I am refurbishing a Model 70 featherweight and unfortunately, the original stock has been shortened. I will have to install a recoil pad to bring it back to normal length of pull.

Looking for suggestions on whether to use a Galazan Winchester reproduction or a red Pachmayer Decelerator or something else.

The Galazan pads look nice, but are solid rubber so I would think they would be both heavy and not very soft.

I would appreciate others thoughts/opinions. Thank you.

I'd go with a Pachmayr Decelerator. You didn't say what caliber?

30 '06. Had the stock not been shortened I'd have been looking for an original butt plate, but since that's not an option, having a pad will make it much more pleasant to shoot. It will be a gun that gets hunted with regularly- if it turns out to be a decent shooter after bedding etc.

We all fuss a bit about these oldtimers cutting stocks and putting pads on BUT every time I bench a 5 shot group with my low comb metal butt plate pre 64's I wish I had one! On game I never notice recoil nor blast noise. I do not hot load ,try and make an 06 a 300 win mag. Factory is so good these days both in terminal performance on whitetails and accuracy.. very best ! to the OP I would go solid red pad, it just looks 'right' to me after it ages a bit. my 2 C

I would go with the decelerator. I have both and I think the Win. repro pad is too hard and doesn't look as good.

Just my 2 cents........

The Galazan's are nice, but the pachmayr will be cheaper. I just put a Galazan on my 270 fwt stock and I really like it. It absorbs the recoil very nicely, you'd be pleasantly surprised. However, the pachmayr would work perfectly as well. Honestly, you are lucky to be able to start off with having to put a soft recoil pad on vs the aluminum butt plate. Especially if you enjoy shooting as much as I do. You really start feeling the recoil after a while with the aluminum butt plates...I just sold an all original fwt stock on ebay for $400.00 and am now going to use a stock that I paid $115.00 for. Sometimes it's better to have a "shooter" stock than an all original..

DO NOT buy an original "red" Winny pad from anywhere and then attempt to fit it to your stock. These are found in many slightly different sizes and CANNOT now be ground to fit because the rubber is too old, they get all gooey and sometimes just shred at the edges and are then ruined.

I do not care for the Galazan, but, each to their own.

Some P-64 Fwts. CAME with the thinner, "White Line" Pachmayr pads, from the factory and I had a .270 so fitted. Some imbecile, had redone the stock, this rifle was 95%, stonemint bore and he HAD to put a shiny "poly" finish on it........moron....

Anyway, I dumped the now f**ked stock and a buddy installed a Micky Edge HC that he gave me, this is now professionally painted a neat green and webbed and the rifle is still 95% and shoots 150NPs into "bugholes". This, is one that I will soon send away and have it sold, as I have not shot it more than 50 rounds in the 16 or so years since I first bought it.

I cannot be bothered with refurbishing P-64s, if you MUST have a 95%+ specimen, they ARE out there and if you, as I do, find 85-95% rifles, they cost less, work as well and I just have GOOD synthetics installed and these are FAR superior then as hunting rifles.

Mind you, I am a practical old guy and I would have a Micky installed on a Holland and Holland, in fact, a guy I knew DID this to his 1938-.375 Mauser of that marque and sought my advice on it more than 20 years ago....WHY NOT?

I have a VERY choice original Oberndorf Type B and am seriously thinking a Micky Mauser Classic with the comb height I want given the high EAWs I installed as I did not want to alter the bolt handle...again, WHY NOT, these rifles were built to HUNT!

Go with the red declerator, a better pad and they look great on the old M70's.

Here's a red Decelerator on a customized Ruger 77. Very nice pad.


And one of the Galazans on an 1886 Win Repro:

I like either one. Both look great and also function very well.

Im wanting to add a red pad to my .264 IF I can use same screw holes and not cut stock, I like the kick ease slip on pad ok as I am long armed BUT they seem to catch and drag on any deer hunting cloths I wear! The red pads just look correct to me.
http://www.stevebarnettfineguns.com/asp-bin/Detail.asp?ID=8800#
, click on bottom right photo and it will enlarge to show one that looks great to me. very best fellow Winchester pals

For the folks that have put the Pachmayr pad on their pre-64's, did you use the medium pad, or the small pad?

Medium.

The Pachmayr pad pictured is far better looking, more "red" than the pinkish ones I've seen. I'm leaning toward a Winchester repro only for aesthetics. Thank you for the responses and pictures.

Todd, either will work. In the end, you should pick the one that is most pleasing to your eye. The Galazan isn't going to increase the value, but it's the closest thing to an original pad that you'll find. The pachmayr's probably look a little better, but after a while the Galazan's start to darken up and look pretty good. I don't think I showed you a pic of my Galazan, so here it is:



This is a stock I bought from oregon45 and refinished and installed the Galazan (winchester repro) on. It's more pink than red right now, but should darken up over time..

That looks very nice. Did you strip and refinish the whole stock? Also did you use a stain prior to varnish/sealant? Thanks, again.

Stripped, stained, and sealed. Picture is pretty crappy, though. It looks better in person. I need to change a few settings on the new camera

Looks great! Would love to see more pictures. Makes me want to tear into mine.

Thanks Mac. Here are a few more. I wanted this to be my "shooter" stock and it is going to work out great:






Here are some of the bedding that I just did the other day. I made sure it had plenty of freefloat and then I sealed up the barrel channel:


Devcon 10110 always does a good job and it's tough chit!!



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Fantastic. I have to say, I really prefer the aesthetics of your rifle to one with the correct and uncut steel buttplate.

My 1951 .270 has an old presentation pad, and thin finish on right side of the cheekpiece. I feel that I owe the old girl a little love after her performance this year, so I'm going to do a similar redo to yours. The stock is also blessed with a very period Marbles compass set at the top of the comb, so I'm not hurting any collector value.

Good luck Mac. Those compass companies stayed in business back then . I've seen a lot of stocks with compass' in them and some that have been pulled out and repaired/plugged. Projects like those are fun, especially when you know you aren't hurting (depreciating) the value of your rifle. You might as well glass bed that old rifle when you do the other work as well. It will be a lot more pleasurable to shoot with a good recoil pad installed too..

Agreed. Considering that it was a $400 pawn shop find, including the K4 and mounts, I couldn't have bought a new cheapie econo rifle for the same money. Not sure whether I'll leave the compass in, or take it out. I kinda like the dumb thing.

Leave it in if you like it. My buddy had one in his winchester model 71 and he told me he was going to modernize it a little and "slap a gps into the side of it"... ...He kind of looked serious too...



Oh, by the way. You can never go wrong with a $400.00 pre 64 model 70 purchase. Good job!!! Funny thing is, I just sold a stock for $400.00 and a different one last month for $400.00...That's just the stock