Fried Chicken Blowout
Well-Known Fanatic
I'm going to fire up my first post here with a write up on how to fix one the the issues I see with the SLP shotgun... I will do this in several post since I don't know how may photos I can use in a single post. I know some forums limited it to 4 per post. Here we go...
I've been getting back into 3-Gun in the last 8 months or so after focusing strictly on IDPA for the last couple of years. When I set out to get into 3-Gun again, I decided to look for a shotgun that provided the best bang for the buck and was left hand friendly. I ended up deciding on the FNH SLP Mk1 since the safety could be flipped and it appeared to have a good amount of aftermarket support. I got it about 8 months ago and immediately thought it was one bad ass piece of equipment... BUT... Who the hell decided to make the stock so long???!!!
I'm 5' 11" and I couldn't mount the gun without dragging the stock on my chest. If my shirt had a pocket, the stock would hang up on my pocket when dismounting the gun. I was also forced to blade my stance much more than I normally would when shooting rifle. The factory spec says the LOP is 14"... My measurement is actually 14.25" in the factory configuration. I believe this is actually shorter than the Winchester version but not by much. The factory recoil pad is pretty nice and reduced recoil pretty well from what I discovered.
Here's the factory recoil pad as supplied from the factory. It's been loosened up, that's why there is a gap there...

IMG_0487 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
My first thought to shorten the LOP was to rid the gun of the recoil part of the pad. I ended up cutting up the stock recoil pad to remove about 5/8" to see if it would help...

IMG_0488 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
As you can see here, I took it down to the nubs...

IMG_0489 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
This was a good improvement in the overall LOP. But after shooting it today vs my dad's factory FNH SLP Mk1, I discovered it had about twice the recoil as the factory gun. So something else needed to be done...
So once we discovered that our match for today was cancelled, my dad and I went in search of some sort of recoil pad to rework this situation. Thankfully my dad was also interested in shorting his LOP which was what really made this happen for me. I'm in my late 30's and have lived my life in the medical field. I'm pretty good with mechanical things, but I have an issue with thinking within a small box. At times I have difficulty thinking "outside the box" and being creative in this situation would be beneficial. My dad is in his early 60's and spent his younger years as a master cabinet maker and has the ability to make creative decisions and think outside the box which was a huge part to making this project a success...
At a local gun shop we were able to source the Pachmayr Decelerator Recoil Pad. It was low profile and seems like it would fit the bill. We got a chance to talk to their gunsmith a bit about how to do such a thing. He rambled on and on about how to use this jig to help get the angles right and how to do this or that to make this whole thing perfect... The whole time I'm thinking... Great, but this gun is going to get beat so I don't really care about getting it perfect, but I let him ramble. I knew my dad would be soaking this up and end up with some great ideas on how to make this happened with the limited tools we would have on hand. Sure enough, by the time we left there was a plan in his mind...
Here's what we ended up using...

IMG_0534 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr

IMG_0535 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
Of course we started out by breaking down both the guns and taking some measurements on how much we could hack off the stocks and still have clearance for the for the recoil system in the stock. We settled on 0.75" as what we could cut off and still have a little room for mistakes if we had to recut something. After deciding that, we got down to business...
The compound miter saw was setup to match the angles of the factory stock end.

IMG_0491 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
This called for the table angle to be placed at 3 degrees to match the factory stock once it was placed on the fence with a short piece of 1x material.

IMG_0504 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
The cutting head also needed to be tilted 1 degree in order to make up for the fact the the stock would not sit totally flat. This allowed for the fact that the stock was thinner at the grip than at the rear.

IMG_0502 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
Stand by for more...
I've been getting back into 3-Gun in the last 8 months or so after focusing strictly on IDPA for the last couple of years. When I set out to get into 3-Gun again, I decided to look for a shotgun that provided the best bang for the buck and was left hand friendly. I ended up deciding on the FNH SLP Mk1 since the safety could be flipped and it appeared to have a good amount of aftermarket support. I got it about 8 months ago and immediately thought it was one bad ass piece of equipment... BUT... Who the hell decided to make the stock so long???!!!
I'm 5' 11" and I couldn't mount the gun without dragging the stock on my chest. If my shirt had a pocket, the stock would hang up on my pocket when dismounting the gun. I was also forced to blade my stance much more than I normally would when shooting rifle. The factory spec says the LOP is 14"... My measurement is actually 14.25" in the factory configuration. I believe this is actually shorter than the Winchester version but not by much. The factory recoil pad is pretty nice and reduced recoil pretty well from what I discovered.
Here's the factory recoil pad as supplied from the factory. It's been loosened up, that's why there is a gap there...

IMG_0487 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
My first thought to shorten the LOP was to rid the gun of the recoil part of the pad. I ended up cutting up the stock recoil pad to remove about 5/8" to see if it would help...

IMG_0488 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
As you can see here, I took it down to the nubs...

IMG_0489 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
This was a good improvement in the overall LOP. But after shooting it today vs my dad's factory FNH SLP Mk1, I discovered it had about twice the recoil as the factory gun. So something else needed to be done...
So once we discovered that our match for today was cancelled, my dad and I went in search of some sort of recoil pad to rework this situation. Thankfully my dad was also interested in shorting his LOP which was what really made this happen for me. I'm in my late 30's and have lived my life in the medical field. I'm pretty good with mechanical things, but I have an issue with thinking within a small box. At times I have difficulty thinking "outside the box" and being creative in this situation would be beneficial. My dad is in his early 60's and spent his younger years as a master cabinet maker and has the ability to make creative decisions and think outside the box which was a huge part to making this project a success...
At a local gun shop we were able to source the Pachmayr Decelerator Recoil Pad. It was low profile and seems like it would fit the bill. We got a chance to talk to their gunsmith a bit about how to do such a thing. He rambled on and on about how to use this jig to help get the angles right and how to do this or that to make this whole thing perfect... The whole time I'm thinking... Great, but this gun is going to get beat so I don't really care about getting it perfect, but I let him ramble. I knew my dad would be soaking this up and end up with some great ideas on how to make this happened with the limited tools we would have on hand. Sure enough, by the time we left there was a plan in his mind...
Here's what we ended up using...

IMG_0534 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr

IMG_0535 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
Of course we started out by breaking down both the guns and taking some measurements on how much we could hack off the stocks and still have clearance for the for the recoil system in the stock. We settled on 0.75" as what we could cut off and still have a little room for mistakes if we had to recut something. After deciding that, we got down to business...
The compound miter saw was setup to match the angles of the factory stock end.

IMG_0491 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
This called for the table angle to be placed at 3 degrees to match the factory stock once it was placed on the fence with a short piece of 1x material.

IMG_0504 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
The cutting head also needed to be tilted 1 degree in order to make up for the fact the the stock would not sit totally flat. This allowed for the fact that the stock was thinner at the grip than at the rear.

IMG_0502 by FriedChickenBlowout, on Flickr
Stand by for more...