During a recent visit to my gunsmith’s shop in Bend, I brought up the issue of length of pull. As measured on a rifle or shotgun, length of pull is the distance between the trigger and the very back edge of the buttplate.

How pivotal is this measurement to proper fit of a stock and accurate shooting? Mr. Wills quickly grabbed his gauge and measured my length of pull, which turned out to be 13.5 inches.

According to Randy, in the case of a rifle, as long as you’re within one-half inch of your length of pull — hereafter referred to by the acronym LOP — you’ll have no issues. If LOP on a .22 or the like is a bit short, it’s not an issue due to the nonexistent recoil. The same cannot be said in the case of a hunting rifle.

Accentuated recoil, though not purely the fault of a too-short or too-long stock, can be a symptom of improper LOP. Most factory rifles tend to come with a “one size fits all” length of pull of between 13.5 and 13.75 inches.

Off a bench rest you’ll likely not notice much difference in LOP as long as the eye relief on your scope is properly set. Field positions, especially offhand, are less forgiving. If you’re a stocky man of 5 feet 2 inches tall or an Amazon woman of 6 feet 4, run-of-the-mill stock dimensions may be a source of excessive recoil or difficulty in snapping the rifle to your shoulder.

Randy continued that with shotguns, it was absolutely important to have the correct LOP; there was no half-inch margin for error with shotguns as with rifles. I have in my collection a variety of long guns measuring everywhere from 12 and 7⁄16 to 14¼ inch LOP. Most of these are rifles which land within the half-inch margin of my proper length of pull.

One particularly nasty kicker is an old Savage 94C 20 gauge single-shot. Not surprisingly, its lightweight and long 14 and 3/16 length of pull makes for an unpleasant experience each time I pull the trigger. My Remington 870 20 gauge, by contrast, has a 13 and 13/16 LOP and is much heavier and more pleasant to shoot.

Before you rush down to Ace Hardware to buy stock spacers or bust out your hacksaw, be sure you have your length of pull properly measured. Traditionally, this was achieved by gripping your long gun with your shooting hand, finger on the trigger — you will have triple-checked that the firearm is NOT loaded before doing this — and by cradling the buttstock upon the inside of your forearm while holding it at a 90 degree angle to your bicep, you would see whether or not that gun was too long, too short, or just right.

The trouble with that is it’s not an exact science. Save yourself unnecessary confusion and go see your preferred local gunsmith. He will properly measure your LOP and get you squared away. Likely your guns fit you well enough to shoot them already. But if you’ve got an unrepentant kicker or if you’re planning to build a custom stock or firearm in the near future, do yourself a favor and do it right. Close is only good enough for horseshoes and hand grenades!

Want to sound off? Write to us at shootingthebreezebme@gmail.com or check us out on Facebook!