How to find the correct stock length

[SVI4ME]

I am a big strong guy and when I shoot my Benelli M1 Practical it seems to get away from me with 7.5 loads. Kinda jumps out of my hands and I get off target and dont go as fast as I think I should.

My thinking is that maybe my stock is too long and I cant tuck it into my body as well as I should. How do you determine the correct length of my stock for me?

[HOA]

The length of the stock is a matter of personal preference and shooting style. I shoot thousands of rounds a year, mostly sporting clays and 3 gun. I would try moving the front hand out farther on the forend and try a rubber boot to see if a longer stock helps. I doubt a shorter stock is going to help a big guy.

[SVI4ME]

The length of the stock is a matter of personal preference and shooting style. I shoot thousands of rounds a year, mostly sporting clays and 3 gun. I would try moving the front hand out farther on the forend and try a rubber boot to see if a longer stock helps. I doubt a shorter stock is going to help a big guy.

I will give it a try

Thanks

[Agusta]

You might want to be sure you have a strong athletic stance to be sure the recoil isn't pushing your shoulder back. If you're not leaning into the gun some even the biggest guy will get knocked around some by the recoil.

[EkuJustice]

What kind of 7.5 shot loads are you using? The benelli will move around a little more than some of the other guns being its a lighter gun. Make sure you lean into the gun when your shooting also. I would doubt the stock is too long for you being a bigger guy. Just dont expect pistol splits with the shotgun

[59Bassman]

Are you trying to shoot squared to the target, or with your feet offset?

[Duke Nukem]

When the gun is shouldered your nose should be 1 to 2 inches away from the thumb knuckle of your trigger pulling hand.

Are you trying to shoot squared to the target, or with your feet offset?

[59Bassman]

Duke's tip is the rule of thumb (ha!) I use when doing fittings for folks. The "average" stock dimensions fit very few people really well, but enough people "sorta" well to be useful. The couple thoughts I had were first if the stock is too short, you may not be getting it tucked into the pocket well. On firing, this lets the gun get a good run on you and smack you. The stock needs to be pretty tight into the pocket to control recoil. If the stock is long enough so that you're off balance to the rear, you'll tend to get kicked pretty hard. This is why women shooting "average" stocks tend to get kicked.

Gil Ash used to say "nose over toes" - your nose should be about over the big toe of your lead foot (left foot for a right handed shooter). If you set up this way, recoil is normally pretty controllable. The reason I asked if you were trying to square up to the target is that if you're trying to shoot squared up, it will tend to make the effective length longer, which may put you off balance. Make sure you're in a good, stable position - that's the biggest key good shooting.

On the 1 - 2" thumb length for proper stock fit - while I agree with that for most shooting disciplines, I'm experimenting with the low side of that myself for 3-gun. A full 2" can make for challenging mounts if you're not in a good pre-set position when you mount the gun. In 3-gun with all of the movement required, I think that a 1" (or even slightly less) distance between thumb and nose may be a better way to go, assuming that the comb height works for you at that length.