We introduced Jyrki from Finland and his CNC machined throwlevers in a recent TFB post.

While examining his webpage I noticed he was also selling a pad for the ACE ARFX AR15 stock, a stock I use on a few of my rifles.

As much as I like the ACE ARFX skeleton stock I always modify them. The rubber recoil pad which goes to your shoulder is very sticky. Now this may be an advantage in some cases, but for practical, dynamic shooting the rubber pad always gets stuck on my clothing, slowing down the draw among other things.

My mod is not invented by me by any means, many use it, and it is very simple. I take normal silver tape and cover the rubber. It doesn’t looks very good, but it works. And my competition rifles are mainly for helping me do my best to win, not win a beauty contest.

Below: Looks are secondary, function over form. But Jyrki’s pad offers both.

Over to the solution with a pad made out of a hard material. From throwlever’s homepage:

Recoil pad for the ACE ARFX skeleton stock for the AR-15 – 20.00 €  — Milled from black HDPE. This is slightly thicker than the original 0.5″ pad. Excellent for competition use, as plastic pad does not stick to your clothing like the OEM rubber pad does. Does not come with screws. Mount with the screws that came with your stock. I have posted this pad design on Thingiverse, so if you own a 3D printer, you may print your own pad for free. ABS or PETG should work fine.

This means that the design is free, so you can download the CAD file and make it yourself in case you think €20 is too much.

Note the there is a difference between CNC machining (removing material) and 3D printing (additive manufacturing by layer on layer). In this case I would prefer CNC machining.

Jyrki’s pad, which he sent me for free for testing purposes, came with a note:

The pad is literally the second thing I have ever drawn with a CAD program. I knew nothing about CAD or CAM, don’t have any education for this. The pad was just a learning process in itself. I hope you like it.

I hope that can encourage other people to do a bit of their own R&D, if they have an idea they think can fly.

Below: The recoil pad with a Böker Kwaiken in Carbon Fiber, a very nice flipper knife I sourced from Wanderoo. Notice the very flat back side of the pad.

The recoil pad installation was very easy. Getting rid of the old, sticky silver tape was the most difficult thing.

I have since used it on my competition rifle on several competitions (incl. the Lvl 3 Nordic Championship) with very good results. Actually I didn’t even think about the new pad, which I consider a good thing. I didn’t have to create a new habit.

If you have an ACE ARFX stock you should buy one or build one yourself, unless you really like the sticky rubber on your shoulder. If you don’t shoot your rifle in competitions then it might not be for you.

Throwlevers.com can be found here: http://throwlevers.com/