Have you weighed the stock? Hard to believe that a laminate is lighter than a wood FW stock. On a related note, I was surprised to find the wood stock on a newly acquired 280 FW was a few ounces lighter than the fiberglass one on my 270 Winlite FW.
The wood in the stock under the butt pad on these is hollowed out to reduce weight somewhat on the laminated versions. I had the same rifle in 280 for a while. It was nearly the exact weight as a walnut version of the Featherweight, right at 8 lbs scoped IIRC. I no longer own it so I can't verify that and am working from memory.
Most folks
ASSUME all synthetics are lighter. Not so. In fact almost every solid wood stock I've ever weighed was the same weight or lighter than a comparable factory synthetic. Most of the cheaper aftermarket synthetic stocks are considerably heavier than wood. Even a standard weight McMillan will be almost exactly the same as walnut.
The only thing lighter are the stocks made of kevlar such as the McMillan Edge or the Brown Precision Pounder. Those will be 8-16 oz lighter than wood.
