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There are several reasons why you may need to cover the metal stock of your rifle. One of them is not to have bare metal rubbing against your cheek when shooting the gun, especially in long shooting sessions. For me, the primary reason is that metals are materials with high thermal conductivity. If you think you may find yourself in a situation where you’ll have to use a metal stock in an extremely cold or hot environment, then it’s a good idea to cover the metal with some sort of insulating material because a cheek weld on a metal stock in these extreme temperatures is not the best experience.
The firearm with the largest variety of metal stocks is probably the AK. The most popular way of covering the AK metal stocks is wrapping or weaving paracord or leather straps on them. These are good DIY methods, however, there is another, arguably better-looking solution available on the market. A company called D4 Guns offers leather cheek rest kits for underfolder and wire side folding AK stocks.
The D4 Guns AK cheek rest kits are made of full-grain leather of black or brown color. The leather is thin enough to still allow folding the stocks retrofitted with these kits. Optionally, you can also order a neoprene foam padding to raise the cheek weld height by a quarter of an inch. According to the company, all materials used in the kit are non-corrosive and safe to be used on metal stocks.
The installation of D4 Guns AK cheek rest kits is done by stitching them on the stock with the provided sinew thread and needles. The following video shows how it’s done.
Of course, you can probably make something like this yourself, however, buying a pre-measured and tested kit will save you a lot of time and you’ll end up with a nice leather-wrapped stock like those shown in the pictures of this article.
Images by D4 Guns, www.d4guns.com
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