How many of you purposely have calibers suitable for everything from varmints to elephant in wood/ blue rifles and then at the same time have rifles suitable for varmints to elephant in stainless/synthetic rifles??

Not me. My last wood stocked rifle is at the smith right now getting a synthetic stock.

Jarrod,
I don't know if it is on purpose, but I am guilty as charged. I hunted with a pre 64 Model 70 Winchester .308 Featherwieght for years. I was handed down to me from my great grand father. I have only recently come to realize how valuable the gun really is. So, naturally, I needed a new hunting gun. From a practicallity standpoint, stainless and synthetic makes the most sense. They may not be a pretty as the pre-64 Winchester, but they will get the job done, espicially when it is pouring down rain and the conditions are less than ideal.

You wouldn't believe how many rifles I've sold over the last few years. My bolt-guns are all synthetic-stocked, and I have no desire to have a duplicate set in wood. No more wood for me, ever.

The only wood-stocked rifles I own at all are lever-guns, a few of which have been in my family for many years, plus my first big game rifle, a Remington 700 ADL in 30-06 that I purchased at age 15.

AD

I have found that wood stocked and blue rifles are quite suitable for hunting if you take care of them. In any case I have had these nice guns for years and I am keeping them.

Of the new guns that I have bought two of the four were SS and composite.

Wood and blue guns are still viable for me but I want some more SS/composites.

The two Kimber 84M Classics that I am shooting are wood/blue and they stay sighted in as well as anything so far. These stocks have pillars, glass bedding and are free floating. If they were subjected to days of rain and then left in an unheated tent they might swell or rust. Those are conditions that I would not use them for.

So now that SS/composite is available I am buying them once in a while. No rush on that.

On the centerfire rifle battery here I am going to sell a M70 Classic SG not because it's wood and blue. The thing is that it's just too heavy. Now if it shot 1/2 moa I would keep it but things did not fall into place.

If I buy another CF hunting rifle it will either be a old collector/shooter or another Kimber Montana. I have plenty of guns to play with however. It seems that something new is the only current motivation to get another rifle.

I would not buy a blued gun and a composite stock. Might as well get SS too.

Stainless/synthetic??? No way. I carry a signal mirror in my emergency pack so I have no need to shoot one. Tried them and never again. All my rifles are wood(walnut preferred) and blued. Lawdog

Wood and blue for me, I just love the feel of wood its warm and natural.
Craven

There's room for both in my cabinet, but I don't double up on the chamberings.

I will buy stainless with synthetic or laminate stocks whenever I can but being a lefty I usually don't have that option.

Wood and blue for me - no double dips on calibers either.

I've got my last stainless gun for sale.....it's all wood and blued steel for me.

I appreciate the looks of wood and blue, however given the choice I'll take a synthetic stock every time.

I'd rather sink the money into the metal work.

I use ONLY wood and rust blued rifles and have hunted the world without problems, never had one warp or move, but I use the goodest stuff...

I just never wanted a gun that looked like a car bumper or one of my wifes toasters or can openers....

I like them both.
I sort of prefer the wood and blue , but I have 2 synthetick stocked blue rifles and i woul like to get a all weather rifle, don't really care for Stailess but i
might go for a tefflon coated synthetic...tj3006

Come on Ray, it's 2005! I just think synthetic stocks make more sense. And though I agree that "life is to short to hunt with an ugly gun", I like the looks of a well finished rifle in a McMillan stock, it's just all business.

I like wood and stainless barrels but as all my actions are mausers and Springfields there are none in stainless.

I did the stainless/synthetic thing but I just can´t carry an ugly rifle! I´ve never had a problem with wood/blue but have had weird things happen to a stainless Sako 75 that I owned a few years back.

Who wants a gun that looks like a modern gardening tool?

But to each his own...

Wood for me.

Terry

I've never owned a stainless/synthetic rifle/shotgun. Not opposed to them, they have their place, but not my cup of tea.

I have wood and synthetic stocked rifles, and each serve their purposes rather well.

Still, I will admit I am drifting more to the synthetic side. I am not that "into" looks, but reliability and function. For that, an ugly SS barell and synthetic stock work just fine.

I do drool when I walk into the high dollar room at Scheel's though.

Blue and wood for me. I have only one only one stainless and synthetic rifle, and I wish it was flat black. It is not a hunting rifle either its a a benchrest type rifle.

This doesn't mean I wouldn't ever own a rifle that was stainless and synthetic for hunting, but it would be coated black if I do.

On the warping of wood and the rusting of blue finishes, If the blue is quality to start with and taken care of, I have never had any rust issues, it does take more work though. My hunting rifles are all glass bedded, and they are always oiled and waxed, I have yet to have a stock warp on me, at least not after I have had it bedded, I have had some factory stocks that needed work.

I have a theory and opinoin on wood stocks which goes like this: In the not too distant past there were no snythetic stocks, just wood. Back in those days when a stock had a tendency to warp, two things were factored in. First the stock blank was unstable, Each piece of wood is different and some pieces were really meant to be rocking chair rails not gunstocks. I know all wood suffers from moisture effects but some blanks are much worse than others. There are blanks of wood that are just not good stock materail.

Being that guns are a manufactured item that needs repeatablility every time, these marginal blanks ended up on stocks on customers rifles. Where synthetic stocks can all be made the same, with wood each blank is slightly different, or an individual so to speak.

The fixes back in the day were glass bed one of these stocks, which helped. But we are dealing with individuals here and not all stocks this worked on, in simple terms the rocking chair rung can't be fixed by glass bedding, only a new piece of wood will fix the problem. A stock that wants to turn into a banana everytime it gets near rain, isn't going to be completly corrected by fiberglass bedding.

I do know that over the years that my rifles with good blanks, and good bedding have worked and been stable for me.

I wonder how long its going to take before somebody makes a simulated wood grain syntetic stock? I figure its going to happen one day, somebody will use thin veneer when laying up the composites, the veneer will be very thin, but embedded with epoxy resin so it won't detract from the syntetic, and actually under the surface. I figure its only a matter of time and some experimenting by a stockmaker before we see these. A place to look at is syntetic wood decking, a couple of years ago these were pretty plain, but in the last five years this stuff looks a lot more like wood. Eventually somebody is going to get his going on gunstocks. I doubt these will ever be as pretty as a real wood stock, but if they get it figured out I think that manufacturers are going to start using them.

Wood and blued steel here. Wouldn't own one of those ugly things. It may be silliness on my part, but aesthetics are as important to me as practicality. I want a beautiful rifle that will shoot sub-MOA. And if I scratch that rifle while hunting, well it just lets me look at that scratch and remember a hunting trip.

Synthetic sucks rear tit, but so does plain wood. I don't care what metal it is as long as it shoots.

i tried a ruger mod 77 stainless/laminate for a while,and while it shot decently, i just always had that feeling that i wouldn't want to bring it home to meet my mama. it's sold and it's walnut(mostly) and blued steel from now on.

I'm completely switched over to synthetic including my Remington 7600. The only two that aren't stainless is the Savage carbine in 7mm-08 and the 7600 and if they were available in stainless I would switch. To me a rifle is a tool, nothing more, so I don't get hung up on looks.

If you don't like the looks of stainless try one of the baked on finishes. I've had mine Nylited and I think they look great. It is a very nice even matte black finish that is better than what comes on most factory finishes.

My personal preference for rifles are synthetic stock. Action and barrel preferences are not important as long as they function flawlessly and very accurate! Shotgun preferences is wood.
Don't like the balance of shotguns with syn stocks. I have wood stocked shotguns with completely camo dipped except the recoil pad.
Tarjac does a great job of camo dipping firearms!

I've got both wood and synthetic stocks (mostly wood), and all rifles are blued. I've yet to handle a synthetic stock that has the feel of a good wood stock. I've also yet to have problems with weather tweaking a wood stock, though I'm aware it can happen to a stock that isn't sealed.

I even get the occasional rust spot on my blued guns, but it doesn't bother me, comes right off with some 0000 steel wool and wd-40, and at worst needs a q-tip application of cold blue.

I don't have anything against ss/syn rifles, but I haven't bought into the hype that one has to have one for hunting certain environments. No gun is maintenance free, but I guess if you're going to bang up a gun, you might as well start out with an ugly one

Of my rifles there are a couple that are not wood and blue. One is S/S and the other Stainless/Lam.
Think I will keep the S/S as my only S/S as it is a 300 mag and I would hunt anything short of big mean african animals.
Think I will trade the laminate as it is a coyote and feels like crap carrying around and I believe most others from now on will be blue/wood.
I think the S/S are just Ugly

quote:

I wonder how long its going to take before somebody makes a simulated wood grain syntetic stock?

Already been done and are being sold by Beretta on some of their shotguns. They call it Extra wood and it might fool you from a distance, but on closer examination the checkering is stamped or moulded and looks to be about 12 lines per inch and up close the synthetic 'wood' dosen't remind me much of wood. I've seen much better imitations of wood in the interiors of cars, they could take a lesson from the automakers. Go to a gunshop and get a Beretta catalogue and have a look if they don't have any on the gunrack.