Okay, I must admit that I should have done this a little earlier. At this point I had already started sanding the stock and ideally, the recoil pad should be installed already when you start this. The recoil pad is ground down to the size of the stock on a belt sander and it is very easy to make a mistake and remove a bit too much material. The first step in fitting the pad was to measure the length of pull for the stock. When you buy a mass-produced rifle the butt stock is the size the manufacturer decides on. On a custom gun stock, this can be made to the owners preference. You can see the recoil pad in the background of the picture.

Marked LOP

I cut the stock to size and then marked the center line and the position of the two mounting screws.

Marked

At this point, I wrapped the back of the stock with equal layers of masking tape. The masking tape will offer protection for the wood that is already sanded and give me a visual indication of when I start touching the wood with the sander. Unfortunately I got so engrossed in my work at this point and totally forgot to take any further pictures until after I finished! Here is the finished product though. In the first picture you can still see a little adhesive residue from the tape.

Right side

Left side

In the next post, I will bed the stock to the action.