# Again, more opinions needed



## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

With all the money I saved on buying that POS Heritage Arms Rough Rider I decided to restock my sxs.
Its a Savage Fox model B. I have two sets of barrels for it and is a very sweet gun. Used it for shooting Trap for several years and did very well.
Having an English stock put on it by a local Woodwright. This guys work is Gun Digest center page fold out beautiful.
Please don't ask what this will cost me.
More than I paid for the gun.
Lets just say enough to end my marriage.
Thank god for secret savings accounts.
Anyways, I'm thinking of putting a limb saver recoil pad on it. I trashed both of my shoulders at work a few years back and want to avoid too much pounding.
Have heard that the limb savers breakdown after awhile. Is this true?
Anyone have long term experience with them?
Outside of limb saver are there other serious recoil reducing pads out there?
Thank for the input.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Thank goodness for secret savings accounts.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

Hey, a few bucks here a few bucks there and after awhile a guy can get some toys without disrupting the budget.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

JJ Grandits said:


> Hey, a few bucks here a few bucks there and after awhile a guy can get some toys without disrupting the budget.


I bought a few toys that way too. Unfortunately the Heritage was one of them.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

JJ Grandits said:


> With all the money I saved on buying that POS Heritage Arms Rough Rider I decided to restock my sxs.
> Its a Savage Fox model B. I have two sets of barrels for it and is a very sweet gun. Used it for shooting Trap for several years and did very well.
> Having an English stock put on it by a local Woodwright. This guys work is Gun Digest center page fold out beautiful.
> Please don't ask what this will cost me.
> ...


It’s impossible to tell with a Limbsavr. It’s something in the rubber formulation they use that random batches will de-formulate at some random time in the future. It’s like a solvent starts to leach out of the rubber and it starts to melt back to its liquid form- gluing itself to your gun case/safe with a black tar that is impossible to remove. I worked for a gun company that used them as OEM, and we replaced 10s of thousands, if not a couple hundred thousand pads due to this. It wasn’t every pad, but wide swaths of production dates would melt out almost on a timer.

Limbsavrs aren’t that great anyway, especially if you’re having one put on a custom stock. They grind like doo-doo and look out of place on a fine gun.

If it were my project, I’d use an old-school Pachmayr Decellerator. They feel stiffer than a Limbsavr, but feel just as effective under recoil- a softer spring feels softer, but doesn’t necessarily absorb shock better. Also, they grind really, really well, and look incredibly classy when done right.

I’d either use the Sporting Clays pad that has a hard heel cap for a faster mount, or the Skeet pad because it comes in that sexy brick red used on old English double guns. If you can find an old-stock, un-ground Clays pad in red, buy it. The last time I looked for one, I couldn’t find it and I don’t think they make it anymore. If you find two and use one, I’ll buy the other one (or 12) from you; favorite pad ever.

ETA: The red one looks drop dead sexy on a double gun, and the heel cap is a worthwhile feature:


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

JJ Grandits said:


> Hey, a few bucks here a few bucks there and after awhile a guy can get some toys without disrupting the budget.


A gun lobbyist with an extreme collection of firearms told me once what his secret was for buying guns. He walked out of the house on Saturday mornings carrying an empty gun case while casually telling his wife he was going out shooting.
He would return that afternoon with that case a little heavier.
It seemed to work so well that he didn't notice she used the same technique for her own goodies.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

shotguns have a way of doing that , costing more than you paid for them

or maybe the initial deal was just that good 

I have an 870 police purchased when a local department was replacing them. smooth as silk action that I sent out to get Rem chokes in the 20inch smooth bore slug barrel , it was more than the gun cost me but not less than the gun was worth to buy a new one
and it wasn't an option offered 

has been a great gun much more useful than unchoked shot rabbit and pheasant and some trap with it , short and handy but with the right choke patterns very well even buck shot out to 50 yards 

it went from a really handy sized gun that I reach past to grab a longer gun with chokes because the cylinder bore was only good for such short range patterns to the gun I reach for. yes rifle sights on a shotgun are a little strange but you get used to it and you can adjust them to the pattern


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

Not stange at all.
Bought an Ithica model 37 off my uncle for $50 when I was 16 years old.
Yeah, it was a gift but he wanted me to give him something for it. He was a great guy.
Anyways it had a 30" full choke barrel. Did not really have much use for it as my primary game was grouse.
Hit one once with it. Never found the thing. I think it disintergrated.
Anyways I wanted a deer slayer but at the time Ithica was owned by AMF and quality went down hill.
Took my 37 to the local gunsmith and had the barrel cut to 20" with Remington rifle sights put on it. With a cylinder bore it dropped lots of grouse and woodcock plus it would put a Federal Hydro shock slug into a playing card at 50yds.
The gun was made in 1952
I was made in 1955.
The only repairs it ever needed was having the extractor refaced.
The gun looks kind of rough. Blueing is worn off some and there are scratches and dings all over but it works absolutely flawless.
Kicks like a retarded mule. Light enough to carry all day.
Of all my guns it is a prized possession.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

So nobody uses limb saver recoil pads.
Interesting.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I stay away from shotguns. If I had fired one that had a good recoil pad I might think differently about them.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

the only one I have replaced is wearing a Morgan Pad


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## Rodeo's Bud (Apr 10, 2020)

I've had a bit of a shotgun obsession lately. Buddy at LGS calls and says, hey, we have one right up your alley.

It's bad for my wallet.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

The gun. I'm having restocked has A Morgan pad on It
Never cared for it.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> shotguns have a way of doing that , costing more than you paid for them
> 
> or maybe the initial deal was just that good
> 
> ...


I’ve got a couple Police Mags I’ve modded over the years. A well-used Police gun that has been properly brought back up to snuff is THE definitive 870.

The last one I finished is in a two-tone tan/black Burdsong Black-T with a set of Magpul furniture. The final mod was to put tubes in the 18” slug barrel. I took it with me last time I was traveling through WI, stopped in the Gander in Kenosha, and they let me strap on an apron and install them myself, for old time’s sake. It’s my turkey gun, now.

It looks like a model you’d see in a current catalog, but has 40 years of silk worn into the action.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

mine is a 1985 figure it road around in the rack right about 25 years before I bought it mid recession in 2010

has the early speed feed stock before they added the shell holder to the but stock

if I would have had the money I would have bought a few I couldn't so I picked the best 

it was filthy a good cleaning , a new rear sight and tighten the stock up was all it needed , then I did the choke tubes. 

this spring I will get it out for some trap shooting , I shot one round of trap last year shortly after getting the chokes installed. didn't do very well but also not bad considering I had a broken trigger finger I had smashed it the week before , I pulled the trigger with my middle finger but it still hurt the index finger from the recoil 
figured 17 was't terrible considering.


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

I put a mercury filled tube in the stock of my daughter's deer rifle to help with recoil. I was amazed at the difference.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

nchobbyfarm said:


> I put a mercury filled tube in the stock of my daughter's deer rifle to help with recoil. I was amazed at the difference.


Those are incredibly effective. There are a half dozen baffles in that tube, so it resists the recoil through the entire impulse, no matter how long it is. I sold and installed at least 100 of those 20 years ago. They were $40 then, but I’m sure that has gone up.

If the shooter can handle the extra 1/2# (which is in the stock where it’s easiest to carry anyway), there isn’t a more effective recoil cut.


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> Those are incredibly effective. There are a half dozen baffles in that tube, so it resists the recoil through the entire impulse, no matter how long it is. I sold and installed at least 100 of those 20 years ago. They were $40 then, but I’m sure that has gone up.
> 
> If the shooter can handle the extra 1/2# (which is in the stock where it’s easiest to carry anyway), there isn’t a more effective recoil cut.


It was 2004 and it was about the same at $40. 

I remember it was her 21st birthday present. A youth model Ruger 243 with a wood stock. 

No one wanted the liability of drilling the stock for fear of it cracking. I put it in my vice and drilled it with a paddle bit. 

They are by far the best I have seen for recoil suppression.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> mine is a 1985 figure it road around in the rack right about 25 years before I bought it mid recession in 2010
> 
> has the early speed feed stock before they added the shell holder to the but stock
> 
> ...


I found a picture that has the one I described. Both of these are Police Mags that were finished by Birdsong’s.

The one on the left, I was going for “how pretty can you make a tactical shotgun?” The color is a battleship gray that Birdsong was working on at the time, and the furniture is legit 870 Police walnut. I went through all 200 or so stocks and forends we had to pick them out myself.
_ETA: the extension is Remington OEM, but not the normal one for an 870. They designed it for the V3, and were just getting ready to release it around the time of the first bankruptcy. I don’t know if it ever went retail or not._

The one on the right is the hunting gun I posted about above. I had a combo set of barrels finished in Birdsong Tan (the one he used to use on the FBI’s H&Ks). The bird barrel is from a Wingmaster, and the rifle sighted barrel was a fixed-IC Police barrel that I eventually put choke tubes in to use for turkey, since I don’t hunt deer with a slug gun anymore.


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## Hiro (Feb 14, 2016)

JJ Grandits said:


> So nobody uses limb saver recoil pads.
> Interesting.


I put one on my 11-year olds shotgun that he uses for trap shooting. But, I had to shorten the stock for him or the factory pad would have been what he had. It does feel like the recoil is less, but shooting target loads never seemed like it was rough if you are mounting the gun right.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> I found a picture that has the one I described. Both of these are Police Mags that were finished by Birdsong’s.
> 
> The one on the left, I was going for “how pretty can you make a tactical shotgun?” The color is a battleship gray that Birdsong was working on at the time, and the furniture is legit 870 Police walnut. I went through all 200 or so stocks and forends we had to pick them out myself.
> _ETA: the extension is Remington OEM, but not the normal one for an 870. They designed it for the V3, and were just getting ready to release it around the time of the first bankruptcy. I don’t know if it ever went retail or not._
> ...


mine is all about functional most of the time running a full choke , I have other chokes for it including a rifled choke
around here nearly all your old 12's that were carried a lot are a full choke it just works
sleeping pad and horse wrap to get the stock up to the sights then wrapped in electrical tape to lock it in and covered with a stock sleeve to hold some spare shells
I have the tube extender , the traditional one with the slightly reduced diameter end to take the Marine corp bayonet , I don't run the tube extender it much it adds more weight than it is useful for most of my purposes.
having it threaded cost more than I paid for the gun but it made it so handy.


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## goodatit (May 1, 2013)

JJ Grandits said:


> So nobody uses limb saver recoil pads.
> Interesting.


have 2 limbsaver recoil pads. one, made to fit benelli m1 field gun. the second limsaver pad is a slip on that fits the stock perfectly on a franchi semi-auto. very happy with both.


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