Article 7 – 2022 (August)

Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 7 – 2022 (August)

Question:   I mainly shoot Sporting Clays, but recently I picked up a friends Trap gun that had what is called a “Monte Carlo” stock on it. I really liked how it felt and I thought it may be the solution to some troubles I was having seeing the targets, but I was told this type of shotgun with this stock isn’t suitable for Sporting Clays. Can you explain why?

Frances Robinson, Logan QLD

Answer:   No I can’t explain why your friend said that because he is incorrect. What he probably was referring to was that traditional sporting shotguns never had a Monte Carlo stock attached to them, but these days you will find many of them on firearms that are being used for this discipline.

For the un-initiated a “Monte Carlo” stock has a cut away piece of wood, that is shaped roughly like of a quarter of a circle, generally a few centimetres before the comb of the stock meets the butt. The height of the piece of wood that is removed can vary from just a few millimetres up to fifty millimetres or more. The advantage of this type of stock is mainly exploited by taller shooters that have a long neck. A conventional stock, without the cut away Monte Carlo section, can often mean that the butt or the recoil pad sits at an angle and height on their shoulder which does not let them place their head on the comb comfortably under their cheekbone. In theory, provided the butt is placed in the same position on the competitors shoulder, the Monte Carlo designed stock will allow the head to remain more erect therefore aiding better target acquisition. I rate this as the number one fundamental in shotgun shooting to master.

Now if you are technically minded, by now you would be picturing this type of stock on your forty year old over and under shotgun with its standard flat rib barrel and wondering with all that extra wood on top of the comb how will this all work? It can be difficult and as you will notice with many of the later model shotguns that have Monte Carlo stocks, they also will have benefit of higher ribs on top of their barrels to further aid better visuals on your target. The problem I have seen with many people that have tried putting “custom made” Monte Carlo stocks on their older model flat rib shotguns is that they start mounting the shotgun lower and lower on their shoulder therefore defeating the main reason they purchased this type of stock in the first place. Don’t do this!

Traditional Monte Carlo stocks had what is called a “parallel comb” on them. This means the angle of the comb runs at the same angle of the barrels until the cut away section begins. This angle of what is known as “drop” is very important to get correct. Zero drop from the front to the back of the comb, as described in the traditional Monte Carlo Trap stock as above, does not suit everyone. Historically Sporting Clay shotguns have twenty millimetres of drop from the front to the back of the comb as this can aid a fast gun mount when required such as what is needed either in field shooting or when the target must be called for when the shotgun is not allowed to be pre-mounted on your shoulder, however this does not mean that a Monte Carlo type stock cannot be used. Many manufacturers now offer this configuration stock as an option, but as stated, it is often aided by a higher rib on the barrels. If you mount the shotgun to your shoulder correctly then the more height Monte Carlo you can have which alternatively means the higher rib you can add on your shotguns barrel.

Now going back to your friend’s original statement that the shotgun was not suitable for Sporting Clays. Even if your buddy wasn’t referring to the type of stock that he thought wasn’t suitable he may also get a shock to know how many of the world’s best Sporting Clay shooters are using trap stocks and trap barrels to master their sport. The days of one type of shotgun being “pigeon holed” for just one type of discipline are long over. The popular clay target discipline of American Skeet probably provides the best example of this. Forty years ago the most popular Skeet shotgun used in this country was a sixty-six centimetre barrel light weight three kilogram shotgun. These days most of the world’s best competitors at this discipline use at least seventy-five centimetre barrels with an overall shotgun weight that would be at home on any Trap range.

If you are a big guy or simply have a long neck then a Monte Carlo stock may very well be your answer.