Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers limb saver pad for guide gun?

I've recently gotten my first 45-70. This is a stainless guide gun which has just come back from the gunsmith. It got a trigger job and Lyman aperture sight added to it.

The length of pull is pretty short for me. I'm looking for better recoil pad options. I am unsure if there is a prefitted LS pad for the guide gun. It also seems as though I've heard that the limbs saver pad is designed in a way where extra spacers can't be used to add to the stock length.

I'm looking for suggestions about any sort of premium recoil pad that is prefit and how to go about adding spacers to the stock.
Thanks,
John

John...

I have installed the "grind to fit" LimbSavers to all my Marlin Big-Bores and have been very happy with them. I don't think of thing of shooting 60 or more heavy loads out of my 375, 444s, 45-70, or 450 Marlin.

Here is a picture of the pad on my 444P (outfitter), it has the same stock as the Guide Gun does.

Michael, Which size grind to fit pad does it take and is a belt sander needed to do it right? The local smith wants $80.00 for the job. Seemed high to me.
John

I have a spare Limb Saver prefit pad for a model 700. It's a good deal bigger than the GG would take... do you know if it could be ground down enough to fit? What are the steps to fitting a pad?

John

A local gunsmith installs them for me. He charges me $45 for the pad and install (that is what they list for). I believe he used the medium pad on the these guide guns. If you are going to do the work yourself, remove the existing pad and trace the butt outline on a piece of paper and then compare the dimensions listed here...

http://www.gunaccessories.com/limbsaver/index.asp

If you download the templates from Limbsavers site you should be able to find the prefit that will go right on your gun.
The Limbsaver I put on the 405 lenghtened the pull, and made the recoil into a real pleasant gun to shoot.

I have a Limbsaver pad on my 35 Whelen Ackley improved and love it. When I checked the templates, I found that there are no pre fit pads for the Guide Gun. aside from wanting $80 for the job the nearest gunsmith to me said that for some sort of structural reason using a Limbsaver pad along with a spacer was not an option. He suggested using another brand of recoil pad when using a spacer.
Does anyone here have experience with fitting a grind to fit Limbsaver pad? I have located someone that has a belt sander and would be open to trying this myself if it isn't especially hard to get it right the first time.

Any suggestions are welcome. I may end up posting this question over on the gunsmithing section.
John

The LS pad I put on the 405 , was actually a prefit for a Rem 700, the fit was close, and the screw holes lined up perfect.
I used medium grit belt in the sander, but fine would have been better.

Pachmyer has a pre fit decelerator for that one.

2nd Wind...

Might want to find another gunsmith if that fellow is charging that much!!! The pad's SRP is $45, my smith buys them from his distributor for $17. Mounts it in minutes. He tapes the the stock and then uses a belt sander. I've also seen him use several different files to finish it. Not sure what grit or grain the sandpaper and files are. Takes may be 15 minutes. He figures with the SRP of the pad he makes enough.

I ordered the first one he installed, the pad in the picture, and he bought a pretty big assortment of the grid to fit pads and now keeps them instock as his recommended pad.

I'm around a lot of Marlins and I've seen some the the ready for installation pads... a lot of them don't fit good. I think it is the fact that the wood stocks vary a bit and the only way to get a correct fit is to shape one.