Stock LOP

[Wolf76]

Have to ask why virtually all factory and aftermarket stocks have a 13.5" lop.
I need a 14" lop and its always a new stock and a significant upcharge. At 6' tall, I can't be the only one needing / benefiting from a longer lop.
So, is everyone else cool with 13.5" or am I a freak?

 

[rharfo]

I won't buy a gun I can't either lengthen or one that is already at 13 3/4. My customs have all been 14. I can get by at 13 3/4 with winter clothes on but I am much more comfortable at 14.

 

[Rick Richard]

I am just the opposite at 13 LOP.

 

[memtb]

I think that they are just trying to get a "happy medium"! At 6 feet tall.....you are taller and likely have a longer LOP than the average American male! Just the price you pay for being above average!

And then, for those of us that hunt/shoot in cold weather....a shorter LOP is a desirable thing to have! memtb

 

[JJMoody]

I have the same problems with lop. I'm 6'4 with a 6'9 wingspan and have a difficult time getting comfortable behind my rifles. I think I need a 15" lop. My bow draw length is 31.5", not many great options in that one! In the end I'm "making it work" but have started and stopped and started trying to find a solution. I dropped the ball on getting a lop extension on my hunting rifle last year by a guy who had some great ideas on a fix.

 

[ntsqd]

I was taught an old trick for LOP and I've no idea how well known it is or isn't; armpit to first knuckle of trigger finger with arm straight is your Basic LOP. Subtract as needed for winter clothing.
Used to be you could buy thin shim Bakelite or hard plastic spacers (1/4" & less) for the butt-pad, but a new pad still needs to be fitted for it to look right.

 

[ofbandg]

I am six feet tall, or at least I was once, and my rifles are cut to between 12 3/4 and 13. You guys must be able to scratch your knees without bending over. Some of the difference is, I think, the way we were taught. I grew up in Eastern whitetail country at a time when still hunting was the preferred method and getting a rifle up fast and having it point naturally was essential. This meant keeping your head upright and bringing the butt well in on your collarbone. Iron sights took away the need to stretch your neck forward to get the full scope picture. It was close range shooting and short handy rifles were the norm. When I moved west and graduated to longer range rifles it was built-in so I had to modify any rifle I purchased. I have even managed to convert many of my hunting friends to shorter "pulls" just by getting them to remove the butt pad on their rifles and see how it feels to shoulder the rifle afterwards. Of course, the scope has to be moved forward unless you needed extension rings anyway, which I find is not uncommon with long actions. Most guys, it seems, adapt to their rifle instead of having it adapt to them.

 

[Wolf76]

I took this from another website, but I fully agree with it.

Shoulder Pocket
To be honest, the shoulder pocket is a place that eluded me for an embarrassingly long time. I couldn't seem to figure out exactly where this magical spot was. The purpose of the shoulder pocket is to provide a place for the rifle butt (the end of the stock, or the "back" of the gun) to press against. Because I learned to shoot using a 10/22 rifle (small caliber rimfire) I was able to get away with an imperfect shoulder pocket because the gun didn't have much kick to it (more formally known as recoil). When I started shooting more powerful rifles with substantially more recoil (25-06, 30-06, .308, etc), I would immediately feel it my shoulder pocket position was poor. It hurt!

For new (or not so new) shooters, I hope to save you the same pain I had to do through before figuring this out. Start at the center of your chest and find your collarbone. Run your fingers out along the collarbone toward your shoulder. Once you've identified the entire collarbone ridge, take your hand and place it horizontally just below your collarbone and press inward somewhat firmly. With the tips of your fingers you should be able to feel where your shoulder bones begin. You should also be able to feel a somewhat soft "empty" space just before you get to your shoulder bones. (Hint: you're not quite at your armpit yet, but close). This is the so-called "shoulder pocket". The butt of your rifle should rest here in this fleshy, muscled area and not touch any hard, bony parts of your body. The top of the stock should sit just below your collarbone and the side of the stock should sit just to the inside of your shoulder bones. The primary error I was making was that I was letting the stock touch my collarbone; I was holding the gun too high.

 

[KS2506]

There are Pachmayr pads that are 1&1/2" thick and Kick-EEZ has some that are 1&3/8" thick. You could also buy a new oversize pad and some spacers and have them fitted by a good gun smith.

 

[redleg1013]

I was taught an old trick for LOP and I've no idea how well known it is or isn't; armpit to first knuckle of trigger finger with arm straight is your Basic LOP. Subtract as needed for winter clothing.
Used to be you could buy thin shim Bakelite or hard plastic spacers (1/4" & less) for the butt-pad, but a new pad still needs to be fitted for it to look right.

You meant to measure from the bend of the elbow, when the forearm is 90 degrees to the upper arm, to the first knuckle back from the fingernail right? That's the measurement derrived from the Brownell's length of pull gage anyway.

 

[ntsqd]

You meant to measure from the bend of the elbow, when the forearm is 90 degrees to the upper arm, to the first knuckle back from the fingernail right? That's the measurement derrived from the Brownell's length of pull gage anyway.

Yes, Thank you. It was early this morning and not a lot of sleep thanks to SouthWest Airlines.

 

[Susquatch]

Have to ask why virtually all factory and aftermarket stocks have a 13.5" lop.
I need a 14" lop and its always a new stock and a significant upcharge. At 6' tall, I can't be the only one needing / benefiting from a longer lop.
So, is everyone else cool with 13.5" or am I a freak?

There are too many combinations of rifles available already. Last thing I want is to have to order one with a 50" length of pull to match my 12ft height......

OK, maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but it's a lot cheaper to add a thicker or thinner recoil pad than it is to have to specify a custom rifle stock. If they all came in a wide range of lengths to fit everyone perfectly we would never be able to find what we want in stock.

Seriously, none of the factory LOPs fit me either and I am a lot bigger than those who have posted here. Hence my nick name. I just live with it or add thicker pads.

Edit - the above reads a bit snotty to me. That was not my intent. How about this instead.

Manufacturers don't want to sell a wide range of lengths. It drives up inventory costs and plant complexity and in a perverse sort of way would actually reduce total sales because nobody would carry our size and/or the odd sizes would not sell. So they prefer a one-size-fits-all approach and hope that buyers like me will just add a recoil pad.....

 

[Wolf76]

There are too many combinations of rifles available already. Last thing I want is to have to order one with a 50" length of pull to match my 12ft height......

OK, maybe that's exaggerating a bit, but it's a lot cheaper to add a thicker or thinner recoil pad than it is to have to specify a custom rifle stock. If they all came in a wide range of lengths to fit everyone perfectly we would never be able to find what we want in stock.

Seriously, none of the factory LOPs fit me either and I am a lot bigger than those who have posted here. Hence my nick name. I just live with it or add thicker pads.

Edit - the above reads a bit snotty to me. That was not my intent. How about this instead.

Manufacturers don't want to sell a wide range of lengths. It drives up inventory costs and plant complexity and in a perverse sort of way would actually reduce total sales because nobody would carry our size and/or the odd sizes would not sell. So they prefer a one-size-fits-all approach and hope that buyers like me will just add a recoil pad.....

Your point is well taken.
I'd add they often have youth models with shorter stocks. They don't even generate a significant amount of sales, but yet it's available.
Remington has a very standard line up. If they molded a 14" stock, it wouldn't be any big deal. Kind of like having sst or cm barrels. Could even have it as an aftermarket option.
I'm certain there's a market for longer lop stocks. Wish factory gun manufacturers would address the demand.

 

[redleg1013]

From a production stand point, the major manufacturers have addressed about as much variability as their bottom lines will allow. Heck, it's only been fairly recently that the south-paws have been able to buy equipment made for them. As a quick side note, Savage has recently introduced something along the lines of a semi-customizable stock, with a variety of recoil pads, spacers and cheek pieces.

Building molds, I know that the customer is going to squeeze every nickel out of them (including running them past their maintenance schedule -- as long as it's making good parts it's making money). Why? Making an injection mold is an arduous process that often reveals several needed revisions along the way, and when said mold runs upwards of $1M you can bet that it's going to take time for the ~$10 in plastic/shot to pay off the mold. The company is going to have already determined that the sales will be there to support the project.
Yes, there is a market for longer LOP stocks, the aftermarket. Places like Boyd's fill that market, because it's easier to shift a work offset on a CNC one-off than to build, set-up, run, maintain, tear down, and store numerous, sporadically used molds. Or, as another poster said, just buy a much much cheaper (by comparison) spacer.