Plastic is cheaper, faster to make, no environmental issues, doesn't require specialized craftsmen, and in the end is very practical.

But one a sporting rifle not as pretty as wood.

I have a couple of sporting rifles with plastic stocks but I really prefer nice wood.

I did this from a semi-inletted (not a word?).



Had these done by pros...

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No life story has happy end.

Several years ago a guy I worked with showed me his gun collection. When he opened his vault, all I saw was stainless steel and plastic stocks. I didn't say anything negative naturally, but talk about guns with no character.

Yeah passing down "plastic heirlooms" will seem different to many of us with grey hair or no hair but hopefully will still be cherished by others.

grilledcheese or ribeye just a matter of taste. jim

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Bill, if you keep showing those nice old doubles my long closed addiction may flare up.

Some years back I saw a gun show was o. And ran over Sun zfter noon. Islow and folks were packing up. I had just boubht a bubba s
orterized 03 spfd and saw another one getting packed up.I gave a hundred bucks for it. It was a 1920s gun and had neen sporterized by a real smith.

It had been varnished and had turned brown. I used Homer Formsby stripper and went slow, it had the prettiest cherry wood. I gave it an oil finish. Beautiful.

I bought my wife a Kimber 84 in 7mm08 because she said the custom pre 64 win in 270 she stole from me was getting heavy. I so liked it I bought one for me. Shes bagged one wall hanger buck and plenty of bucks and does. Dont see much difference between it and a 270 under 250 yards.

I grew up as a machinist and to me guns were always the perfect marriage of art and manufacturing. Take away the wood and you take away the art....I have a few plastic stocked pieces but I'll always be a wood and steel kind of guy

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Robert
SWCA #2906, SWHF #760

Pretty sure I was reading the same gibberish back in the '80's when manufacturers were just starting to sell people on cheap replacements for wood stocks. The switch from wood is economically driven, but millions of advertising dollars have been plowed into the effort to create a market for the alternatives,...........and with the exception of me and a few others with taste, it's been a largely successful campaign.

I spent 20yrs making sure that I'd never be left without fine walnut stocks. During my working years I would travel all across the country and in my spare time I got to know quite a few suppliers of gunstock wood. I'd haul home half a dozen stock blanks from most trips to the west coast. My favorite place to visit was Great American Gunstocks in Yuba City, CA where I spent many hours crawling through the racks looking for bargains on semi-finished inletted stocks. I thought I had myself set for life with several dozen unfinished stocks and a like number of nice blanks, but then,............

Reinhart Fajen went out of business in the mid-90's and they sold out the entire operation at auction. I went to the auction with about $10k cash in my pocket. I had no intention of bidding on stocks(figuring I already had enough and probably better than they had anyway), but it didn't work out that way. I went primarily to bid on a stock duplicating machine and on the many pattern guns they had, but as it turned out their duplicators were OLD and the bidding on them was ridiculously aggressive. I let them go and cursed my luck. I was offered a 16 station carving machine for free if I'd haul it away, but at the time I couldn't figure out what to do with it, so I passed. The pattern guns were also bid on with gusto,............had I wanted a bunch of shopworn Savage/Remchester 700's missing parts I could have filled a truck at slightly above MSRP, but I passed on those too. It was starting to look like a long drive for nothing. I wasn't even successful trying to bid on cigar boxes full of checkering and inletting tools. Even that stuff could be ordered in for less than it was bringing at auction.

Only by default did I look at the wood. We started inside and I managed to pick up half a dozen really, really, really nice English walnut blanks for around a hundred bucks/set. Then the auctioneer decided to head outdoors because it was getting late and I found the entire parking lot filled with pallets full of blanks. Hundreds of pallets full. After an hour or so of crawling around I found one short pallet of what I figured was the best English butt blanks and another short stack of well figured forearm blanks. I won those two pallets(for about $1200,.....most pallets were selling for a hundred or two tops)and shortly I after found another small pallet of even better forearm blanks so I had to stick around until well after dark to get another crack at a pile of decent quality butt blanks. In all, I drove home with about 300 two-piece sets of very nice English walnut blanks. Only later did I find out that the auction went back inside and finished off the best of the best with nobody left to bid. Some incredible bargains were had inside and I missed it! What I heard was that entire 8' tables stacked with exhibition grade blanks were auctioned off for $20 and $40 bids.

In addition to the half dozen $700 blanks I splurged on initially I ended up spending another $1400 on something like three hundred sets worth on average $200 apiece. I drove home with $8k still in my pocket and I've regretted that ever since. If I had stuck around for another hour or two I could have retired off of a $10,000 investment.

Not having much luck finding any decent pics. Guess I lost a bunch in a series of hard-drive crashes a few years ago. They weren't very good pics anyway. Here's some stuff I had uploaded to hosting sites..



For instance, here's a stack of what appeared to be the lowest grade wood that I had turned into FAL buttstocks. I gotta say, the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on is taking boring square blanks and finding the figure hidden inside. It's amazing just what pops out when the wood is contoured. I knew enough at the time of the auction to inspect the end grain of the blanks looking for traces of figure there. Doesn't really matter what the sides look like as long as the end grain shows a lot of contrast streaking.




Here's a pair of the early $700 blanks. I'm not nuts about feather crotch, but it's a fairly rare pattern in English walnut and everybody else seems to like it.




Hours and hours pleasantly spent matching up butt and forearm blanks.

^awesome stuff, the kind of beautiful that makes me want to buy

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Cory
SWCA #3015 SWHF #465

I used to live close to Warsaw. Back in the day it was nice to drive up and buy stocks. Once they got to know me it was really worth the trip.

Once I came home with a 95 mauser AAA with 2 small chips in it for $1.50. It made the prettiest stock I've ever seen. Saved the sawdust when working it down and mixed it with stain and acra glass. The fix was hard to spot. I made a little money, it it had been for a pre 64 or a more popular gun I would have made 4 times as much.

Thanks for the Fajen story, I missed that sale entirely as my job had taken me elsewhere.

I do miss Fred and the old crew. Life marches on and changes happen.

What it comes down to is there is no accounting for taste. There are fools who are proud of their new Taurus, HiPoint or what ever. Some folks even like stewed beets. Today's makers are chasing every penny of profit they can get. Plastic is cheap and easy, not so good wood. I'm an old fogey.

But even I have a synthetic stock on a rifle. Its made by weatherby, and I guess it would be one I'd select in a rain storm. But I'm old, and if its storming, I'd rather sit indoors than stomp around in a downpour. There's always tomorrow.

Rifles and shotguns really are just tools. If I needed to, I could take one of my old M70s or M21 out in such a storm. They've been there before and have survived very well over the 70 or so years. But they require significantly more upkeep after such an outing. I'm familiar with young folks who distain any cleaning or oiling. I know one guy who shoots his automatic pistols until the cease to function, then takes it to a "gunsmith" for professional cleaning. His guns look like **** when new and look like that as they age. Same with his cars and everything else. When they look too bad or become unserviceable, he trades them on something else new and equally ugly. Its amusing to watch other shooters and their guns. It might not be fair, but you can get a pretty good idea of a person and how they live their life just by looking at their possessions.

And the way they conduct their life also determines to me if I'd loan them a wrench or anything else. Those who select junk grade items and then abuse them may be fun to watch, but I don't want them near my prize guns. Sorry.

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Dick Burg

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gamecock View Post
Accuracy is key to me, and wood is not the best for accuracy.

Due respect, GC. How do you connect those dots?
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Well, maybe he goes to benchrest matches. I love wood; the look and feel. But quality synthetics certainly have their place.

And even cheaper types enable folks with limited funds to buy a good rifle.

As far as the gentleman who posted that his M1 "shreds the x-ring" every time, there are several Camp Perry competitors who would like to buy an M1 that stays under 1 & 1/4", and doesn't change zero. Of course, they're going to want to see it in action first.

I'll have to post at least one picture so I won't be accused of disliking wood:

Amen to that Dick

Gosh...that's harsh.

I'm ok with it in a new rifle. But I can't see an M1 Garand, 1903 or M1 carbine "sporterized" with plastic.

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Isaiah 41:10

Nothing beats beautiful wood and blue steel. IMO, manufacturers are getting away from it for cost cutting.

Maybe so. It's his opinion, and probably shared by many of us "wood stockers" here. A lot of us are frustrated by the "modern junk" we're offered - as Mario Andretti once so famously called it - and concerned by people who don't know the difference, or who are willing to accept it.

We resist the "throw away world".

I love the look of blued steel and walnut, but for function, nothing can beat synthetic and stainless steel.

When I chase elk in the Rocky Mountains, I reach for my Kimber Montana in 300 WSM. It's all stainless steel with a light weight indestructible synthetic stock. That gun shoots sub-1/2-MOA to the same zero year-after-year in any kind of weather. Checking it for zero before a hunt is just a formality because it is so stable, and I am very glad to have it when climbing a mountain at 10,000' in the rain. Unfortunately, as beautiful as they are, the same can't be said for blued steel/walnut.

For looking good in the gun case and on the bench at the range, walnut and blued steel can't be beat.

I always say shoot what you like, but there is no denying that technology marches on.

Trying to get my mind around throwing away a $600 McMillan stock.

I keep saying to one of my buddies we need to go into the pipe fitter gun business. By "pipe fitter" I mean fitting a good barrel to a slightly tuned up and whittled on Remington or maybe Howa action. Then bedding them into a composite stock. Mount a high end scope just like the super dupper deep cover snipers use. We would do a little marketing on our plastic fantastic wonder gun made by the finest gunsmiths..wink wink... and sell them for $4-5K.

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Bill Bates

The Remington 700 (nice walnut stock) in .308 heavy barrel always shot into 1/4" at 100 yards with either my 168 gr. BTHP match Sierra, or about 1/2" at 100 yds with a 125 gr. Speer FBSP. Now I do have two Rem 700 22-250's with black fiberglass stocks that will shoot 1/4" at 100 also, but no better than the wood. And the walnut is so much prettier.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I have a lot of blued guns with wood stocks and like the looks. That being said, the younger generation appreciates function more than form. They view guns as simply tools. I have to agree with the article that wood will completely disappear from new guns. There will always be a collector market for engraved and beautifully stocked guns for the artistic value, but there won't be many more produced.

Hi, All:
It is a sign of the times! The gun manufactures have convinced the gullible members of our firearms community that ground soybeans & horse manure is the greatest material known to man to make firearms with, not only the stocks, but, a lot of the major parts also. The amazing part of the story unfolding in front of our eyes is, that they have a major portion of us buying their junk. Now, the ones of us that appreciate great workmanship, and great products can hardly afford to buy quality products, as they cost so very much more to make them, from high quality material, thus the use of the plastic junk used by the manufactures to build guns with, and Guess whom, it is the greatest for, and Why? surprise! surprise! the gun manufactures. It now costs them pennies on the dollar to make the gun out of plastic, also the stocks. They will continue to do so as long as we, the gun buyers continue to buy their inferior products. Will knives be next? Some of the new products have their place, but not at my house! Has anyone happened to notice what happens to plastic when exposed to the sun's rays? Or extreme cold? Would the manufactures be using metal if it were cheaper to use, and work with? The same applies to Wood. There is no accounting for the taste in beauty ether. At least our old fashion, out of date firearms have become more collectible. Wonder why? 'Nuff said.
Chubbo

I wonder what that stock costs to manufacture?

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

They call it FIDDLE BACK WOOD GRAIN, TIGER STRIPED WOOD GRAIN either way it's really purdy. Some of the surplus military stocks have some awesome wood grain under all that grease and muck.

I'm not fond of synthetic plastic stocks but wood can swell after a day of hunting in the pouring rain.

Product pricing isn't dependent on cost to manufacture. Compare/contrast Cadillac and Chevrolet.

Trying to get my mind around paying $600 for a plastic stock.

Funny how guns we took for granted and still own from 60s,70s, or 80s, that had walnut stocks and considered "run of the mill" guns which are good but nothing to write home about back then. Recall Wingmasters, or 700 ADL or BDL we paid $300 for back then. The engine turned bolts and high polish bluing seem like custom features now! Hey at least we seen the days!

I'm 26 and I recently parted out an AR-15 to buy this puppy.



The scope came off of the AR as well, and I'm burning through some of the ammo earmarked for it. I'm calling this an upgrade.

For working guns, or max accuracy builds, plastic or composite stocks are the way to go. But for something classy that I'd be proud to show to my shooting buddies or pass on to my future kids, wood is the way to go. As long as there are guns that are meant to be passed down from generation to generation, there will be people buying classic wood stocked guns. Thank god the Europeans haven't forgot about class.

Very nice Stickshift. I recall ruger made the 44 mag. carbine with full length Mannlicher stock. Pretty pricey if you can even find one today. Even the regular ones are bringing good bucks today. Some good guns out there when I was poor. LOL

Classy little rifle there. There's nothing wrong with an AR or any other composite stocked rifle,........two of my finest bolt rifles have composite stocks,........but there's nothing better than real wood for pride of ownership.

Good wood is getting harder to find and more expensive. You can't beat the beauty and feel of it but compared to composites, it is not as good as a stock material but being artificial and lifeless. I suppose a great number of wood stocked firearms will be preserved in museums, but that's a poor substitute for carrying and using it.

Luthiers have the same problem except in their case, the wood is vital to the sound of the instrument. They probably have a bigger problem than us gun people.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Part of the problem, at least with English walnut, is the development of modern orchard trees. In days of old a walnut tree didn't come into bearing until it was 20-25yrs old and it steadily produced more and more walnuts until it was a grand old tree of 100-150yrs,.......and then it was turned into wonderfully figured wood for such important things as gunstocks.

Modern orchard trees have been developed that start producing marketable quantities of nuts as mere saplings. All their energy goes towards nut production instead of structure growth so they produce huge crops of nuts annually but never really grow into decent size trees. Nut production falls off after 30yrs or so and the ground they're growing in is so valuable for nut production that the nut growers doze the trees out and replant. It's common to see acres and acres of 10" diameter English walnut trees rooted up and stacked in the fields throughout California. They aren't even mature enough to make good firewood, let alone figured gunstocks.

There are still a few scattered trees around in forgotten pockets of old orchards that have been developed for other purposes and both Claro and Bastogne trees still grow to enormous size in yards and old homesteads, but even those are getting to be few and far between. The cutters I know in the area tell stories of bandits and night-time log rustling(and they're true stories too!). I have one nice old Claro blank that came from a huge tree that was struck by lightning and that trunk stood for five years while different people bid for the standing trunk.

Anyway, the Claro and Bastogne don't have any value as nut producers so they get cut for timber once the wood value exceeds their value as shade trees. As for the English walnut, almost any tree containing worthwhile stock wood is long gone and no tree growing there today could produce wood of value for at least another 70-80yrs even if they were left to grow,.....which they won't be. English walnut, at least with regard to gunstocks, is a dying breed.

Hell, even my assault rifles have wood stocks!

Valmet


Beretta

I like wood. Grew up with it, and love the craftsmanship that is involved in joining wood to steel. My MP9 is plastic, but it is not for show and basically spends it's life hidden. It goes bang every time through the 17 round magazine. If I don't hit an attacker, I will leave them deaf and well powder burned.

Bill Bates-WOW-well done!!

Ithaca 37T from 1927

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Buy American
Vote Responsibly

"They aren't even mature enough to make good firewood, let alone figured gunstocks."

I don't agree with that part. I'd burn them. Its one of my most favorite things to seek out. It smells great, and stinks up the entire neighborhood. My smart neighbors know who it is doing the dirty work. The others just say its woodsmoke. Yeah, but they can't duplicate the smell except by luck. Cherry is good too. If you let it sit long enough.

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Dick Burg

Here is one of the nicer stocks I have. For an "off the shelf" gun, I think it is pretty good. It is on a Ruger Red Label:

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

Enjoying admiring these finely figured walnut stocks. Seems like yesterday we were paying reasonable money for guns like these. Really something to behold 25 years from now!

Sako Vixen .222 and a Savage/Anschutz Model 164 22 LR.
Ed

Sako before the stock was reworked!


Sako after the stock was reshaped, checkered.





Savage/Anschutz

I got this because of the wood

1958 Winchester Model 70 in .270 Win.
Fiddled from end to end



1927 Ithaca 4E Knick Single Barrel Trap



1984 Ruger No. 1 RSI in .243 Win.



Kimber 84M in 257 Roberts that I sold a few years back



1927 Ithaca NID 12 ga.

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Buy American
Vote Responsibly

I am of the same era as the OP and have had a good number of wood stocked rifles and shotguns and still prefer wood over synthetics. However synthetic stocks have advantages over wood, not the least of which is I do not get upset when a synthetic stock gets scratched.

I don't believe that plastic will ever replace wood 100% but I do agree that synthetic stocks will increase in popularity on low to mid priced guns. I would think that the high end of the spectrum will still have wood as that is a very great portion of how they justify the high prices. I could never see someone spending big bucks on a Browning Midas Superposed O/U Shotgun (or similar) with a synthetic stock!

I am much more concerned with guns being banned before wood stocks ever go away.

Lots of beautiful rifles on this thread. While more and more manufacturers may gradually drop the wood-stocked rifle options, I don't really ever see them as being a thing of the past. Companies like Weatherby, while modern and excellent rifles, will likely always have their Mark V Deluxe line (as an example). I'm personally a huge fan of nice wood on paramilitary guns. I love the wood on G series FALs and Valmets.