No more Wood?

[Old Hickory 45]

I have one light weight Tupperware stocked rifle that is great to hunt with.
I also have a custom beautiful wood stock on another rifle that has a varmint barrel and is too heavy to lug around all day, considering my age.

 

[Hugnot]

There are still trees growing that will provide wood for gun stocks. Should the wood supply be diminished laminate stocks will fill the gap. Wood swells, shrinks, warps, sucks up oil, rots, cracks, dents, is relatively heavy & requires some type of coating. Laminate stocks sort of look like plywood with all the thin layers glued together with dark glue but resist swelling/warping.

All my rifles, except my AR-15 have wood stocks - American black walnut, Bastogne walnut, European walnut, Maple and garish colored Birch laminates. I don't care if they get dinged up a little bit because I use them.

 

[skipglo]

LOL. thanks...swelling is why people say not to get one...but the scratch may be worse.

Unless you plan to use the gun for 1000 yard...million dollar competition....you will probably NEVER experience a notably accuracy issue do to swelling. I guided on a river using jetboats for 10 years and wooden stocked rifles in rain,mud and snow, and stored in the windshield of the boat...never witnessed a problem with swelling....but the Scratches.....ouch! It makes one wonder though.....I wonder...how did the sailors and fur trappers ever hit a **** thing with all those SWOLLEN RIFLES.... especially before varathane!

 

[R-Dog]

Lol, I'm pretty well convinced that I will go wood, someone reminded that their grandfather hunted with a red flannel coat, not camo clothes.
I like the Winchester Featherweight and the Weatherby Vanguard Sporter in .308
I really like the Winchester Mod 70 sporter, but they don't make it in. 308 win which confuses me, I mean why not .308
Thanks for your share.

 

[skipglo]

Lol, I'm pretty well convinced that I will go wood, someone reminded that their grandfather hunted with a red flannel coat, not camo clothes.
I like the Winchester Featherweight and the Weatherby Vanguard Sporter in .308
I really like the Winchester Mod 70 sporter, but they don't make it in. 308 win which confuses me, I mean why not .308
Thanks for your share.

My pleasure...take a look at the Weatherby Lazermark.... extremely nice for only a couple hundred more dollars. Enjoy

 

[Hugnot]

I just re-stocked my little .20 Practical rodent rifle with a Bastogne (cross between claro & English, Luther Burbank) walnut stock. It has excellent grain flow thru the grip area and a moderate amount of figure through out the entire stock (pleasing contrasting color and features). I was able to exactly fit the rifle into the stock using my razor sharp 1/4 & 3/8 inch Marples brand chisels touched up with a diamond hone resulting in hair-line joints between wood & metal. I also used a 3/8 inch gouge of some unknown Japanese manufacture. The barrel channel was exactly scraped out with a 1/2 inch Gun Line scraper (now discontinued). Epoxy glop was used to bed the action. Nicholson wood rasps and cabinet files were used to shape the stock into an pleasing shape in tune with my aesthetic tastes (only to be looked at not eaten). After shaping I used a DeWalt orbital sander loaded with 120 grit to achieve a perfectly flat surface devoid of ripples or lumps. Hand sanding followed ending with 400 grit and 10 coats of MinWax satin poly rub achieved a deep finish and completely filled the grain pores.

I have difficulty in expressing my pleasure when I take my .20 P out and neatly clip off the head of some rodent 3 hundred yards away with a 40 grain Vmax at about 3,700 fps MV.

 

[PerrySBell]

Perrysbell, how do you like that Boyd's stock? I have a Ruger M77 Mark II I plan to re-barrel next year and was looking at the at one stock and several others they have, but they mentioned the barrel channel will only accept a factory barrel?? What contour do you have, that doesn't look like a factory barrel for sure

There is nothing "Factory" about this Rifle. 26" Stainless Steel with Black Nitride Bartlein Barrel. Sendero/Varmint Contour. Straight Fluted. I would suggest that you call Boyd's and explain your situation. They are very easy to work with. I love mine and certainly have no regrets.

 

[Kmccord]

There is nothing "Factory" about this Rifle. 26" Stainless Steel with Black Nitride Bartlein Barrel. Sendero/Varmint Contour. Straight Fluted. I would suggest that you call Boyd's and explain your situation. They are very easy to work with. I love mine and certainly have no regrets.

I did send them an email, explaining what I was going to do and all I received back was unfortunately, all we offer is what is listed for barrel size. When you received your stock, did you have to open up the barrel channel in the stock or did it fit as it was designed from the manufacturer?

 

[PerrySBell]

I did send them an email, explaining what I was going to do and all I received back was unfortunately, all we offer is what is listed for barrel size. When you received your stock, did you have to open up the barrel channel in the stock or did it fit as it was designed from the manufacturer?

The only work to the Wood on this stock was to the area where the Magazine is installed to make it ever so slightly Larger. As far as Barrel Fit, I did as I would suggest for any custom precision rifle, have the action Bedded and Pillar Blocked. The Barrel fits Great.

 

[Kmccord]

Perry SBell, one more question, did it already come pillar bedded? I thought it mentioned they are.

 

[PerrySBell]

I am not certain if Boyd's Stocks "come pillar bedded". I believe they offer that service at an additional cost. I had my At-One Bedded and Pillar Blocked by the company that assembled my Rifle, Kelbly's Precision Rifles.

 

[TexasSportsman]

Unless you plan to use the gun for 1000 yard...million dollar competition....you will probably NEVER experience a notably accuracy issue do to swelling. I guided on a river using jetboats for 10 years and wooden stocked rifles in rain,mud and snow, and stored in the windshield of the boat...never witnessed a problem with swelling....but the Scratches.....ouch! It makes one wonder though.....I wonder...how did the sailors and fur trappers ever hit a **** thing with all those SWOLLEN RIFLES.... especially before varathane!

Each scratch and dent in a wood stock tells a story. Its history embedded on the rifle. My Dad gifted me a Remington .30-06 pump rifle that he bought for his Dad in the 1950s. My Dad shared a story for each of the scratches and dents. They say if the walls could talk the stories they could tell. The stories of each dent and scratch on that rifle are stories of successful and unsuccessful hunts, getting in and out of the truck, leaning the rifle against a tree and watching it fall to the ground, etc.

You see...back then a rifle was no more a tool than a hammer, saw or a drill. They were made to use and saw hard use. That rifle is as beat up as a tool can be from 40 years of putting meat in the freezer and busting a few varmints from time to time. That rifle never saw a scope either. Granddad hunted out to 200 yards with iron sights. To see photos of my Dad, uncles and my grandparents they may have been poor in materialism but they ate well enough with the New Mexico mule deer they harvested along with veggies in the 1 acre garden they tended.

So don't rule out wood stock. Our forefathers hunted for their families and defended their homes with firearms that had wood stocks and they did it well enough to bring civilization into the 21 century. If the hunter starved it wasn't because the rifle had wood stocks.