I have rifles with high-quality synthetic stocks produced by Brown Precision, H-S Precision, and McMillan, and wood-stocked rifles by Winchester, Remington, Cooper, Anschutz, Kimber(Oregon), and Savage.

I like both styles, and have used both in Africa and in North America.

Each has their advantages and disadvantages.

There is no problem with people using what they like; the problem arises when they ask for validation of their choices, or when someone attacks their choices.

George

If one is using a factory rifle with factory wood in a wet damp climate then he is probably better off with a synthetic stock, factorys cannot afford to dry and cure wood properly, albiet in time most of these stocks will settle down, if laid out right to start with, but it takes time.....

But if one has a properly laid out piece of quarter sawn Turkish, that is properly dry and cured and a proper finish is applied, then the prospect of its warping or changing impact is about as good as a synthetic...

I have an old 300 H&H, wood stock that looks like driftwood that has been hunting in Alaska, North Pole, Siberia,South American rain forest, and it never changes zero..In fact I don't recall the last time I had to move a dial on it. Same story for my 375 and 338, but I paid dearly for the wood and had it in my shop for years before they became stocks...

Jeff, the bashing goes both ways, and has on these very forums. Wood stocks have been stupidly referred to as "termite wood" by one person, and synthetics stocks, as a class, have been lumped into the catagory of "plastic" by at least a few people who should know better, and seemingly without any understanding or at least any acknowlegement that not all synthetics stocks are created equal in terms of strength, quality, or stability.



Target shooters have been proving the sability and worth of quality synthetic stocks for more than a generation now, as have big game hunters. It seems like synthetic stocks are pretty much what you see in big game camps around the world anymore. One of my friends just returned from a Colorado hunt where six out of the seven rifles in camp wore fiberglass stocks, which is not atypical these days.



As has been pointed out, good wood that is well-bedded and well-finished can be extremely stable, and extremely weather-proof, but it'll never be as strong or as stable as a top-notch synthetic stock that's been properly constructed and bedded. I have several McMillan stocks that have been through just about everything, especially those on a couple of .300 Winchesters and a .375 H&H that I've used extensively, and these have NEVER changed zero, no matter what sort of weather or hazard of travel they've lived through.



As good as these have been, however, wood still feels and looks better.



This conflict of priority and advantage is why I own rifles with stocks of wood and those with synthetic, with more of each on order. For me at least, it doesn't have to be all wood or all synthetic. They both have their place in my battery......



AD

Alan,



here is my thoughts for what it's worth.....I like synthetic stocks for extreme rough hunting conditions, my friends and me often take our rifles slung on our back while riding trail bikes through the outback of N.S.W etc. and I feel for these conditions the synthetic stocks are best same for wet rainy conditions.



My custom .404 with all the bells and whistles will where a pice of walnut that I just forked out what is for me a small fortune.......I will hunt with it but it will be for gentle strol ltype hunts, this baby will have to much bells and whistles to get dinged up, for me it will give extreme enjoyment just to look at it. My hard hunting will be with my synthetics and normal factory wood stocks.



But I like pretty wood rifles to look at and show my mates

I am just pitifully out of date! I have NO synthetic stocks on any rifles, hunting or otherwise.

We are now doing wood stocks with aluminum chassis systems. We have produced wooden stocks intended for 1000 yard competitions. We are still developing the proper buttstock configurations for benchrest shooting. This may very well bring wood back to that sport. Intitial tests have been excellent.



Serious hunters and shooters will never again have to sacrifice a wooden stock's natural beauty and feel for accuracy, strength, safety, and overall performance. As one of our customers said, �Real wood is now a real option.�



Sincerely,

Ben DeRuyter, President

Accurate Innovations, LLC

2360 Deadwood Ave., Suite A

Rapid City, SD 57702

Mailing address:

P.O. Box 1007

Rapid City, SD 57709-1007

Phone: 605-341-0601

Fax: 605-341-0602

Email: info@accurateinnovations.com

Whats the chances or ETA on a RUGER M77 stock? Not the MKII but the M77 with a tang safety.

Too bad Accurate Innovations doesn't list one of their stocks for the CZ 550 Magnum, it would be a nice option for those of us who have gone that route. I bought a barreled action and put a MacMillan stock on my CZ in 416 Rigby. If you are using drop-in stocks, then why not have two stocks for the same rifle? You can use the stock that best fits the hunting conditions or your state of mind at the moment, one wood, one synthetic.

Like many who have posted, I own several of both.

I prefer wood because I value the looks of a rifle almost as much as its functionality. There's a reason the old-timers, like Dan'l Boone and his Betsy, named their rifles after women. Nothing synthetic can compare to a beautifully done wood stock.

But all, and I mean all, of my wood stocked rifles bear scars from hard hunting. I've used them as crutches while crawling through the brush and I've had well-meaning trackers bang them up while strapping them into the gun rack in the Toyota.

Once, a fellow strapped two of my bolt rifles into the rack too close together. As the truck bumped and swayed its way down the miles of dirt tracks that day, the bolt from one of them just rubbed a godawful series of grooves into the beautiful wood stock of the other. Man, that broke my heart, but what are you going to do?

I learned a lesson from that, and refinishing fixed the problem, but wood will punish you.

Another time, I banged the living shit out of the synthetic stock on my .375 as I dismounted the truck in a big hurry to put a stalk on an eland. There was a long, shiny, but easily rubbed out streak along the buttstock. I said a silent prayer that the stock wasn't made of the fine English walnut on the other rifle I had along.

So, I like them both. But I'll always prefer wood, even though the refinishing bills will mount up over time.

Allen in 1988 I went to Botswana with a fiberglas stocked Ruger 77. It got almost too hot to handle in the sun.

That's the worst problem I've had with synthetic stocks.



AD

The "hot stock" problem is easily taken care of by painting the stock a light color. Silver may be best but a silver rifle in the game fields is maybe a little hard to feature. Maybe a light gray or biege?
I always did my own BR rifles in a metallic light blue or green just to combat this. I saw black BR stocks actually warp from the sun shining on one side. Regards, Bill.

Aw come on Allen, your straddling the fence and that will squash your balls!

It's been said that Michaelangelo could see his finished work in a block of stone. In the same way, making a stock out of figured walnut (or other species) is extremely rewarding. Laying out the blank with an eye toward letting the grain arc up through the pistol grip, while trying to keep the fiddleback visible all the way to the forend tip. Trying like heck to get all the feather to trace along where you imagine the buttstock will reside. Preserving the maximum amount of burl. Visualizing how the figure will run when 75% of the mass is carved away. Heart in mouth when resawing a super-figured natural blank apart. Hoping not to find a bug-eaten void or massive wind-check. And finding the best stuff is deep inside. What a trip.



Three times during the process, it's really fun. One is when the lacquer goes on the machined and laminated blank. Another is when the final-shaped and sanded stock gets its first coat of oil.



But best of all is like yesterday, when we were planing up some 5/4 rough sawn planks and discovered a heartstoppingly beautiful section where rays burst out of a mass of fiddle, clouds and burl. The fireworks measured 24 inches long and strong fiddle 12 more beyond that. Like sticking your shovel in your backyard and flipping out a baseball sized nugget. Now all I have to do is to find another one. The idea of building guns stock out of this stuff wonderful.



Was visiting Glacier Hardwoods the other day and stopped short - seeing a 36in piece of something about 12in wide and 9/4 thick. Radical stripes and smoke on a carmel background. Black Limba they said - from West Africa. Borrowed their wood book. Glues well, machines easily. Strength numbers in compression and bending similar to walnut. 85% as dense. Can be brought to a high polish.



Bought it and made a blank. Finished a scrap and let our checkerer work with it. "Excellent stuff" he said.



In wood the possibilites seem endless. And that's what draws me to it.

Allen,
My only major criticism of McMillan Fiberglass Stocks is the potential for hearing damage. I have experienced this damage firsthand from a McMillan made for the Remington Custom Shop and known as the 40X. Evidently Remington pushed McMillan on the weight and hence the rear of the stock has extremely little "fill" and a very stiff exterior. That stiffness transferred "noise" from the stock directly to my ear through bone resonnance. I wish I could say it has been anything but a nightmare that has led to invasive tinnitus. In short it has been life changing and not in a good way...

I have many McMillan Stocks and no other stock pulls that trick off to any extent thankfully, however, the potential is there. I wish that more laminated stocks were available for working grade custom rifles. Darcy's Legend in Obiche, in something other than a one off example, would be a welcome change...

Regards, Matt.

Bill Leeper, my very hot Botswana stock was a light brown and by mid afternoon would be quite uncomfortable to handle.

Matt, maybe there is something to what you're saying, and this is the first I've heard of this phenomenon. But then again, I could serve as a poster child for the hearing-impaired.

I've lost so much hearing already that my wife is ready to drag me to an audiologist for a hearing aid.......

AD

Hello Allen,
Kelly McMillan is aware of the problem and will provide a .25" piece of foam to anyone buying one of his stocks(I did not bring it to his attention). In short I noticed that even though I wore eare plugs and Howard Leight 31 NRR ear muffs I still experienced a worsening of the ringing immediately after the firing pin fell. It largely made no sense until I noticed that the ringing even followed dry firing. My 40XB-KS was largely like a tuning fork in it's efficiency to transmit sound. An Eagle Cheek Pad and/or heavier fill will solve the problem.

Oddly enough my NULA 20 did not exhibit the same tendency to transmit sound through the stock. And they are reputed to be one of the 'stiffest" stocks available.

Regards, Matt.