Stock vs Chassis for Field Shooting

[hereinaz]

Y'all, this is so dizzying it even makes me a little angry. I want to get down to one rifle I shoot really well. I have tikkas and factory stocks. They shoot better than me. sub MOA. I have a VX3 as my main scope. I don't have hours to dig through all of these options and I don't need the "best" thing. I'm also left handed, so my options are a lot less on stocks. Is it possible to narrow this down to 3-5 choices to work through. I don't know what a "mini chassis" even is. A chassis inside a traditional type of stock- a chassis-stock hybrid? The Mule of stocks? I don't need my gun to be lighter, I'd like to be more accurate- better fit to action and easier fit to me.

Mini chassis is an aluminum chassis inside a fiberglass or composite stock. See Manners.

 

[General RE LEE]

Y'all, this is so dizzying it even makes me a little angry. I want to get down to one rifle I shoot really well. I have tikkas and factory stocks. They shoot better than me. sub MOA. I have a VX3 as my main scope. I don't have hours to dig through all of these options and I don't need the "best" thing. I'm also left handed, so my options are a lot less on stocks. Is it possible to narrow this down to 3-5 choices to work through. I don't know what a "mini chassis" even is. A chassis inside a traditional type of stock- a chassis-stock hybrid? The Mule of stocks? I don't need my gun to be lighter, I'd like to be more accurate- better fit to action and easier fit to me.

Contrary to what many will say, I think the Tikka factory stock is just fine. It’s light and typically the barreled action and stock together produce excellent groups.

If you feel the itch to try something, I would just get a vertical grip to try cause the Tikka T3x stocks are modular.

I’ve gone full circle trying chassis and find myself coming back to the factory stocks. Especially cause my primary use is hunting and range practice.

 

[littlebigtine]

Contrary to what many will say, I think the Tikka factory stock is just fine. It’s light and typically the barreled action and stock together produce excellent groups.

If you feel the itch to try something, I would just get a vertical grip to try cause the Tikka T3x stocks are modular.

I’ve gone full circle trying chassis and find myself coming back to the factory stocks. Especially cause my primary use is hunting and range practice.


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I disagree. The difference in felt recoil going from a tikka stock to a xlr mag 4.0 amazed me. I could stay centered and spot impact much easier in all positions with the chassis. The $1400 upgrade imo is completely worth it.

 

[bojangles808]

I disagree. The difference in felt recoil going from a tikka stock to a xlr mag 4.0 amazed me. I could stay centered and spot impact much easier in all positions with the chassis. The $1400 upgrade imo is completely worth it.

What cartridge?

 

[littlebigtine]

What cartridge?

6.5 prc and 7 rem mag, suppressed

 

[bojangles808]

6.5 prc and 7 rem mag, suppressed

interesting. with the smoke ultralight buttstock or the tr2 buttstock? with the tr2 it has the squishier buttpad and the ability to raise the pad in line or above bore and that i think has tangible benefits.

 

[Castle Rock]

I have found that the plastic Tikka stock is easier for me to shoot accurately than a rigid chassis when shooting off a bipod on hard ground, the slightly flexible forend definitely reduces bipod bounce and it is much more forgiving

 

[littlebigtine]

interesting. with the smoke ultralight buttstock or the tr2 buttstock? with the tr2 it has the squishier buttpad and the ability to raise the pad in line or above bore and that i think has tangible benefits.

Smoke carbon stock

 

[stayzeroed]

Images: Hunting with KRG Bravo

First animal with my Tikka T3x in 6.5cm. Shot it at 297 yards That's a good goat!

rokslide.com

@Juan_ID did. Sounds like it didn't lose a lot of weight.
If I end up buying a Bravo I'll experiment a bit with cutting weight out of it. After weighing all of the different components the next step will be to decide where to reduce weight. Probably a combination of cutting down the aluminum block and substituting 3D printed structure, maybe hollow 3D printed panels, aluminum fasteners everywhere but the action screws, titanium action screws, and a magnesium action block if I get really ambitious.
The goal is to remove 1lb out of it, we'll see if it's possible or not.

Did you ever cut weight out of a KRG Bravo?

 

[PathFinder]

Never did bother. Fixed the geometry on a Manners EHT instead. Then the Rokstock came out.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

[JGood]

Let’s be clear with our terms. A chassis or stock is just a mounting unit that the barreled action bolts to making shooting more comfortable. Chassis are usually metal and provide a metal to metal contact point. Stock inlets can be a variety of materials (sometimes good, sometimes not good). As long as the connection point between the action and contact point are locked in, there is no difference. Stocks usually benefit from bedding material to keep the Connection point perfect and stable.

Everything else is just a way to better steer the bullet to the target. When speaking about the difference between traditional stocks and PRS style I think we’d all agree, traditional stocks left a lot on the table. That’s why there’s been a big push to improve stocks with the items mentioned. 90% of changes made to stock design over the past 5 years have been to make traditional Stocks more like PRS Chassis systems. Do they sometimes go to far? Sure, but no one argues that modern stocks arnt easier to shoot for the vast majority than a 1997 Remington 700 bdl.

Unfortunately I think the answer is more convoluted. For most, stocks are better. They’re cheap and simple. They also look sexy and the materials wont hurt your delicate skin in cold temps.

But this is a long range forum….the only way to get better at long range shooting is to shoot…a lot.

In my own experience shooting alone on a range is not only boring, but you can get stuck doing things the wrong way (sure you can take a course, but S2H is like a billion dollars now???)

Instead, go to a few local matches. You’ll learn a ton about positional shooting, how to build a stable position quickly, wind reading, and most importantly you’ll get a lot of trigger time.

Through this process I’ve become incredibly familiar with my equipment. I shoot almost the same set up for my PRS gun as I do my hunting rifle (one is obviously a lot lighter) The idea of me making a drastic change between my comp rifle and my hunting rifle is obscene.

Additionally, all of this changes depending on how you hunt.

I hunt mostly Alaska and BC (occasionally CO). On the tundra in AK, I’ve never needed a folding stock. Moving in and out of a boat/truck/airplane in BC….that folding ability is invaluable. The metal thing doesnt really bother me all that much in 20+ days a year in 15-35 deg weather?. Maybe magnizium doesnt stick to skin as easy? idk

After re reading the OPs question. There's not an objective answer. HOW MUCH do you need the folding? HOW MUCH do you need to add weight for truck hunting? HOW MUCH do you prefer simplicty or modularity? What do you prefer astheticly?

You need to pick a specific stock or a specific chassis and compare. You cant compare the sum of all chassis to the sum of all stocks.

 

[JGood]

I think we also need to define the average backpack western big game hunter. Not a lot of dudes out there are hunting into December with 2 ft of snow on the ground out of a backpack at elevation many miles from the truck in -30 temps.


Most late season hunts are done out of a truck on a private ranch in the winter range.

 

[LeeMaster99]

I agree with what has been said about transition between range gun and hunting rifle. I want to be able to shoot all summer, know my dope and not have to relearn anything. It’s a seamless transition in all conditions

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

Aside from superior ergonomics, if you hunt with a suppressor the XLR with a folding stock is a game changer.