I'm thinking about replacing the wood stock on my Ruger African with a synthetic. Occasionally I see one of the boat paddle stocks for sale, but I would like to end up with a length of pull of 12.75" including a pad. Has anyone ever shortened one of these and how did it turn out? Thanks.

dae

Yea, I shortened a zytel 77/22. I cut it 3/4" forward of the pad to preserve the curved transition and beefiness at the rear of the skeleton frame, then cut 3/4" more off the stock, then remounted the rear end back on. I used longer pad screws to hold everything back together for about 13-1/4" LOP. I tried epoxy as a glue, but it didn't hold, finally got gorilla glue to hold, then popped it off by wedging too big of a wood insert against it, at which point I just put in longer screws and walked away...you might get the idea that this was a real bubba effort...and you'd be right! Grinding the zytel back into shape and trying to polish it again was no fun, never got the surface back to the semi-gloss original, so I ruffed up the whole stock to match...no more plastic stock mods for me! I like wood, and understand it better than plastic!

PS, I'd be interested in your wood stock if you finally decide to let it go, but don't take that as encouragement to switch to the boat paddle...there's a reason they got that name!

The spare I have in the shop is a take-off from a 338WM. I do not see how you could shorten this stock without destroying the whole thing. You only have 3/4" to work with in the butt pad, but a good chunk of that is made up of a solid internal support for the mounting screws. Don't see how you could shorten the pull by much if any at all. If you hack it up like the post above, I do not see how you could ever regain any structural integrity.

Not sure if any were ever made with a shorter length of pull, such as a compact version, but outside of that, it probably would not work for you if you need a length of pull under 13 inches.

Best

Thanks

Zytels--ya either love em, or hate em. I've got 7 of them on .223, .243, .308, .270, 30.06, 7RM, and .300wm. Personally I have found that the rifles are inherently more acurate,with the Zytels, than Rugers composite full profile stocks--forearm area is a lot more ridgid. Granted they do tend to add to the "nose heavy" aspect of the rifles, but thats always been a plus to me. I also admitt that the felt recoil from a Zytel might be a bit more than would be expected from a full profile stock--to each his own. As far as butchering one for a shorter LOP--naaa!

I shortened a Ruger bolt paddle stock about 20 years ago for a very small teenage relative of a dear friend of mine.. He was only about 5 ft tall and the rifle was a stainless .270.

As I recall, I did get the stock down to 12.5" by taking about and inch off the back of the stock and using a 1/2" Pachmayr light weight rifle pad(which now come in Decelerator rubber). I attached is with very short wood screws combined with a Epoxy formulated to work with plastics.

Anyway, the whole thing turned out great and the young man shot a big Western Oklahoma 10 pointer with it that next season.

Despite the "I" beam construction of the butt stocks, the Zytel still gives quite a bit under recoil and I have found them to be comfortable stocks to shoot.

As far as the forend flexing goes- ALL of Rugers Synthetic stocks (new or old) flex in the forend. Unfortunately, Ruger designs them with bedding pads for pressure on the barrel. The best way to deal with forend flex is to pretty much take it out of the equation for good by free floating the barrel.

I would order one of the new Regular Zytel stocks from Ruger and simply float the barrel and glass bed the action. It will shock you how well it shoots.

Unless you jump out of aircraft into war zones for a living, it will work just as well as anything else as a handle.

dae
You have a PM

I cut off a stock with the power miter saw, and filled the hole with wood and screwed it in place.

Never saw a boat paddle stock that looked like that.