I think a shoulder pad for a buck sounds like a pretty good deal I know a day behind the bench with my 300 will give me a good sore shoulder. And I really like the advise about double ear protection, I probably wouldn' t have thought to bring plugs too. When I first bought my 7mm mag I got into a flinching problem until an old timer at the range had me where his ear muffs instead of just my plugs and it did the trick.