An account I once read of a battle involving troops (Spanish foreign Legion I think) armed with Remington Rolling Block rifles, in which the troops were pinned down and had to fire several hundred rounds each during a day long battle, told of the soldiers faces being deeply bruised and swollen as if they'd been beaten. The comb of the Remington butt stock was blamed.

A "cheek weld" is conducive to accuracy, but only when no more than a few rounds are to be fired, when hundreds of rounds were fired from powerful rifles the face took a beating.

The lightweight remington 600 rifles got around this by angling the comb so that recoil pushed the edge of the comb away from the cheek.

I don't press my cheek to the comb, I just let my jaw barely touch the side of the comb to insure that I have the same head position from shot to shot.

I've found that slip on recoil pads can adversely affect accuracy, so I simply fold a wash cloth and slide it under my shirt at the shoulder to give just enough protection.