I definitely prefer wood...on my shotguns.

On most rifles, I am a die-hard synthetic stock fan. McMillan is best, but I have had good luck with injection molded stock by removing most of the bedding area and filling it with Brownell's Acra Steel or Acra Gel. The biggest problem with injection molded stocks is getting them bedded stress-free; it always takes me two tries. As for the forearm, well, you have to put quite a bit of pressure to get them to deflect into the barrel if you float them.

I also own HS Precision and Brown stocks, and they both work well. I am not convinced aluminum bedding blocks are mandatory; McMillan does not use them, and they are about the best stock going.

I like wood on my .416. I like the heft it provides, and I like the feel of my face on the wood. I am not going to shoot a Cape buffalo at 500 yards, but mine shoots quite accurately anyway.

I do not own any laminates, but probably will get one soon. I think it would make good sense on a heavy rifle, since those stocks are heavy anyway.

Since I buy my rifles to hunt with instead of to look at and admire,I choose only mcmillan stocks.They are simply stronger and more consistant in wet weather than any wood stock can be.

What are your preferrences and perspectives on this subject?

AD

I'll take synthetic on my rigs Allen.

Granted, wood is some pretty amazing stuff when a capable whittler gets his/her hands on it. Heck, it's a form of art in and of itself.

But I can't even bear the thought of scratching up a piece of XXX Bastogna (or any other variety)on a hunting trip. Too much time and money invested by me and the whittler.

Scratch up a synthetic; buy a new one or just rattlecan it and it's good as new!

allen, I am a die hard wood fan but then the hunting part comes into play and for me the plastic is the only way to go. I hunt hard and sometimes the gun takes unwanted abuse. I have a pre-64 sitting here now wearing a Rimrock stock, not a real pretty gun but it shoots sub MOA and can take a bit of hard knocks.
My new custom that will be built will wear wood but will not be a hard core hunting set-up.

I prefer walnut with blued steel for my rifles. I love the sights & smells of the game fields and I love carrying elegant rifles when hunting. If I know the weather is gonna be wet, then I carry a backup rifle that wears a synthetic stock. But if the weather turns sour while I'm out of camp with one of my "pretty" rifles, then I continue to hunt as though the weather were still fair. This requires good maintenance and I have not had a change of impact due to stock warpage/foul weather. I have hunted whitetails in downpours over in the Texas hill country using synthetic and stainless rifles and was glad I hadn't brought one of the more expensive wood/blue rifles. But I have also hunted in the rain with wood/blue because that's what was in my hands when the cloudburst started. BTW, sometimes the bigger bucks move more in the rain if it isn't real windy. Even though I prefer walnut/blue rifles, on extended backcountry treks for elk the synthetic wins hands down. Right now my safe contains only 1 synthetic stocked rifle--the rest are walnut/blue, except the 404 Jeffery metal is teflon coated. I say folks should hunt with whatever makes them enjoy the hunt the most! But if there's gonna be a pissing contest, then I opt for synthetic/stainless!

Working with and caring for wood is a frusterating endeavor for me. I screw up more wood projects than I get right. As a result, I have a rather jaded view of wood in general. So synthetic (McMillan) is my handle of choice. Synthetic stocks can pretty much take it all without worry of bad falls, horse bound mishaps, and water finding its way into cracks in the armour I'm unaware off.

When I do eventually own a rifle that is functional work of art including a fine wood stock, it will have to be returned to its creator for regular stock maintenance. I'm not sure I'm ready to except that part of it yet.

Now wood saddle trees and wood post horns are another story...........

Chuck

I really love the looks of a fine wood stock. What some of the guys do with a great piece of walnut is just wonderful. But when it comes to everyday hard hunting use I'll take a synthetic stock any day. Matter of fact I have taken wood off of a lot of my rifles and put synthetic on as replacements. Heck if you get unlucky and break one you are just out the money to buy another. If you break a real find wood stock you might never replace it.

Im definatley a wood guy, although I can understand why some folks would gravitate toward a composite. If I were to try my hand at something like a sheep hunt or lived in a less arrid climate then I would have to strongly consider a synthetic. But for my purposes and where I live, they offer very little over wood and the upside of of a good walnut stock wins out. As for the maintenance end of wood, it is no more than the difference between cooking on a stove vs a microwave in my eyes. I dont view the "old way" as a hinderance, but I see the "new way" as a shortcut that comes at a cost.

I just visited with an old friend yesterday that I havent seen in nearly a decade, we showed each other our rifle collections and reminiced for several hours. His favorite shooter is still his synthetic stocked Sako 06, but of mine he liked the M-98 with a oberndorf style stock. Both have their pros and cons, but both get the job done.

I understand the draw of synthetic and see the advantages. But I also don't fall for the line that a wood stock will warp 5 inches if you sneeze on it. I know many a hunter has killed many an animal with a wood stocked weapon in AK, Pac NW ect.



For me and my hunting synthetic doesn't offer enough to make me go out of my way to replace the wood on my rifles. I like the look and feel of wood.



BTW - I know I am looking to have a MCM inletted for my Ruger but - wood speaks to me and this rifle will be CM reciever with SS tube. Wanna go 50/50 Balack/white on the McSwirrly.





Scratches build charecter and a bit of care and TLC will let you hunt wood all over the place and not end up with a catscratching post.

I have bought a few rifles now with synthetic stocks and SS. It took some time for me to give in to this due to the fact that the guns that I have with wood and blue worked well for half a century.



The way that I hunt here in New England allows me to care for a wood and blue. I know how to do it and they perform well and also look better to my eyes. However I now have three plastic and SS rifles and a laminated and SS muzzleloader.



If one can care for a wood and blue and it's glassed, sealed and free floated the gun will be better looking to me for sure.



The last gun here is a 54 year old Brno 21h in 7X57. It shoots well, stays sighted in and weighs only seven pounds with a 3-9. I may well carry it, among a bakers dozen of others, for woods hunting. It will do the job with class.



This is the current thinking here.



The two rifles below are what interests me, at the moment, for a medium range whitetail situation. One is a Kimber Montana in 270 WSM that goes 7.5 lbs. The other is a 264 WM M70 that goes 9.5 lbs. In the last shootoff the M70 won for staying sighted in and it's just factory bedding with some tweaking! This difference would only really apply to varmint accuracy but it influences me.



I will put both in the vehicle and I may go back and get the Kimber if I want to walk around later on opening day. I like them all.

It depends on the how and where the rifle will be used. I prefer high grade English. But, I'll be damned it I'm going to take my Ottmar built 280 into the wet brush around here.

I am currently building a Winchester M70 in 270 WSM. The metal is stainless and the stock is a Brown Precision kevlar "pounder". This will be my local hunting rifle. Wet or dry, brushy or sparse, rugged or flat.

Almost all my rifles are wearing wood (beat up from use nonetheless). But the reality of it all is that synthetics can do all the things that wood can and in most instances do it better.

Seems that the only think that synthetics can't do is grab my eye. Yet...

FWIW,

-Steve

I really like guns, but at the end of the day they are tools to me. The stock is the handle that is the interface between me and my rifle. One of the best shaped handle for me is the Sako Hunter stock. Fortuitously McMillan makes that style to fit a wide array of rifles. When I am serious about taking a rifle hunting it generally gets a new McMillan stock, and off we go. If I sell a rifle I keep the McMillan and sell it with the original pristine wood stock.
I will give the Legend stock a go on my Winchester project.
One wood stock that I will use is the hogback stock that came on my CZ 416 Rigby. It fits very well. That rifle points like a shotgun for me. I hope to take it to Africa, but won't take it to Alaska. I've been out in truly nappy weather for days on end there, and had other things on my mind than caring for my rifle stock. A better man than I would take care of a wood stock up their with aplomb, but since synthetic is available, that is what I will use.
JCN

Roger, sure hope ol' Chic is sittin down when he reads this part.... I am currently building a Winchester M70 in 270 WSM. The metal is stainless and the stock is a Brown Precision kevlar "pounder". This will be my local hunting rifle. Wet or dry, brushy or sparse, rugged or flat.

I too love the look of a fine wood stock. I also love the stability and mar resistance of synthetics. In some cases I have both stocks for my rifles. I use the synthetic to hunt with and the wood to look at. I have some very expensive wood that is, quite frankly, worth more than the action, so I wouldn't risk damaging it. I love to carry pretty wood on a hunt, but don't do it often, as I can't bear to take the chance. When I hunt with plain wood or synthetic, I love being able to concentrate on hunting and not on caring for the rifle. This may sound crazy to some, but I've never denied I'm a little crazy about guns and hunting.

As I've mentioned before, I have a single SS rifle, and it serves as a truck gun and rainy day gun, only exception is that it's going to kill a deer this year! All the rest are walnut and blue.

I expect to have a rifle built one of these days for long range work however, and it will sport a composite stock in consideration of that endeavor.

I can take a XXX Baloney Walnut stock into the woods. I subscribe to the old saw, "Life is too short to hunt with ugly guns." Besides, with all that figure and a good oil finish it's natural cammo in the fall.

I have been using wood for 60 years, and in some mighty tough places, it has always worked for me, so I see little reason to put a piece of plastic on any gun of mine...I don't care nor mind who uses a plastic stock, but I get a little perturbed with all the BS about how much better plastic is than good wood....

I have seen plastic stocks or all makes snap into at the grip, warp when sat too close to the fire, or in the trunk of a car or in the rear window and had one near melt when I left a light bulb over the gun to cure some glass....

So take your pick, I made my choice and my guns don't resemble my wifes toaster or my truck bumper, plastic and stainless steel just don't make me all cuddley thats for sure.

The African Battery is all wood and blue steel. Why not? The weather there has always been clear during the hunting season. Yeah, they get scratched a bit. That's called "honorable scars from fair wear and tear shall not count against" as I recall reading in a breed description from some terrier type. The Arctic gun is black synthetic with black Teflon so that nothing Alaska throws against it can hurt it. For the Light, I'm a bit torn. There is a good chance I'll split the difference and go with a Serengeti laminated walnut with a bead-blasted blue. No work of art, perhaps, but good-looking as well as functional.

Less fuss, more hunt!

Africa is an ideal place for walnut and blued steel, and wood just doesn't get as hot to the touch as synthetic does.

I general, I mostly hunt with rifles wearing McMillan stocks and have for a dozen years, but I still like wood, own a lot of it, and have a few custom rifles on order that'll be stocked in fine, old walnut that was very carefully selected. And yes I'll hunt with them.

The one thing I'm insistent on is that wood be properly aged, laid-out, and finished. The finish had better be able to keep out rain and snow, or I get cranky real fast. In general, natural oil finishes such as tung, etc., aren't worth a damn in that department in my experience........

AD

I own both wood and synthetic. The McMillans I have are fine tools.....nothing pretty but functional as hell. There's others out there as well and I believe that if one chooses a synthetic stock it should be a good one.....NOT PLASTIC.

When one says wood tghere's a lot left to say.....what kind?...what grade and how fancy?

When I build a gun I spend a heck of a lot of time with it and I can't justify that time unless the wood is a fancy grade of walnut. That said, I'm now also building my guns with two stocks. One a fancy walnut for the eye and sitting in the cabinet and showing off to friends.....the other a Fiberglass type.....McMillan or Borden Rimrock type of stock for the same barreled action to throw in a scabbard or a safari vehicle.

A gun can easily have two outfits.....a Tuxedo and a pair of bib overalls. Why not???

I love a wood stock and can not say the same for the synthetics. I have never had the problems everyone says are common with wood. When it gets nasty I still take my wood stocks to hunt. My main squeeze varmint rifle has an H&S precision stock and shoots so well I am not going to mess with success otherwise everything I own is walnut. It serves the purpose and always has. I have never seen a glass stock go bad, warp or otherwise go south on anyone although I have heard of it. I don't put a lot of faith in what I hear.

I prefer wood. I don't have a good reason for this. I just like it better. I've built myself a couple of glass stocked rifles over the years and they have worked well enough. I didn't keep them though.
My wood stocks are nothing special simply because, as a stockmaker, I am....well, nothing special. They are well cured though. This is because it usually takes me quite a while to get around to making one for myself. They are straight grained and dense. They are checkered simply but adequately but certainly not artfully! They are glass bedded and the butt is sealed with acraglas under the pad. I've always used thinned varathane for a preliminary finish or as a foundation then finished with Tru-oil because it's easy to work with. I maintain the finish by simply rubbing on linseed then wiping it off. Kind of old fashioned but I've been happy with it for the most part. The barrels are free floated and the gap is sealed off with a grease.
These stocks have worked fine for me and I've not been bothered by any warpage or point of impact shift. I don't hunt on the coast though and don't spend days sitting in the rain. I did shoot one mule deer at long range at the end of a pretty wet day and that worked out OK for me but that has been the closest to a real test. The sad truth is, I'm not much of a hunter either so that my rifle is often a pretty superfluous piece of equipment!
On the finish. I recently came into posession of a nifty epoxy sealer (thanks to Downwindtracker2)and plan to try this one a couple of stocks this winter. Perhaps this stuff will further weatherproof my stocks.
A friend I was speaking with recently told me his glass stocked 270 is the only rifle he has which has always hit right where he expects it to. I stocked this one with a Lee Six stock in about 1978 and he claims he could have glued the adjustment caps on the scope at that time and it wouldn't have bothered him any. This is where the glass stock really shines. It is, if not totally inert, darn close to it. It may be possible to get wood to be almost this stable but probably not.
I am most concerned about moisture resistance on my long range match rifles since we often have to lie out in the rain shooting (what fun!). For days like this I have a rifle with a macMillan stock. I've not had any noticable shifting of the laminated stocked guns but I feel more confident with the glass one.
For the hunting rifles though I prefer wood. Regards, Bill

My go-to is stainless/synthetic. But my real favorites all wear wood. For thirty years I sat many days in pouring rain never giving a thought to those wood stocks. I would fieldstrip them every two or three years and RIG everything. A quick wipedown after a rainy hunt or sweaty day afield and they were ready-to-go again.

That said I do not own a pristine hunting rifle. They're banged-up and freckled with rust. I still get more pleasure out of that small part of hunting with a banged-up classic than a space-gun. I can always refinish and reblue if I must have pristine. If one obsesses about keeping his hunting guns in mint condition he will not get full pleasure from using them.

I've never experienced the POI changes with wood that others have so I don't worry about it. I bed and float everything, wood or synthetic, and kill the gloss on everything including those white stainless barrels.
The wood gets sealed and then I find other things to worry about.

Like the other posters said, a rifle is a tool. All that matters is that it lands a bullet where it should. If it looks good doing it all the better.

I love fine wood, precise metal fitting and wood-metal inletting with flawless checkering, but, I am not rich or even close. So, a D'Arcy Echols classic, a Gene Similion masterpiece or a Jerry Fisher work of art are beyond my financial resources, unless I come out of early retirement and get a job I will friggin' well hate. Not going to happen!

So, I am reduced to owning about 3 dozen rifles, most of which have wood stocks, but, several have synthetics. These include Brown Precisions, Rimrocks, Mickys, an old Clifton Arms and like that. I got my first synthetic stock in '85 after a lovely oil finished stock originally from the shop of Al Beisen warped on a rainy, backpack hunt up the Yalakom River, this is in B.C.'s drier area, 'cause it gets a bit wet here!

I am going to get a few more rifles built before I get to 60 and I intend to get some Serengeti laminate stocks for my heavier calibers and synthetics for the lighter ones. I have a Brno ZG-47 action and a 21H action as a mate, these are going to be in Serengeti wood as a pair, in 9.3x62 and 7x57 and I am going to get the nicest wood they have.

The best solution to the conondrum posed by Allen is very simple, just own lots of each!

I definitely prefer wood (and nice wood at that). I think it makes a rifle a work of art if done well and not overdone. I have a classic custom FN M98 in 308 Norma Mag that is my pride and joy. See http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2625635093 for pics of my rifle.

Although, my wood stocked hunting rifles shoot very well (less than 1" @ 100 yards, and most times well under this) if I were building a target rifle (I have a hankering to do some longrange target shooting, say F2) then I would definitely have them in aluminium bedded synthetic stocks.

Magnum

Bill, I'm not a stockmaker or gunsmith, but have built a few mausers for my own use. I buy the best piece of fully inletted and shaped wood that I can afford at the time (which usually isn't much). Then I do my shaping and fitting and checkering to my own taste. Then i throw it in the oven wrapped in brown paper at 140 degrees for a couple of days, the last few hours of which with the oven turned off to allow the stock to cool. The stock comes out virtually devoid of moisture (most stocks lose 4-5 ounces of water). Immediately, then, I use a mix of 10:1 ether to epoxy to seal the entire gun, including screwholes. The ether thins the epoxy down enough for good penetration of the wood, while itself evaporating away. I usually give it 3 coats, wiping down the stock with an acetone rag 5-6 minutes after each application to remove any liquid epoxy on the surface. I allow each coat to dry overnight so that all of the ether is gone. If the wood is more porous (you can tell with the first coat), I make the mix a little thicker. This is only the sealer, and the stock still has to be finished and bedding done, etc. But the wood is forever sealed, and the surface is a lot harder to marr or scratch.

I like the feel of wood, and the smell of gun-oil. I also like Mausers and old side-side double shotguns. If i still lived in south Georgia (30 years ago), i would only own stainless guns (rust is terrible down there) but i would still use wood. I think that it kind of defines the attitude with which i hunt. There is nothing better than a crisp fall morning spent with a good gun and a son.

It's wood for me. Nothing quite like a nice piece of timber on a good rifle. I hunt in locales a lot of people would consider "extreme", and am comfortable carrying wood stocked rifles.

I don't have any synthetics now, but have in the past and just could never get past they way they felt. I do have one laminate, a Serengeti 5-layer, that looks and feels like a solid wood stock.

Here in coastal Alaska, or when hunting around the glaciers and the rain, sleet, and snow associated with that, wood does need to completely sealed, but I haven't had a problem with accuracy or consistancy yet (knock on wood! )

My wood stocks do have a few dings, some have light scratches, eh, "character lines". As long as you do use the stock for a boat paddle or pry bar, and is properly sealed, the rifle should remain consistant (as far as the effects the handle induces).

I like the beauty, warmth, tradition, and soul of a blued steel and walnut stocked rifle.

I know quite a few guys who just can't get past their distaste for synthetic stocks, and some of my best hunting friends have gone with synthetics for a while, then went back to wood.

Wood feels better, looks better, tends to balance better, and is more comfortable to use when it's real hot or real cold. Wood also tends to best reflect the heart, soul, and character of the gunmaker and owner in a very special way. No matter what anyone says to the contrary, wood still works!

On the other hand synthetics have often gotten a bum rap that they don't deserve. Not all synthetics stocks are created equal by any means, and for my money McMillan makes the best synthetic stock in the world. I have personally had synthetic stocks move, but never a McMillan or HS Precision. They're not as pretty as fine wood, but for me they provide more peace of mind...........

AD

The only thing I don't like about synthetics is the noise they make when going through the brush, but they are generally lighter, tougher, and don't warp like wood. Take your pick.

Though the noise is no worse than that piece of crap Mod. 70 safety!

Get the safety and trigger system adjusted and timed by an expert, then get a safety scallop machined into the bolt sleeve and the noise problem will go away.

AD

My problem is I haven't found a synthetic that fit me as well as wood. I don't want a lump of bondo on my stock either.

The A numba 1 wood stock that fits me PERFECTLY is the stock on a Ruger M77. Absaloutly perfect. Nothing else feels as good. Number 2 would be a winchester supergrade - again not synthetic.

After a couple days in the rain i just don't trust a wood stocked rifle to hold zero. I learned this lesson the hard way. In western PA it is hard to keep wood stocks from mildewing in the summer.

wood and blue for me, please...

couple reasons (opinions, no real facts)

i LIKE wood
I get setup MY LOP easier
i own 2 lam stocks and 2 plastic ones... one of the plastics is so "boring" i've never finished the project

my lightest gun is a mex mauser in a super light plastic stock... sure is fun to tote... but i LIKE wood...

as others have said or inferred, i don't mind scratches and dings in my GOOD wood, as long as it's from hunting... it happens, and me AND my guns have scars to remember them by

besides, I am not setting up an injection mold, rather a stock machine (3 weeks to making chips, mebbe)

jeffe

I prefer wood and indeed for Africa and most of the hunting I do, that is my preference. Having said that, I think I have enough common sense that if an Alaskan hunt is in the cards for me, my SS/synthetic stock rifle will be with me. jorge

Most of my guns are wood but only a few get hauled between wet and dry climates. Among them is one that shifted its POI from 2.5" high to 4 inches low between Connecticut and Montana. It went into a synthetic for the next trip, and is currently in an old 40X stock ( have not yet gotten it to a range to see if anything shifted when I moved to CA - a situation that annoys me ).

Although I have stocked more than a few rifles using fiberglass (not plastic) stocks, they were all for other people. I prefer, and only own, wood-stocked rifles and shotguns. Can a wood stock ever be as consistent and weatherproof as a synthetic handle? Probably not, though a well-made and finished wood stock is more durable and consistent than many want to believe.

Wood gives a gunstock a unique identity, for truly no two blanks look alike. The wooden stock is made (in large part) by someone's hands, and that handwork (good or bad) gives the stock a personality. And finally, wood is a natural material in its natural state, a link not only to nature, but to the past.

A stainless steel/fiberglass rifle may be judged a more efficient "tool", but my blued steel/walnut guns are more than just tools, they are companions.