Gear Review – Fox Outdoor Butt Stock Cheek Rest – Shotgun, Black

For 12-gauge or 20-gauge this is a convenient way to carry twelve, that’s right twelve spare shells and give you a soft cushion to boot.

There are two panels; one for 5-rounds and a second for seven rounds. Decide what you want to carry on the outside and store the rest on the inside, zippered pouch. Both panels are interchangeable according to your storage preferences. Simply pull them off their respective Velcro mounts and swap them out.

The zipper is strong and stitching is well done all around. The pouch side is made of heavy fabric while the cheek rest portion is a vinyl material. Heavy bordering is used on all edges.

Each panel, as is the inside and outside mounts consists of heavy amounts of Velcro to keep things attached. You literally have to pry the panels and mounts apart to separate them.

It will take some patience to mount on your shotgun stock, but once installed I believe that you will like it.

Remove the three side straps and fit the cheek rest to your stock using the rear strap. Once satisfied, install each of the three straps according to the dimensions of your stocks at the three mounting points. Leave some slack in the straps, because you are going to need it.

Note that the straps do not interfere with the rear sling mount.

Then, loop each strap through the restraining loops, as needed, to secure the unit to the stock. Next attach each strap back onto the Velcro of each strap. If you have a little excess, you have a two choices; remove the strap and readjust, or tuck the straps in the cheek rest. Installation will take some fiddlin’ but that’s what we like to do.

The pad is thick enough for comfort and only raises the comb of the stock by the thickness of the pad; this is a welcome thing on a shotgun – cushioning for those chubby cheeks of yours.

Note that even if you have installed a recoil pad, as I have on the Mossy 500 12-gauge, there is enough of the end loop to adequately loop over the recoil pad.

I prefer this product over a side-saddle but you can also mount one of those to provide even more spare rounds to the load. The drawback to the shell carrier is that it cannot be used ambidextrously – it is one side or the other according to your preference.

20-gauge is about the lower limit for the expandable shell holders, as they may not hold .410 shells tight enough for your liking. They are perfect for 20-gauge (see accompanying images) and 12-gauge is not be a problem. You may also opt to just store loose rounds in the zippered pouch instead of using the panel. The inside panel, aside from storing spare shotgun shells, can also be used to store a multi-tool or a few sticks of your favorite beef jerky or Slim-Jim snacks. The option is yours.

I have several of these units for both shotgun and hunting rifles and they have served me well in both cases (no pun intended).

They are available in left or right side stock mounts and in varying colors. Information for the black version follows:

• For left side: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0052FSI84/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  

For right Side:

• http://www.amazon.com/Fox-Outdoor-Butt-Stock-Cheek/dp/B0052FS8WK/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1423325503&sr=1-1&keywords=Fox+Outdoor+Butt+Stock+Cheek+Rest+-+Shotgun%2C+Black