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Karsten / Kydex cheek piece

I have a Karsten cheek piece on a 6.5-284 that I am still on the fence about. I am a small person so an adjustable cheek piece is almost a must for me to get a good cheek weld. The Karsten one is very wide and kinda makes it hard to get in line with the scope. On another LRG I have I made my own cheek piece with schedule 40 PVC pipe and a heat gun. And I actually like it much better. I formed it so that when I have a good weld my head is straight up and down and perfectly aligned with the scope. It wa easy to do and only took 30 minutes to make. After I had it formed the way I wanted I sanded it and painted it with Alumahyde II. It looks great. I'll put up a pic ASAP.

If you have a heat gun already you can make one of these for less than $10. You can make it to fit you also. You could probably use an oven to heat it to pliable. Might just take longer. I don't know how to post a link here yet but let me know if you are interested in this technique and ill put up some pics of how I did it. Took progress pics along the way
 

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the whole width thing is my issue. i shouldered one of those savage 338s with the saddle cheek and it pushed my face so far off the bore. i didnt know if the karsten would be any different but it doesnt sound like it. I may just do the ol' foam risers and my stock pack.
 
Just FYI, I like the one I made myself sooo much better than the Karsten one that I'm probably going to replace the Karsten one with another home made one. I just feel like the Karsten is so wide that my head is tilted sideways to get my eye to the scope and I like my head level. The Savage LRH uses a Karsten cheek piece.

Hope this helps. Drive tacks
SM gun)
 
I have two karstens on different rifles and love them. They do the job they are supposed to do. I put both of mine in boiling water to soften up then molded them to the stocks. A custom fit in 3 minutes
 
I like mine as well. My son and I both shoot the rifle it's on (Savage) and I marked with paint marker my preferred position and his. That way we can adjust the cheek for each of us.

I'm a fairly good sized person so I could see where a smaller person migh have an issue.
 
I have two karstens on different rifles and love them. They do the job they are supposed to do. I put both of mine in boiling water to soften up then molded them to the stocks. A custom fit in 3 minutes

I didn't know you can mold them. Maybe I'll try that before making my own
 
I just went through this exercise and thought about a Karsten style piece. My problem is that I am left handed and most others who shoot my rifle will be right. Therefore, the karsten kind of doesn't work. I decided a amidexterous style is best and made my own. I used some PVC pipe, the kind that is used under sinks. It is thinner and smaller in diameter. I cut one side down the middle and used my torch to heat it up and basically flatten the sides. The curved piece fits my cheek and the sides match up with the top of the stock and down about 1 inch. I used high density foam with sticky tape to fill up the gap under the cheek piece. This essentially hold the cheek piece in place to the height I need it to be. I then just run a piece of electrical tape over the front and rear of the cheek piece and around the stock. The whole thing is then covered by a neoprene boot from sportsmans warehouse. It looks fine, functions perfectly, and cost me a total of $13.00.

The other option that I think would work even better is to simply use a piece of wood, shaved and formed correctly, with a couple of mounting studs that go into the top of the butt stock. Then you cover that with a removable cover for cleaning. No tape, just roll the cover forward, remove the riser, clean, replace. The only thing I don't know about is if the butt is hollow or not. Hollow butt might allow the riser to be quite stable enough.

Just a thought.
 
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