Good Gun Gear: The Jones Pad Adjuster Great for a Variety of Shooters

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Now that I have (almost) enough guns for myself, my new excuse for hanging around the used gunrack is to pick up guns for the kids in our high school trap club to shoot. An increasing number come from non-shooting families so I’ve grabbed three older 870s and an 1100 for kids in the last couple years. “It’s for the children,” I tell myself.

Since factory stocks don’t fit everybody, adjustable butt pads like the well-known Jones Pad Adjuster shown here on a Bill Davis synthetic stock, make it possible to suit a variety of shooters. That’s become especially clear to me this year when we have boys and girls ranging in height from not much over 5′ to 6′ 7″ in our club.

This is the “Thru the Pad” model meaning you can loosen the plate with an allen wrench and move it up or down or twist the toe in our out without having to remove the pad. It’s especially useful for tall boys and for girls, who often have longer necks than boys.

Being able to drop the pad down compensates for the greater distance between their shoulder pocket and cheekbone. Without the pad you see long-necked kids mount the gun with over half the pad sticking up above their shoulder, rather than tucked into the shoulder pocket where it belongs. Girls are especially guilty of this, as they seem to want to shoot standing straight up with their heads up.

The buttplate and a Kick-Eez pad to go on it cost around $100. It solves a lot of fit problems, adjusts in an instant and installs fairly easily. You have to cut the aluminum plate to rough size on a jigsaw, then grind it flush to the stock. It’s not a difficult job if you have tools for it.