Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns how to figure stock length?

my girl just bought herself a new shotgun for shooting trap,and maybe some hunting.
we need to get her a stock to cut off,and stash the matching one it came with.
anybody point me at a way to figure out how much to cut off? I'd rather not cut it off 1/4" at a time ,4 times,if I don't need to.
she's about 5'6",with short arms,the present stock goes probably 2 inches past her elbow,with the tip of her finger on the trigger.

The length of her arms has virtually nothing to do with her LOP. That measure is only close to right and never an actual needed measure. A better measure is the distance between the end of her nose and her thumb when the gun is mounted. A good starting point is 2 finger widths between nose and thumb.

Because shortening the stock is going to make the shoulder pocket more open the amount of stock cut off will greatly magnify the amount of space between the nose tip and thumb. Because everyone's dimensions are different and the other factors kick in there is no hard and fast number on how much it will change it. But it will at least double it and sometimes as much as 4x the difference. So 1/4" cut off will move the nose tip 1/2" to 1". People with very long arms see less effect than short armed sorts.

A good way to check for proper fit is with a laser bore sighter in the proper gauge for her new shotgun. Have her mount the gun repeatedly with her eyes closed. When she opens her eyes the laser dot and her eye (the bead) should be on the same place. They are inexpensive and do a good job.

Because every other facet of fit influences how the LOP fits it takes a bit to get the right solution to moving the laser dot and the bead to the same place.

Her shoulder shape and clothing also influence fit.

Start with the nose to thumb and make sure she is looking down the sighting plain rather than down ON it.

Most pumps and autos can easily be adjusted for drop (at comb) by adding shims cut from credit card stock. Once you figure that out they can be epoxied in place permanently.

Also, small amounts of cast can be added the same way, same time.

Depending on what type of shotgun we're talking about, you might want to do a 'net search for an all ready cut buttstock. For the more common shotguns there are usually a number of youth/cut stocks out there available pretty cheap. If your shotgun is decent, you might want to experiment/cut on something other than the original

And/or, check out the bulletin board or ask around at an active clay target gun club and there will probably be somebody that does such stock work and is knowledgeable about such things.

she bought a very nice engraved browning bps ,after shooting mine.

already found several stocks for sale online,including factory youth stocks, already planned on taking off and keeping the original.
we are exploring our options ,so when the time comes we can make an informed decision.
I have cut off stocks ,and fitted recoil pads several times in the past,so that part doesn't scare me,but it would be nice to know how long it should be before starting.

I like the BPS a lot, have three of them and a bunch of barrels. They are not the best at handling recoil despite the basic weight of the model. The drop at heel is excessive and the comb a little high if you correct the drop at heel.

I have restocked them with the same drop at comb, less drop at heel, and a 90* angle at the butt to make them shoot softer... and they do.

You can modify a factory stock fairly easy with a credit card shim, files, sandpaper, and time...