I had always been a little dismissive of the idea of a custom stock. I say this at the risk of confirming my ignorance, but hear me out: I already had an adjustable stock on my Krieghoff K-80, and I preferred it without any adjustments. Therefore, that contraption was of limited value to me. My LOP (Length of Pull) is 14.5” – which is fairly common. Cast was something to adjust to rather than worry about. Heck, if I had one custom stock made and shot it really well, that would be a slippery slope; I would need to have custom stocks made for all my guns. This is already an expensive hobby, so I thought it better to learn to shoot the gun as it was rather than custom-fitting the stock to me—and perhaps at one point in my shooting development, that was not terrible thinking. I was not yet disciplined enough in my mount for a custom fit to make sense.
So, what changed? Jim Bellows. Jim is a legendary shooter, and his exploits can be seen in an entire corner of the Hall of Fame dedicated to him in San Antonio. Jim is the only shooter in history (at that time) to win the World Shoot High Overall Championship two years in a row, in 1967 and 1968. He almost made it a four-time run after having first won the High Overall World Championship in 1965 and narrowly missing in 1966. To make a long story short, Jim took a break from shooting for several years and notoriously “committed golf” during that timeframe. He got back into sporting clays seriously in 2015 and made the US Sporting Clays Team in the Senior Super Veteran category. Last year, Jim stayed with me at my place in Doylestown, PA, so he could go back and forth to Krieghoff International in Ottsville, PA, to get his custom stock made—and to drink all my good wine and whiskey.
I was fascinated by the process. From the selection of the wood blank to the custom fitting and the shaping of the stock over a three-day period, I was amazed. Of course, Jim is a very experienced shooter and knew exactly what he wanted. That helps. He could also tell exactly where the gun was shooting. Beyond the patterning board, we ran up to Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays so Jim could test the stock on real targets. When he missed, he knew exactly why and what adjustments were required.
That part scared the hell out of me. If I was going to go down this path with my own custom stock, I knew I would have trouble identifying the necessary adjustments. At that stage, I was still not exactly sure why I missed a target. I was a Class A shooter and simply assumed that I must be behind the target—not that the gun was off. But after seeing the process with Jim, an idea had taken root. An idea is a dangerous thing; once it takes hold, it is nearly impossible to stop. And his stock turned out gorgeous! I was smitten.
Of course, you are probably thinking that Mr. Bellows colluded with Alex Diehl, CEO of Krieghoff International, to entrap me in this undertaking. That is what I concluded as well. Granted, a smile from a pretty lady across the bar would never catch your eye unless you were looking to begin with—and with that in mind, I must share some of the blame. The next thing I knew, I was in the conference room at Krieghoff with Alex walking me past a selection of the most gorgeous blanks I have ever seen. It was quite the education, understanding the subtle differences in grades of wood and noticing the unique beauty that each had to offer. As it tends to happen, one caught my eye and we were off. Fortunately for me, it was at a price point that almost made sense (or that I could at least rationalize).
I knew from their website that their founder, Ludwig Krieghoff, was considered a pioneer in his day. His insight that “you shoot with the barrel—you hit with the stock” anchors their manufacturing tradition and forms the basis for their patented custom stock process. In this process, a 200-year-old piece of wood undergoes a 16-step transformation to create a flawless, custom-made stock. This meticulous hand-crafting ensures a perfect point of impact.
That led me to a meeting with Maik Zimmerman, Expert Gunsmith and Stock Maker, where we set upon the process of turning my large slab of wood into a custom stock. He started by outlining my old stock—which made sense; I certainly didn’t hate it. But through the fitting process, he adjusted both the angle of my grip and the thickness and length. It felt much more natural in my hands and gave me better control. Over the next couple of days, we spent a lot of time on the patterning board and Maik patiently made refinements. When it came time for me to test the gun on live targets, I opted to run down to M&M Sporting Clays to meet with Anthony Matarese, Jr. Even though I was not qualified to tell where I was missing the target, Anthony was. Heck, he tells me all the time!
Anthony brought me right to the patterning board at M&M and immediately commented that he liked this stock much better for me. After spending the next couple of hours on the course, I was really starting to get comfortable. Mind you, the stock was still unfinished and looked more like a 2×8 board, but it was exciting to see the potential. Even at this stage, I was feeling more “at one” with the gun than with the old stock and was solidly breaking targets. Anthony made a couple of suggestions for tweaking the fit. Maik knew exactly what I was talking about and, once those refinements were complete, I took the still-unfinished stock, boarded a plane, and put it to the test at the Fujairah Mountain Shooting Championship in the United Arab Emirates and the Jack Links Tournament in Okeechobee, FL.
Let me just say: the stock was not the problem! I was humbled in Fujairah, but shot the Main at Jack Links pretty well—until I crashed on the last day with a bout of strep. But after some really extensive shooting in tournament conditions, it was time to have the work finished. That entailed a great deal of sanding, detailed hand-checkering, and a million coats of a durable polyurethane finish. The resulting stock was truly a thing of beauty—much nicer than I imagined it could be. Maik proved to be a true artist as well as a craftsman.
Things started to really come together after that. I earned a punch at the Friday Remington Prelim at the Gator Cup later that spring and earned five punches putting me into AA Class at the North American FITASC & New Jersey State Championship that May. I have to admit, the new stock made for a more natural, consistent mount, and that really helped. It certainly added to my confidence. Was it all attributable to the stock? Maybe, maybe not. But either way, there is no way I would go back to the original.
