No more Wood?

[Vettepilot]

I just took delivery of a Boyd's custom laminated wood stock. I am VERY impressed/pleased with it. They have great customer service too!

Vettepilot

 

[.300 Dakota]

I've had a couple bad experiences with Boyd's, but by and large, they have delivered many very nice stocks to me. I will continue to buy from them, and their action inlets are generally perfect fits.

I have shot plastic modular stocks on rifles and installed a wooden stock with no bedding or other modifications and watched my group size shrink by as much as half. Wood prevents excessive vibration along the barrel much better than plastic.

Now when we talk about synthetic, we are including such items as McMillan, Manners, AG Composites, and others. Many of those are actually heavier than wood and do an excellent job of cutting out barrel vibration.

Problem is, all American business is now driven by bean counters. There is a relatively new model in play that must be taught in all the business schools that focuses on cutting everything to the bare minimum. They want workers to be at full throttle from punch in to punch out. They want to eliminate all down time or slow downs so 1 person can now do the work that it use to take 2 people to do. Everybody wants to skimp on materials and use the absolute cheapest they can get. Combine this with the fact that the U.S. ships all of its wood overseas to be milled, this closing most all the mills in the country because it's somehow cheaper with the Asian slave labor. Then you get a situation where you'd have to import your own wood and pay too much by business standards for Americans to craft the stocks or train and set up shops with equipment overseas for them to do it. But wood still costs more than recycled plastic, so the bean counters will continue to rise it.

Wooden stocks are viewed as luxury items, and most every model that has one with a couple exceptions start in the 4-figure range. A few companies will continue to build a few wooden stocked rifles for the "elite" American hunter, as tariffs on imports increase, the price of wood increases because the foreign countries pass tariffs levied by our government on to us, the U.S. consumer at *** (point of sale). Combine this with the destruction caused by wildfires and hurricanes, and we're looking at a 4x4 untreated 8' post going for $30 each in a few weeks (I was told by someone in the industry).

We've sold our own selves out. If we'd use stimulus trillions to build factories and have people trained to run them, we would all have more stimulus with viable jobs for years to come. We need to be self sufficient again as a country. However, most would be satisfied with the status quo and prefer to sit and home and collect a check in the mail for doing so if they could. Many aspire to do just this. Going down another rabbit hole now, but one is a result of the other. Businesses have to be bean counters because nobody wants to work today.

 

[left handed gun]

When I was growing up in Texas, mid-1970s to early 1980s, the guns of choice were:


Rem 700 in .30-06; .270 or 7 MM Rem Mag. The .300 Win had a much lesser following than the 7 MM.

Pre-64 Model 70 Wins, often custom stocked

Weatherby Mk Vs for the Drs., lawyers and Indian chiefs. Usually in .300 Weatherby.

The odd Sako every now and then, but prolly 9 Weatherbys for every Sako.

Wooden stocks all. The Weatherbys had some beautiful wood. I expect the Sakos did too.


Lots of Win or Marlin lever actions in the East Texas pine forests, but they tended to get beaten up more.

I still have a wooden stocked 700 BDL .270, left handed of course. Topped with American-made Redfield 3-9.

 

[Benman73]

I am digging the chassis coming from Woox that combine the warmth of wood with the stability of metal.

 

[R-Dog]

Yes. I put it on aluminum pillars and had to sand on the barrel channel where the stock swelled on one side. But it still looks fantastic

COOL

 

[R-Dog]

I've had a couple bad experiences with Boyd's, but by and large, they have delivered many very nice stocks to me. I will continue to buy from them, and their action inlets are generally perfect fits.

I have shot plastic modular stocks on rifles and installed a wooden stock with no bedding or other modifications and watched my group size shrink by as much as half. Wood prevents excessive vibration along the barrel much better than plastic.

Now when we talk about synthetic, we are including such items as McMillan, Manners, AG Composites, and others. Many of those are actually heavier than wood and do an excellent job of cutting out barrel vibration.

Problem is, all American business is now driven by bean counters. There is a relatively new model in play that must be taught in all the business schools that focuses on cutting everything to the bare minimum. They want workers to be at full throttle from punch in to punch out. They want to eliminate all down time or slow downs so 1 person can now do the work that it use to take 2 people to do. Everybody wants to skimp on materials and use the absolute cheapest they can get. Combine this with the fact that the U.S. ships all of its wood overseas to be milled, this closing most all the mills in the country because it's somehow cheaper with the Asian slave labor. Then you get a situation where you'd have to import your own wood and pay too much by business standards for Americans to craft the stocks or train and set up shops with equipment overseas for them to do it. But wood still costs more than recycled plastic, so the bean counters will continue to rise it.

Wooden stocks are viewed as luxury items, and most every model that has one with a couple exceptions start in the 4-figure range. A few companies will continue to build a few wooden stocked rifles for the "elite" American hunter, as tariffs on imports increase, the price of wood increases because the foreign countries pass tariffs levied by our government on to us, the U.S. consumer at *** (point of sale). Combine this with the destruction caused by wildfires and hurricanes, and we're looking at a 4x4 untreated 8' post going for $30 each in a few weeks (I was told by someone in the industry).

We've sold our own selves out. If we'd use stimulus trillions to build factories and have people trained to run them, we would all have more stimulus with viable jobs for years to come. We need to be self sufficient again as a country. However, most would be satisfied with the status quo and prefer to sit and home and collect a check in the mail for doing so if they could. Many aspire to do just this. Going down another rabbit hole now, but one is a result of the other. Businesses have to be bean counters because nobody wants to work today.

I agree.

 

[LRDSDMN]

I love the look of a beautiful wood stock myself
But I also loved the versatility of the new chassis designs... Hence my creation View attachment 218352

That's just plain cool!

 

[LRDSDMN]

View attachment 218382

Wow! Just WOW.

 

[jd5521]

He-l of a reloading room LOL. My reloading bench doesn't have half of what I see in the background of your photos.

LOL! The second pic is the gun shop!

 

[Mikecr]

I do not consider metal stocks as stable.
I had a Tubb2000 tube gun that provided competitive precision with any sitting -but was not accurate enough for my hunting. Shots walked all over the place until all that metal was brought to stable temps.
Have not seen this issue with Cooper wood or Shethane wood laminates.

 

[nksmfamjp]

I hunted with wood stock rifles for many years, even building a few beauties, but, hunting in wet,cold weather can cause problems. Regardless of how well your rifle is bedded or barrel free-floated the wood can swell from high humidity and harm your accuracy. This doesn't happen with fiberglass or composite stocks. Personally, I would rather have a stainless steel rifle on a composite stock, mitigating problems with accuracy caused by the swelling of wood stocks and rusting. Although they look beautiful to the eye, functionally to place the kill shot where I am aiming is of far more importance to me. Additionally, composite stocks can be made much lighter than wood, making them much easier to carry. They aren't susceptible to cracking and being damaged from a drop or a wreck with a horse.

How much forearm flex do you get at your rest point?

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Well, I happen to be a gunsmith that dabbles in the stock business. At one time the laminate stocks where very plentiful. Rutland supplied blanks at a good price. After they burnt down no one could get good blanks. And thats why you saw the laminated hardwood stocks pop up in competition. But its slowly coming back. You really want a stock made on a cnc router. Duplicator made stocks suck to work with if your the picky type. I have been working on bringing a wood and wood laminate sporter to the market again. I'll let you guys know if it happens.

 

[Jon Bischof]

View attachment 218269I'm a sucker for pretty Wood stocks too. Picked this up today at a price I couldn't pass up. Went to buy some crickets and left with a gun. Winchester model 70 featherweight 270.

Gorgeous! If she doesn't shoot like you want. I know just what to do to make it better.

 

[gator378]

Thank you...by the way is the weatherby bedded from the factory? No

I had my 300 Accumark bedded by my gunsmith. Great improvement in accuracy. He beds stocks with the metal chassis all the time. Worth the money. shoots like a dream now.