Trimming Down a Stock

Last Dove season I bought a 12 gauge Yildiz O/U. So far I've been really impressed with it for the price. The only problem is I'm short and stocky and the length of pull is too long. I've done some research and it seems fairly simple to trim down the stock. My dad is pretty good with woodwork and has the tools. So I'm thinking about having him help me cut the stock down and installing a new recoil pad. Is this something you would recommend or am I overlooking something? If it was an expensive gun I would obviously take it to a professional. I just want to get some opinions before I try it.

I've done it before to make guns fit kids.

One thing I always did was drill two 1/4" holes in the stock before cutting the stock on the band saw.

That way if you want to lengthen the stock back you use a couple of pieces of 1/4" dowel and everything lines back up.

It is a Yildiz, go for it. Have an old Mossberg bolt .410 that was too long for my daughter. Asked my Uncle to shorten it in his shop, then I screwed the plastic pad back on and dremeled the plastic butt plate to fit. Fits here fine now and you only see the work on it if you are paying attention.

It it was a higher end piece or collectible I'd say spend money and let somebody else do it.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'm going to give it a try.

I have a funny (to me, anyway) story about that. When I was a kid Dad bought me my first deer rifle. The LOP was too long for me, so he carried it to our local 'smith to have it cut down for me. I shot it that way for about 4 years, then one day at the range the scope creased my eyebrow. We went back to the same gunsmith. He saw my shaved eyebrow and stitches, opened up his front center desk drawer and pulled out the exact same piece of stock he'd cut off 4 years earlier and held it up asking with a grin "Y'all looking for this?"