Dave, I have actually done a leather covered recoil pad with a Pachmayer Old English as the base. It is on a pre-64 M70 30-06 (that may get sold to finance the Martini and Hagn and Namibia) and it did not turn out too bad. The stock on this M70 had been shortened by some idiot to 13" so I had to add a wood block and a good pad to get back up to 14". The Pachmayer is about as soft a pad as I would try to cover with leather and still hope to get all the wrinkles out.

The truth is that I am not afraid of the recoil in a steel butt 300 win. mag. I have spent 23 years shooting a 30-338 bolt action that goes 8lbs., it has a Brown Precision stock and a skimpy little 1/2" Pachmayer that has hardened to near concrete level. My 30-338 is now on its fourth barrel and is shooting just fine. The Martini and Hagn will be just as pleasant to shoot. I'll just throttle the loads back a tad and wear a recoil shield off the bench. Offhand, I'll never feel the recoil. The 180's that I will probably take to Namibia might bite a little, but not enough to get excited about.

Kill a big one,
Josh