TEC-HRO Schaftbacke NJ-carbon

My KK500 came with a useful set of top-quality accessories - like the rear-sight, the Centra foresight tunnel and 3.8 iris, a hand-stop, butt place...and a cheek-piece.

The cheek-piece was the only weak item supplied. It looks like its aluminium, but its plastic. It moves in three planes - up-down, forwards-backwards and left-right. Except theres no way youll be able to make a change in-position, other than perhaps up-down (elevation, depression). Everything else needed a wrench. Plus the supplied cheek-piece never really matched the functionality of the slanting one Walther provided with the KK300.

So I looked for an upgrade. Being a leftie the Centra range was out-of-contention, which meant this one and some alternatives from SE. I went for the TEC-HRO as I have shooting colleagues who have it in use, and indeed it and the Centra Cheek (right-hand only) are probably the most popular after-market cheek-pieces on sale.

On the KK500 it uses the rod-and-spindles and the lower aluminium plate from the factory-supplied assembly. I found a single M5 screw and washer suffices for securing the plate to the TC-HRO itself, plus a tiny dab of superglue at one end where the Walther has no suitable fixing. If the Buinger web-site let me contribute photos Id show you! Dont let the reference to the superglue put you off; in theory it shouldnt need it, but I decided a tiny single spot would do, just in case the M2 screw became unaccountably loose.

With everything in place, I now have both a rough and fine elevation-depression control, either by rotating the Walther supplied thumb-wheel (not easy in position) or better, the fine height adjustment on the wheel of the TEC-HRO. Now I can change the left-right inclination with other thumb-wheels, but f I want to change the forward-backward orientation I still need an Allen key, though I cant envisage ever wanting to do this in position. Note that to ensure there is no movement of the cheek-piece there are some grub screws on the side that should be tightened. Initially though, youll likely want to leave these loose to let you find the right orientation.

In addition the design of the cheekpiece clears the end of my bolt completely, even though its at the same height as the Walther one was. Thats because of the curved design, which creates a space. That curve makes for a more natural position for my cheekbone, so I now know when Im in my optimum position, something I rarely could be sure of with the Walther-supplied item.

The obvious question is, is it a worthwhile upgrade? Well for me, after a week of fiddling with it, it certainly was. My 50m scores improved, and have stayed consistently better since I fitted the TEC-HRO. My 100 yards scores havent changed, but thats likely because there little movement required for that range compared to 50m. I find the TEC-HRO not necessarily more comfortable than the previous cheek-piece, but certainly more precise; so Im not hunting for a foresight picture of the target, because I was never quite able to get my cheek-bone jammed in just right like I can now.

>Brendan N., 15.01.2020