Barrett recoil pad has been changed

Man, what a drag. I really like the recoil pads on my two earlier Barretts. Made out of some soft spongy material called Sorbothane or something like that. Really soaks up the recoil impulse against your shoulder.

When I got my Model 95, I noticed it has a rather hard rubber recoil pad on it, so I thought maybe this was an old pad or something was wrong with it. So I checked the parts catalog from Barrett and it looks like the same pad part number is used for all of their models. So I ordered one, hoping it would be that nice soft one I like.

Wrong!

I got a hard rubber pad instead. Evidently, that soft one is prone to splitting if you store the gun in the vault sitting on the pad. The recoil pad is heavily concaved, and the stresses of the weight of the gun on the top and bottom edges of the pad cause it to split in the middle. I guess Barrett got tired of replacing them (I had to replace the one on my model 82 righ after I got it), and went to this harder pad. Not sure my shoulder is going to like it, though.

I solved the problem of storing the guns on the stock by putting a concaved sanding block underneath the pad. This fits the contour really well and takes the stress off of the ends of the pad.

Maybe I should swap the pad off of my Model 82 and put it on the Model 95. The model 95 is MUCH lighter than the 82, so maybe that softer pad would be better on the gun that would recoil the hardest.

Yeah, I know I'm being a weenie.....