POTD: Curvaceous Coach Gun – Shotgun Stock Cast
Sam.S 10.08.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a photo that I took while on a recent trip to the Cody Firearms Museum of a W. Collath double-barrel shotgun. Paying close attention to the stock you may notice that it is rather odd-looking. This is because the stock literally curves/angles to one direction. This is called “cast” and it is typically reserved for shotguns… custom shotguns. I learned about stock cast and how it worked while attending school for gunsmithing. This extreme example of stock cast is usually reserved for the avid sportsman or sportswoman who is cross-dominant. To those of you who may not know what cross dominance is, it is where your dominant hand is not on the same side as your dominant eye. An example would be if someone was right-handed but was also left-eye dominant. In that situation, you have three options. Take measures to teach your brain to use the correct eye, completely block off the current dominant eye with an eye patch (or tape on shooting glasses), or have a shotgun that casts the stock in your favor. There is “cast on” and “cast off”. Cast on is a stock made for a left-handed shooter and cast off is a right-handed shooter. Most modern production shotguns either are dead down the center straight or have a small amount of cast-off like most CZ USA shotguns are cast off.
