Rubber Recoil Pads for Sore Shouldered Shooters

The Bullet:In

The 20X Malcolm scope is here. I have been waiting for this - and I finally get to put one on my rifle and take it out to the range. It comes equipped with the competition mounts featured on our 8X Gen ii, along with a completely redesigned scope tube. We’re talking more length, a bigger objective, and a parallax adjustment reminiscent of the old Unertl 20X’s.

Now what the heck should I mount it on?

I’d also like to congratulate the Dow Arms Room for the impressive efforts of their shooting team. At a recent match, they had too much fun showing off what their garands could do. I’d like to see their collection of medals some time.

And in other news, I’ve finally been catching up on Brandon Herrera’s 50-cal AK videos. All I can really say is - don’t try it at home, but certainly watch it at home. They’re exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.

And for our main story:

When I first started looking into the history of Metal Butt Plates, I didn’t quite know what I might find. Pretty quickly, my research turned toward the development of rubber recoil pads. Everything I was reading was highlighting the simple fact that shooters of ‘ye olden times’ had precisely the same concerns - and inventiveness - as the shooters of today. In the case of metal and rubber butt plates, the concern was one I’m sure many of you are familiar with: high recoiling long arms hurt less when there’s a cushion for your shoulder.

Our story picks up in 1874 with the Silvers Company of England, and ends around 1930 with a name I’m sure many of you are familiar with: Pachmayr. A bit of a spoiler alert: These bruised-shoulder shooters solved the serious concerns of considerable kick, even way back then.

Through ingenuity and a desire to shoot without flinching, they went through every variation of recoil pad you can imagine. From the first solid rubber pads bolted onto the backs of shotguns, they worked the shape and structure to increase its effectiveness. They tried springs, they tried air. They had buttplates with adjustable height and carvable shape, set atop spacers to perfectly fit the stock to the shooter. In essence, the shooters of old did exactly what shooters today are still doing - find a way to make recoil manageable.

I hope you enjoy this walk through the turn of the century, as the advent of shotgun cartridges enabled people to shoot high-recoil long arms more often than ever before.

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