Wood stocks, is it just me?

[Wasatchbuck]

While you cannot argue the functionality of a synthetic stock and I do own a couple of them, there is just something cold and un-feeling about them. I have always loved a nice wood stock and while I know synthetic will take a beating better then wood...lately I just cannot bring myself to purchase one. I had been looking at picking up a 300 min mag for some time now and I have looked at almost every rifle they make chambered in it. In the end I went with a new model 70 featherweight. Even though its nowhere near great walnut, there is just something about a wood stock that makes me happy. With all the high speed/low drag materials you can put into a stock nowadays I find myself gravitating to wood regardless of its weight. Anyone else feel the same way?

 

[Shrek]

Honestly no. The thought of missing an animal of a lifetime because it has rained for the last couple days and the stock has shifted the point of aim makes me sick just thinking about it. I love the look and feel of wood and I love it on a fine shotgun but not on a rifle. My last wood stock changed dimensions due to drying and I missed a doe. Screws weren't tight as they had been torqued to. At least pillar and epoxy bed it.

 

[Wasatchbuck]

You make a great point for one of woods weaknesses but also show that there is a work around to it.

 

[Take-a-knee]

The only wood stocks in my safe are two laminated ones on SS lever guns. If I won the lottery I might have a mexican mauser rebarreled and stocked in some nice walnut but GOOD wood is no longer in a working man's budget.

 

[6mm Remington]

I like some of the synthetics but I do not have any rifles wearing them. I just built a .280 Nosler AI on a Model 70 and it has a pretty piece of walnut that has been both pillar and glass bedded and the barrel free floated. Problem solved and it's still purty!

 

[tstowater]

I spent 2 weeks in BC one time with a model 70 SS Classic. The weather was wet and nasty enough that the stainless wanted to rust. I could only imagine what a wood stock would have done. For harsher possible environments, I will only go with stainless synthetic. The rest of the time, my preference is wood. My FIL has many beautiful pieces of wood on guns. On of the best is a Cooper 57 in 22lr. ...just beautiful.

 

[AZ Vince]

I too love wood but, depending on the rifle, have synthetic or laminate if conditions warrant.

 

[dotman]

I have a wood stocked Kimber, I kept the wood stock for its beauty and put the Kimber action in a McMillan stock. Just couldn't beat that wood up, it is so nice and as Shrek said it had to go. Now I only did this because I got the Kimber nib at 50% off avg selling price from a buddy that won it in a raffle.

 

[gmajor]

I was like you wasatch, wood stocks, blue barrels all the way. Problem was, I felt pained when I'd ding em on hunts. I couldn't reconcile damaging them with my view of rifles as utilitarian tools. Just went synthetic and stainless for the first time ever (pick up on tuesday). I won't feel bad about beating it up, and won't have to worry about swelling, etc.

I will miss the aesthetic though.

 

[Mjm316]

I have both now. A few years ago I would never have considered a composite stock but now living in AK it only makes sense to go SS. As far as my wood stocks getting dings, it happens, and all of the dings and scratches tell a story of a particular hunt. I guess that's part of the reason I have a tough time selling guns! Memories

 

[Kevin Dill]

Being primarily a bow guy, I'm chiming in for the heck of it. I think a majority of this is a matter of a man's sentiment, personality and preference. I grew up with wood-stocked everything in guns. If it was worth buying back then, it wore a damned-good walnut foundation and that was that. Every bow I've ever owned has carried wood somewhere, and today my bows are as much about the wood in them as anything else. I love wood arrows. Beautiful...warm...traditional, begs-for-a-hug wood has a sort of presence and personality. I find it a bit hard to explain at times. I simply can't don 100% synthetic clothes, put on plastic boots, grab a synthetic weapon, and use every laboratory-made creation I can to help me afield. I like wood and I accept the limitations it presents. Now that said...I can be impressed by a custom rifle carrying a custom syn-stock. AR weapons tweak my wannabe-bad lobe some days. But when I place a well-stocked walnut gun next to a synthetic rig...my preference will be for the wood. It might not perform like synthetic. It might be heavier to carry. It might get some character marks on it. I might have to accept its limits and be okay with it. No problem here.

I also like canvas, wool and goose down, though they are repped to have their limits. Turkey feathers are on all my arrows despite the allure of plastic vanes. Leather soaks up water, but I still can't give up on it 100%. My 65-pound no let-off longbow weighs 28 ounces and it kicks ass...better for me than any synthetic wheeled, cabled and sighted bow could ever be. Give me straight Kentucky single-barrel bourbon in a glass tumbler, too. I like the traditions.

 

[Moose2367]

I'm the opposite, hate timber stocks. I have a few, one fairly good looking Marlin S/S 22mag with walnut stock, but would swap it for a synthetic in a heart beat.

What's really weird is i hate timber for most things i work with, fence post's, cattle yards etc, (can always bend and weld steel) but would love a log cabin.

 

[KMD]

Pass the fiberglass & make it a Micky...

 

[JustOneMoreShot]

It is simple for me. I see a rifle as a tool and not a piece of art. If I want to stare at it and put it over the fireplace then sure a wood stock is very pretty. I take my stuff in the field and use it regardless of the weather. I expect it to get wet (maybe even soaked) and still perform flawlessly. I have several wood stocked rifles but all were passed down. I have only ever bought synthetic, utilitarian equipment.

 

[WoodsWalker270]

I recently went back and forth on wood or synthetic on a new rifle. I went with wood. People have been shooting game with wood stocked rifles for hundreds of years. If you're worried about the rain, get a rifle cover. I admit, a wood stocked rifle probably can't take the abuse as a stainless/synthetic rifle. 95% of the time I don't think it matters what your flavor of stock is.

 

[mtnwrunner]

While you cannot argue the functionality of a synthetic stock and I do own a couple of them, there is just something cold and un-feeling about them. I have always loved a nice wood stock and while I know synthetic will take a beating better then wood...lately I just cannot bring myself to purchase one. I had been looking at picking up a 300 min mag for some time now and I have looked at almost every rifle they make chambered in it. In the end I went with a new model 70 featherweight. Even though its nowhere near great walnut, there is just something about a wood stock that makes me happy. With all the high speed/low drag materials you can put into a stock nowadays I find myself gravitating to wood regardless of its weight. Anyone else feel the same way?

http://russoriflestocks.com/Home_Page.php

Well, I have both on a number of rifles but man, there ain't NOTHING like a beautiful wood stock. I also believe that if they are bedded correctly, they'll be just as accurate and as durable as a un-feeling synthetic. Sure, you may get dings and scratches but hey, that is character. Check out the above link---amazing work by Joel. If you go through his website, you'll see a blank Turkish walnut with the name Randy on it. My 300 win mag "Checkmate" is currently residing at Mr. Russo's getting a "woody" so to speak. And when it is finished, you'll be seeing photos of it along with a big muley in the Idaho high country...................

Randy

 

[bhylton]

I hunted with a Win model 88 in western washington for years(very wet). it was no tack driver, but a wet stock did produce a POI change. So, i took some of the wood out for clearance, then gave it to my neighbor who is a car painter. He put a good coat of a sort of mild glossy automotive clear coat on it. You could put the stock in a bathtub for 24 hrs before shooting now and the POI would not change. Put a good coat of polyurethane on the Browning A-bolt 300wsm wood stock as well and it takes weather great. that said, if i had 250$ laying around i would have a B&C stock for the A-bolt in no time.

 

[Wasatchbuck]

Nice to see I am not alone in this. Yes, the wood stock is going to take a beating and will receive some character marks. However that is what makes it unique. I have a gorgeous piece of wood on a grade 4 citori that I have had for over 20 years. That gun has been up and down the chukar hills more times that I can remember. For the most part all the dings and scratches in the stock hold a little story that I can remember. I will never replace that stock, I may refinish it at some time but never to the point where it erases those battle scars.

 

[Take-a-knee]

It is simple for me. I see a rifle as a tool and not a piece of art.

I have an equally practical view. On the other hand, I agree with Ross Seyfried that a firearm can be both a tool and an expression of art. Because I don't have the means I don't own much that truly qualifies as "art". This is a G-Shock/Rolex situation. Most production wood-stocked rifles are "fake Rolexes"

 

[Jason Snyder]

Nice to see I am not alone in this. Yes, the wood stock is going to take a beating and will receive some character marks. However that is what makes it unique. I have a gorgeous piece of wood on a grade 4 citori that I have had for over 20 years. That gun has been up and down the chukar hills more times that I can remember. For the most part all the dings and scratches in the stock hold a little story that I can remember. I will never replace that stock, I may refinish it at some time but never to the point where it erases those battle scars.

My Beretta 391 has plenty of character marks as well from the chukar slopes to the duck blind. It will also get a refinish at some point, but I would never replace it with an ugly plastic stock.