Battue, you are right, Petzal is a little long in the tooth to capture the younger, long range crowd. But, in the 1989 Gun Digest, I believe, He wrote an article called "I Sold All My Lovely Wood." Like all us old-timers, he was once younger and cutting edge for his time. The article talked about how, to buy synthetic stocked rifles, he sold some favorites with walnut. He felt it was a worthwhile tradeoff to get the stability of synthetic in his hunting rifles.
