Limbsaver rotting away

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Grayrock

Grayrock

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I have a Limbsaver Slip-on recoil pad that has been damaged by some solvent or environmental condition. I left it in a shell bag for about a year in my garage. I just pulled it out and found some edges had "melted" and stuck to the canvas material of the shell bag. What could have caused that? Was it high heat? Some sort of solvent? An interaction with an adjacent material? Old age? If I could figure out what caused it I can avoid putting the pad in the same conditions in the future and hopefully keep using it for a long time. Thanks for your insight into this.
 
They just do that.
The solvents in the elastomers that make them soft eventually degrade themselves.
I have a 7ft long rack in my gun closet that I store my rifles in. I go IN every month or so and UN-stick the ones with Limbsavers and KickEze recoil pads.
My NICE rifles get Pachmayer " Decellerator" pads. No problems with those, YET.
 
I have a number of SVL recoil pads, the oldest having been bought more than 8 years ago. None stick to anything and so far and only minor degradation. Not sure what is causing your issue, but I’ve always been careful to keep anything cleaning related away from mine using only a slightly damp rag to wipe them off when necessary.
 
Just like Goose Gestapo said, many synthetic rubber type materials just chemically break down over time.

I have a radio and a red dot with rubberized paint that turned into a sticky mess. I've had rubber type over molding on tools turn into a sticky mess. In my line of work, I've had parts with urethane molded into machined recesses turn to goo and melt out causing machinery to be unable to rotate.

All of that without using chemicals of any kind on them. Those materials just aren't built to last.

I prefer the materials that dry rot and crumble over the ones that turn to goo. However I usually don't know what those materials are until I've had them for years.
 
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I have had the same problem with a spotting scope. The rubberized coating on it has turned into this sticky mess and the scope has been in it's factory case all this time, never exposed to any chemical substances or solvents. Best I can figure is that there was some sort of chemical reaction with the foam inserts in the case, though everything has been kept in a dry and temperature controlled environment.
 
I have a pair of binoculars that have done that. They are in a hard shell case and there is nothing in it to cause a reaction. I believe it's a time thing with the chemical components.. I've also had one limbsaver recoil pad shed some chunks and it isn't a slip on. It has done it sitting in a safe.
 
I've had several pads 'go mushy', due to chemical reaction. I've replaced them and try to keep them away from solvents with some success.
 
Ziplock bag or the like? Some rubber materials react with some plastics, creating a sticky, "melted" mess. I've had that happen to me, having left a clear plastic bag on the floor of a safe to prevent dripping gun oil from soaking into the piece of carpet under the guns and ended up with two recoil pads looking like they've melted. Can't remember the brand, others were fine with extended contact with plastic, though.
 
It’s my understanding Limbsaver has fixed the problem but their was a time when their pads would disintegrate over time. The issue was covered fairly extensively on Shotgunworld. How old is the pad?
 
as crazy as this sounds something electrical in close proximity will cause that. loose electrons or something. go ahead and send the white coats after me. dc
 
CDB1: I bought the pad about 3 years ago.
dc: No electrical fields near storage area other than a light socket 8 feet above and a wall socket about 8 feet away. Perhaps I should make my pad a little tinfoil hat ;)
 
Unless the pad was new old stock it shouldn’t have had an issue. The problem that Limbsaver used to have is the the pads would melt for lack of a better term while sitting in a safe.
 
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Wondering if there could be offgassing from carpet or other materials commonly used in safes. With so many companies jumping into the market to sell discount RSCs, might be a possibility that fumes are harmful to rubber? I can recall a number of Remington 1100 owners over the years asking where to buy replacement O-rings as their’s had deteriorated while my ‘86 1100 with many thousands of rounds still uses the original one.
 
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I had the exact same thing happen to a Limbsaver recoil pad on a TC Encore. I called Limbsaver and explained the problem, they sent me another no charge.
 
I've had it happen to the plastic keepers on my uncle Mikes shoulder holsters. So far I've found if you use goof off followed by rubbing alcohol you can bring it 95% of the way back.
 
Charliefrank said:
I've had it happen to the plastic keepers on my uncle Mikes shoulder holsters. So far I've found if you use goof off followed by rubbing alcohol you can bring it 95% of the way back.
Click to expand...

That's how I salvaged the aforementioned radio. Lot's of elbow grease needed and since it is white, it yellowed. So it's ugly but still usable.
 
Skylerbone said:
Wondering if there could be offgassing from carpet or other materials commonly used in safes. With so many companies jumping into the market to sell discount RSCs, might be a possibility that fumes are harmful to rubber? I can recall a number of Remington 1100 owners over the years asking where to buy replacement O-rings as their’s had deteriorated while my ‘86 1100 with many thousands of rounds still uses the original one.
Click to expand...

The "melting" I've seen was in environments with no carpet and plenty of moving air.

Regarding o-rings, maybe Remington changed o-ring sources? I use o-rings in hydraulics and the only ones that last are made of Buna-N (nitrile). I can get by with hardware store o-rings for a few months to a year, but they don't last like Buna-N.
 
illinoisburt said:
Limbsaver had a recall for exactly this issue a few years back. I would call the company to see if they will still replace them under warranty regardless when it was purchased.
Click to expand...

Illinois Burt is correct. I had two recoil pads that began sticking to the bottom of my gun safe. For no apparent reason they just started to “melt” and got nasty. I ended up calling SVL. They told me to ship the stocks to them and they would replace them and ship them back at no charge. I did and they took care of the rest. A real nice professional job and less than three weeks turnaround time. I did this within the last year.
 
I build 3 or 4 rifles a year and buy some factory rifles.
They all get Limbsavers. Never had a problem.... except with my friend that buys double rifles and shoots elephants. He is disgusted with me not trimming to fit. I want more recoil pad area....I am an engineer, not a costume designer.
 
I’ve had two of them melt in my gunsafe. Which is indoors in a controlled environment. I didn’t know about the recall so I just replaced them out of pocket last year. I too thought it might be a reaction between the pad and the soft foam pad on the safe floor. I put the cardboard from the packaging between the pad and the floor. So far no signs of melting, but in all fairness, the pads that melted were several years old and the melting seemed to occur during one off season.
 
Received a nice new pad from SVL over the weekend. I had contacted them about the problem and they had said there was some products a few years back that had problems. "we had a bad batch of material go out years ago and this may be one of those items" was their exact statement. They get a big thumbs up for great customer service. Glad to have a replacement. Hope they got their material problems fixed.
 

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Grayrock said:
Received a nice new pad from SVL over the weekend. I had contacted them about the problem and they had said there was some products a few years back that had problems. "we had a bad batch of material go out years ago and this may be one of those items" was their exact statement. They get a big thumbs up for great customer service. Glad to have a replacement. Hope they got their material problems fixed.
Click to expand...

Excellent! :thumbup:
 
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