Gunsmithing After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

Overflow10

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Sep 8, 2009
245
1
63
Rancho Murieta, CA
Just got back my Manners T stock back that Joe made into a a TA for me with KWM hardware.

Very clean work. Rock solid. Joe does great work and is easy to work with.

So much nicer than the stock pack I was using to get the right height/cheek weld.

Thanks again Joe!

1036hle.png
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

Not sure about the hardware alone...the whole job was a buck-fifty ($150). This is the second stock Joe has done for me. I cannot imagine a rifle without one now.

I also like he extra weight for this build. I can not wait to get it out on the range..
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

Joe's done all of my stock work (5 total) and all have held up to 3 TBRC's, 1 TPRC, multiple monthly long range and steel matches and some field shooting doing some squirrel killin
grin.gif
. They have all held up with zero problems or malfunctions. His work is top notch!
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

I believe Joe posts under "Stockdoc" here on the Hide and "jeducos" on the NCPPRC forum (http://www.ncpprc.com/).

I think the turn around time on this job would have been about 1 week from the time I got the stock to him. I was traveling for several weeks so I was not in a hurry to get it back. Same turn around time on my first stock but I am not sure what his work load is or KMW hardware availability was.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jakelly
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

I do not have any more of the Manners T stock and my camera sucks at pics in the house/at night. However there are a bunch on the NCPPRC forum at http://www.ncpprc.com/ under gunsmithing.

You may need to sign up/login to view these links but they have some good pics of his work:
http://www.ncpprc.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3791
http://www.ncpprc.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3485
http://www.ncpprc.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3225

SG

PS - this job was a buck-fity ($150) but I do not know how it compares to other stocks. I assume it depends upon the material and effort required to get the job done....
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

Do you have a picture of the other side of the stock?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Overflow10</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Just got back my Manners T stock back that Joe made into a a TA for me with KWM hardware.

Very clean work. Rock solid. Joe does great work and is easy to work with.

So much nicer than the stock pack I was using to get the right height/cheek weld.

Thanks again Joe!

1036hle.png
</div></div>
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

Just this past weekend Joe said my stock should be ready to ship out within the next week or so. Since McMillan doesn't offer an intergral adjustable cheek (only the plastic saddle) in the A2, Joe was the only alternative.
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

Looks very well done. Question - it looks like the stock is cut nearly half way down to cut out the adjustable part of the cheek piece. Are different depths of cut (consequently different cheek piece thicknesses) available? Does that affect performance?
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

flyboy10 - There's a square block that houses the legs that's about an inch in width so you want to cut the stock down far enough to accomodate this part with about an 1/8 wall on either side.

tacticalJ - yes, B&C are doable, though I don't get as many of those as the other brands.
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: stockdoc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">flyboy10 - There's a square block that houses the legs that's about an inch in width so you want to cut the stock down far enough to accomodate this part with about an 1/8 wall on either side.</div></div>
Thanks for the reply, when I'm ready to replace the Eagle stock pack on the rifle now, you're at the top of a very short list of people I'd have work on it.
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

Stockdoc,
You are da bomb!
Anyone lookng for after market stock work, send it to him!
Fast service, Awesome work, professional quality work for a fair price. My manners T stock is perfect.

Stockdoc, you have a repeat customer!
 
Re: After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

anyone know how to get a hold of stockdoc? i sent him a PM and haven't heard back. trying to reach him on NCPPRC forum but waiting for membership to be approved so i can.
 
Wow that looks great and at $150...Stockdoc cant be making much profit! I bet the parts alone use up most of that price tag! Looks great!!
 
Last edited:
Wow that looks great and at $150...Stockdoc cant be making much! I bet the parts alone use up most of that price tag! Looks great!!

Parts are about $55. At an hourly basis for the $100 or so in labor, i assure you he isn't doing this for a living - more like a hobby. It's a deal for sure. I did my own and took a good 12+ hours when it was all said n done...
 
The upgrade price for my A1-3 was more than that but still reasonable. He's offering a very useful service.

I know I wouldnt hesitate having him do this to my stock if only I had a stock worthy of having it done to! I think it would be a waste of his talent and time doing it to the junk Hogue stock I have on my 700!
 
After market adjustable cheek piece by Joe Ducos

I know I wouldnt hesitate having him do this to my stock if only I had a stock worthy of having it done to! I think it would be a waste of his talent and time doing it to the junk Hogue stock I have on my 700!

If you need to buy a new stock just get one that already has the KMW hardware...

http://mannersstocks.com/tactical/

Manners has some in inventory, or check here:

T2A: http://www.stockysstocks.com/servlet/the-606/Manners-T4-Badger-Aluminum/Detail

T4A: http://www.stockysstocks.com/servlet/the-588/Manners-T4-Badger-Aluminum/Detail

T5A: http://www.stockysstocks.com/servlet/the-598/Manners-T4-Badger-Alumimum/Detail
 
Last edited:
What kind of warranty work would you ever need to do with a stock? That is no excuse at all for not modifying it to suit ones needs.

LOL. I was thinking the same thing. I'm not too worried. If I ever did need some "warranty work" (can't imagine what) done to my A1-3, the folks at McMillan are super helpful in my experience.
 
I have a Mcmillan MBR Tooley stock. I talked to Mcmillan about if I put an adjustable cheekpiece on my stock and if I had trouble with my stock somewhere other than the cheek I added, would they still repair it, they said no because it had been altered in a way that might have caused to stock to have trouble.
 
I have a Mcmillan MBR Tooley stock. I talked to Mcmillan about if I put an adjustable cheekpiece on my stock and if I had trouble with my stock somewhere other than the cheek I added, would they still repair it, they said no because it had been altered in a way that might have caused to stock to have trouble.

I can see where they're coming from. Explicit warranties create a liability for a company which has to be accounted for based on estimates of anticipated claims. What company would want to warrant their product after someone else has substantially modified it?

Nonetheless, I agree with bodywerks. Until someone can produce a significant track record of stock failures that required warranty repair, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. What could go wrong that would be covered under warranty? It is essentially a carefully shaped rock. I could figure out a way to break it, but if I break it I don't expect McMillan to repair it under warranty.

I would be interested though to hear from people whose stocks failed in some way and were fixed under warranty. Might be a good subject for a new thread.
 
Guys, as far as the warranty issue, I can understand where the makers are coming from.

Fyi, I have well over 300 of these out there, between the ones I was making the hardware from scratch and the ones I started putting kmw hardware on. Not a one has come back.

Most of these have been mcmillans, with h-s a close second, then manners and a sprinkling of b &c, wood stocks and other miscellaneous models

As a side note to this, I would like to thank all my local ncpprc club members and a bunch of my personal friends who were so kind and trusted me with some of their 600+ dollar stocks to "practice" installing these units on. There's a very special active duty sniper friend who allowed me to cut up a kmw sentinel (1200 worth) and make it into a folder. Thanks a million for the vote of confidence.
 
Joe signed for my stock yesterday so I'll be able to give you a sample size of one in a couple weeks. The "before" weight was 3lbs 6.8oz.

6era7uhu.jpg

Got my A1-3 back from Joe yesterday and it is perfect!! It is everything I hoped it would be and I couldn't be happier with this transaction. I'll post more photos once I get my rifle put back together. For now, here is the "after" pic on the scale... 3lbs 11.4oz. The conversion added only 4.6oz, which seems super light to me. Sweet.

une8ury9.jpg
 
I just got my stock back for my Savage FCP10 with the HS stock. Now I can see though the scope with a good cheek weld. Excellent work and delivery. I'm going to have to ask him if he can put the loggerhead system in my kimber 82g.

stockdoc_loggerhead_fcp10.jpg


Stockdoc is going to be my go to guy for this kind of work in the future.