be for attachment of the pad?

Thanks,

Hopefully someone else will answer, but if it is not screwed on then it will be glued on. You can try sawing it off with a hacksaw, and leave yourself 1/4" or so of the stock attached and then use a sander to remove it down to the pad. Sometimes the screw holes are hard to see, you can also try to make a probe out of a 3/8" plastic rod, use a pencil sharpener to put a point on it, only instead of a point stop when it is about a 3/16" flat nose, then push around with that to find the holes. A little dab of vaseline on the tip helps too.

McMillan glues all their pads on, unfortunately. They use an epoxy, so I doubt you will be able to easily remove it. If you are going to shorten the stock, leave some of the stock attached to the pad, and then you can sand it off after, and hopefully use the same pad.