Favorite Aftermarket Recoil Pad?

[Loper]

What is your favorite non-OEM recoil pad on a hunting rifle?

Do you prefer Limbsaver, Pachmayer, or KickEez? Are they all generally the same or is one better vs another in reducing felt recoil?

My only experience with an aftermarket recoil pad is the Limbsaver Airtech. It worked fine, and was soft to help reduce the felt recoil, but I’m not a fan of the way the pad looks at the end of a rifle. I prefer the look of a very subtle looking pad.

 

[Macintosh]

Depends. For pure recoil reduction the sorbothane pads seems best out of the ones I’ve used (decelerator and kickeez are both sorbothane I believe). Some folks claim they can, but I cant tell the difference between them. However a 1” pad like that weighs almost half a pound, so any where that matters to me—mostly shotguns where weight distribution really matters, but also some rifles—I like the cervaletti microcell pads, they are still quite good recoil reduction but only about 1/3 the weight of the equivalent sorbothane pad.

 

[left hunter]

I run the microcell pads mentioned above and fit them myself. Seems to work as good as anything I have tried and weigh less than anything except a flip flop pad

 

[Loper]

Good point in the weight of the pad, I didn’t really think about that initially, but 1 lb is a lot.

I didn’t consider the microcell pad, but I’m looking into it now. What thickness do you prefer? It appears to come in 23mm (.91”) thick with a weight of 2.5 oz. and 15mm (.59”) thick and weighs 1.97 oz.

 

[Macintosh]

Good point in the weight of the pad, I didn’t really think about that initially, but 1 lb is a lot.

I didn’t consider the microcell pad, but I’m looking into it now. What thickness do you prefer? It appears to come in 23mm (.91”) thick with a weight of 2.5 oz. and 15mm (.59”) thick and weighs 1.97 oz.

Half a pound. If the gun isn’t balance sensitive go with a regular pad. If its recoil reduction you want, remember lighter will recoil more, and lighter guns are harder to shoot well. Otherwise use whichever pad gets you the length of pull you want. You’ll find those microcell pads lighter than advertised after grinding to fit. They will compress slightly after storing a heavy gun butt-down on them for a few years, they are inexpensive so easy enough to replace but I would use them where it matters, not as a general rule.

 

[Turkeytider]

Slip on Limbsaver literally made a Remington 870 12 gauge Super Mag turkey gun shootable for me. First time I shot it ( before Limbsaver ) it literally jarred me so badly it actually precipitated PVD in my left eye! Thought I had a detached retina, fortunately no. Shooting a 3" Hevi-13 turkey load. I can`t imagine what a 3.5" would have done.

 

[TN2shot07]

The last 3 I’ve upgraded were all kickeez, no issues. I have the deceleraters on two hs precision and they also work fine, not sure there’s a lot of difference