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recoil pad replacement

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

I recently replaced the poorly-fit, non-original buttpad on my .222. I am not familiar with the construction of the decelerator pad, but unless is vastly different than most recoil pads the installation would be about the same.
Take the old pad off. The screws are usually hidden down in a little hole in the rubber. Poke around until you find it.
A little spit on the screwdriver tip will keep the screwdriver from tearing out the rubber. Measure the distance between the screw holes in the butt of the stock, center-to-center. Position the new pad where you want it to get some sense of where the new holes have to be drilled on the new pad. Drill two holes from the BACK of the pad the same distance apart as the original holes in the stock. Only drill through the hard reinforced part of the pad and NOT into the softer rubber. Take an awl or other slender, pointy object and push it through the rubber part from the back. A little spit helps here as well. Now the screws can be put in the holes and the pad screwed down to the stock. Again, more spit. Take a pencil or better yet an aluminum marking pen and carefully mark the pad where the buttstock contour meets the pad, taking care not to mark or scratch the stock. I used some masking tape around the butt for this purpose. Take the pad off the stock. Now you are going to have fun. You need to grind down the pad to match the butt's contour. I used my tabletop drill press with one of these little rubber sanding drums chucked into it.
I ran it at the highest speed using a medium grit sanding belt that slips over the rubber drum. The drum is about 1 1/2" X 1 1/2". I suppose a larger one would work great. You can grind the top two-thirds of the pad pretty quick down to the line, but you must remember the angle on the heel of the stock should be carried through on the heel of the pad, so the heel of the pad must be held at a rather sharp angle. The pad should be remounted as necessary to see where you are at and where you need to grind. When you start getting close, switch to a finer grit on your drum. The more hand-fitting you do, the better it will look when you are finally finished. This procedure assumes you do not want to refinish the stock. It's a heck of a lot of work, almost worth the dough to have a gunsmith do it, but then I LIKE this kind of work.hope this helps, e-mail me if you have questions or whatever. -Mike [email protected]
 
I have a AV in 375 HH and it has the original red recoil pad and a black plastic spacer. I want to replace it with something a little softer. I cant figure out how it is attached or how to get it off. There are no tell tale holes in teh rubber to indicate screws. Searching an online manual shows some buried screws of sorts.
Can anyone tell me the proper way to remove the original?
Lloyd Litwin In saskatchewan
 
Lloyd,

Gregg is correct in that the black spacer is a (pardon me) sucker to deal with. "Proper" way to remove is subjective. In order to replace the pad, you will no doubt have to take the spacer right off to the wood, or is yours a laminate? That would be easier to work with.. I have done this and it isn't for the faint of heart. It takes time and a lot of patience so you don't end up damaging the stock. IF I were going to try to remove one again, I would first take the rubber pad down to the spacer and the screws, or perhaps alignment pins that have also been glued in, whichever it has. ALWAYS PROTECT THE STOCK. Once you are at that point you can see what you have to deal with pin or screw-wise. Never mind the pins for now. What I have done at this point is to use masking tape around the stock side of the spacer and as close to it as you can get. About three layers. Then I use a utility knife blade and gently tap it with a small hammer between the spacer and the wood. All around, a little at a time. You will find that the spacer may be quite brittle and it may pop off in small chunks. Once you get in from the edges of the stock you may have to switch to a small sharp wood chisel ( what I did). Always work from the outside edges in. The proper application of a Dremel will allow you to get the butt end clean to the wood. Emory clothe in different grits may be nice to have on hand as well. If you choose to take the masking tape off at this point, peel it to the back of the stock being careful not to lift any of the wood and finish off (don't pull straight up).
Select your replacement pad. A grind and fit would give you the most flexibility after you get it installed. Re-tape the end of the stock before you do this so you won't damage it or get glue on it. I've used a set of files to shape it from there.
If you don't have any woodworking skills, just take it to a gunsmith that you can trust. That's another thing in itself. I tried that route, and ended up doing it over myself.
It's interesting how we come up with ways of doing things out of necessity. This was my knee-jerk reaction to my "fix". Hopefully, you can develop a better mousetrap from this. This approach was horrifying to me, but I somehow made it work.
Good luck (and welcome to the forum),
S-A
 
Helpful thanks. The Custom Shop in Montana here in the US sells the red pads for about $125 and will put it on expertly for $250 pad included. I am debating spending that.
 
Helpful thanks. The Custom Shop in Montana here in the US sells the red pads for about $125 and will put it on expertly for $250 pad included. I am debating spending that.

If there is nothing wrong with your factory pad, it would behove you to just leave it alone. I have installed the Sako Pads that the Custom Shop sells for multiple customers & they are a poor quality pad with no metal skeleton in the black plastic plate. The waffled section isn't all that soft & doesn't appear very durable to me. You will be spending quite a bit of money for very little benefit, if any. In the field hunting you are not going to notice the recoil much & when shooting from the bench, just use one of the shoulder pads like PAST makes. If you insist on or need a different pad, get a quality pad like a Pachmeyer(who makes one that looks exactly like the faux "Sako" pad) or Limb Saver & save yourself $$$$ compared to the so called "Sako" pad. Just my two cents.
 
If there is nothing wrong with your factory pad, it would behove you to just leave it alone. I have installed the Sako Pads that the Custom Shop sells for multiple customers & they are a poor quality pad with no metal skeleton in the black plastic plate. The waffled section isn't all that soft & doesn't appear very durable to me. You will be spending quite a bit of money for very little benefit, if any. In the field hunting you are not going to notice the recoil much & when shooting from the bench, just use one of the shoulder pads like PAST makes. If you insist on or need a different pad, get a quality pad like a Pachmeyer(who makes one that looks exactly like the faux "Sako" pad) or Limb Saver & save yourself $$$$ compared to the so called "Sako" pad. Just my two cents.
Thank you Paulson that is very helpful. This one is a 222 Coltsman Deluxe; original and apparently never fired. I suppose it is worth keeping it "original" and not doing anything with the weak looking ~57 year old pad. It is a bit annoying as a pad is not needed on the little 222, and it makes me hesitate to store it on the butt. I prefer the old L46 which has no pad at all. I will definitely check out the Pachmeyer if I take this on. It seems you are a gunsmith - are you in the USA?
 
Thank you Paulson that is very helpful. This one is a 222 Coltsman Deluxe; original and apparently never fired. I suppose it is worth keeping it "original" and not doing anything with the weak looking ~57 year old pad. It is a bit annoying as a pad is not needed on the little 222, and it makes me hesitate to store it on the butt. I prefer the old L46 which has no pad at all. I will definitely check out the Pachmeyer if I take this on. It seems you are a gunsmith - are you in the USA?
Iowa! Right in the middle of the USA.
 
Hello all.
Could not find how to start a new thread topic so adding this here. It may help others. I see that many folks are concerned about storing Sako rifles with the original 'waffle' type recoil pads. I have never had a problem of storing butt down for the following reason. Many years ago I went to a automotive seat re-upholstery shop and bought several square yards of heavy duty laminated type sponge rubber used for truck seats. The type that has a thin firm layer on the top and a thick layer of softer sponge material underneath. Total thickness of about 1 1/2 inches or more. I covered the bottom of my gun safe with this material (firm side up), and stored the rifles upright in the normal fashion and have never had a problem of squished waffle type recoil pads. Make sure the rifle is vertically straight upright and the material is thick enough to spread the weight equally across the recoil pad and it will compress the material enough that no damage will occur. If you remove the rifles for cleaning, make sure to properly reinsert the recoil pad into the same indentation. My old Sakos have been stored this way for decades without compression damage. Don't know if this type of material is available today or not, but worth a search to solve the problem. Be informed that this does not stop natural deterioration shown by some inferior Sako recoil pads. One other point- my safe is humidity and temperature controlled which likely helps prevent deterioration. Sakojim.
 
Sakojim - thank you - that is very helpful and makes perfect sense. I am sure any similar material would do the job of distributing the pressure at the butt. I thought about hanging the rifle but your idea is a more wholesome fix because you can just use the safe as normal while positioning the gun so the butt hits the floor squarely.
I thought also to experiment with Armor All - the product used to keep the interior plastic of a car refreshed. It may be more cosmetic than real, but it might put some life back in the old red butt pad (?)
 
Sako pads which crush are defective in their chemical composition (or in their curing). Some will get "squishy" and be way too soft while others will get "crumbly" or way too hard. There is little you can do about either of these other than replace them.

Some pads are "just right" and last without significant crush for decades and can be stored sitting on the pad without damage. I think it is more the quality of the pad than how it is treated which determines how well it lasts, so putting padding underneath them when storing them butt-down may not offer too much in the way of preservation.

I like to store them butt-up, anyway, which, when alternated with rifles without pads that are stored butt-down actually increases the space between guns and allows them to more easily fit into a safe.
 
Stonecreek- Thanks that is excellent information on the pads and I like the safe storage method - great idea. After taking all this in I am going to try to live with this pad for a while. It is not at the terrible end of being entirely squishy or crumbly yet. The Armor All seemed to help and I will store in butt up. If I replace, I will try the Pachmayr.
The butt pad issue does stand in contrast to “old school” wood and metal - things I understand as workable and less risky. I do like some of the modern synthetics and do almost all my hunting with synthetic stocks now. Yet 50+ years ago - even 20 years ago - this synthetic stuff was not so well understood and the products were sometimes not ideal. This has been a great thread thanks to all.
 
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