Maple or Walnut for a Wood Stock?

[Hunter270Win]

Looking into getting one of the new Model 70 Super Grades and can’t for the life of me decide which wood to get.

What are the benefits of each?

 

[Buzby]

Walnut. Not even close.

 

[Macintosh]

Keep in mind theres also different types of walnut and different types of maple, so to a degree you are splitting hairs and have to evaluate individual pieces of wood…but speaking broadly, walnut is typically lighter weight and more stable to changes in temp and humidity. Unless you are going for an uber-traditional muzzleloader, or you want a very specific look, walnut is always the right answer. They’ll both work fine, but Im not aware of any functional advantages of maple vs walnut for a gun stock. You could split hairs and find a great piece of maple and a terrible piece of walnut, but overall walnut is better suited to a gun stock.

 

[Wapiti1]

I've made many stocks from both and they have their own quirks. Once they are dried properly and finished its impossible to tell the difference outside of looks.

Pick the one that you like the look of.

Jeremy

 

[squid-freshprints]

For the pieces I selected for a project maple was almost half as heavy, with unique color. Maple splits easier so select carefully but its look is second to none My quilted maple pistol grips are bombproof over 15 yrs.

 

[wyogoat]

Maple! It doesn’t always have to be the blonde color you see from Browning. A good piece of wood with stump features and good curl will still be pretty reasonable for a modern rifle.

 

[Laelkhunter]

Not sure which one Weatherby uses, but they are really awesome.

 

[t_carlson]

I've always liked walnut, but that's me.

 

[TaperPin]

Curly wood of any kind is not as stable as straight grained, and different woods handle changes in humidity differently. Walnut is fairly stable, more so than maple. Personally, I think maple looks better, so it’s a trade off. Hardwoods are rated for relative stability - the amount of shrinkage parallel to the grain vs shrinkage perpendicular to the grain - walnut is 1.4ish and maple is 1.9ish.

My nephew inherited a custom curly maple stocked Mauser, and it looks like a million bucks - usually it’s the old retired guys at the range that ask what a young guy is doing with a rifle like that. Lol

 

[Hunter270Win]

Are there ANY benefits to Maple?

 

[Macintosh]

Re: measured stability: that is an average. european walnut is more stable than black walnut or claro walnut, and sugar maple is more stable than soft maple, and then theres all sorts of regional varieties, grafted trees, trees from orchards, etc. There is a LOT of variation between “walnut” and “walnut” and between “maple” and “maple”. Once finished they both work fine and any difference is incremental shades of grey even if you can make generalizations. I’d just choose based on looks unless you have the option of choosing between specific individual guns.

 

[Macintosh]

Are there ANY benefits to Maple?

No. MAYBE price.

Edit: someone mentioned westherby. There have been a few iterations of weatherby rifles, but my understanding is the “true” weatherby rifles with the light colored wood are made from mesquite or myrtle.

 

[TaperPin]

Are there ANY benefits to Maple?

It’s one of the few choices for a lighter colored stock. It’s different than most. The curly woods look completely different - it’s a visual thing more than anything. Some don’t like seeing grain and maple has a much smoother look. I’ll eventually end up with one stock of curly maple. Lol