Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Boyds gun stocks- any opinions

I have been contemplating a new stock for my Ruger MK II Hawkeye 30-06 and am curious about Boyds. They seem too cheap to be of quality. Any opinions?

I have around twenty Boyds stocks, all laminated, all a good value for the $$. I returned one, as the barrel channel was off-center, and they promptly sent me a new stock, but they didn't reimburse me for the return shipping.

I like the Heritage and Prairie Hunter styles, but would like to see them offer duplicates of the Remington 700 Mountain Rifle, the Sako Hunter, and the Winchester 70 Featherweight. The laminated stocks are rather heavy, but for around $200 tricked out, they are (IMO) a good value. 10,000 times better than Richards Micro-Fit.

I just ordered another laminated Heritage in the Coyote laminate color scheme for a Ruger American Rifle Predator and may order another for a Remington 7 in 6BR that I'm putting together. If you want a great stock, look at Wenig, but the small increase in precision/quality/etc. will cost you. Like many things, you can get 95% of excellence for a fair price, but to close the gap on the last 5% increases the cost exponentially.

Or so it seems to me.

I have only played with a couple of their laminate versions. I'm not really a fan of their ergonomics as i find them to feel chunky in my hands. Their inlets have only required minor tweaks.

That said i own a dremel, acraglass and wood tools.

A few hours slimming and tweaking the profile to my likes, epoxy in a set of pillars, bed the recoil lug and shank and they are quite nice.

Lots of options at Stockys.com

I bought one for a Ruger American Predator. It was finished and fit very nice. I would buy another one.

Put a plywood one on a K98. It replaced a Hogue. I didn't really care for the look or feel of the Hogue. The Boyds was inexpensive and of course required some inletting and bedding and Lam stocks are heavy but the rifle shoots sub MOA and looks decent so I have no gripes.

They are a little thick in places, but basically fit me well. In my experience, it's a lot easier to file some wood off than add some. Laminated stocks are kinda heavy, I have a Boyds on a VZ24 in .338-06, it shoots well, and the rifle was a steal.

I put one on a Howa that came with one of those sticky Hogues. They are a little heavy but a handy guy could trim it down a bit and refinish it. The only defect on mine was that the top edge of the cut for the bolt handle broke off a bit which was unsightly when the bolt was open. Pretty good buy at $100 though.

Hogue is another I am looking at. Are they quality?

I have several and they're fantastic for the money.

In my experience the laminates are left a lot chubbier than the walnut so they're neither as trim nor as light weight as they ought to be.

Two very nice options they offer are wood upgrades & laser-engraved checkering which is very well executed on my son's 257 Roberts.

On a Ruger you're not going to notice the weight as much, particularly if you like walnut which is a little more expensive than laminate... Like maybe $25?

No; crap.

They aren't a bad choice if you need a new stock, or just want wood instead of plastic. But I'd think they would be a downgrade compared to the one that came from the factory on your rifle now.

IMO and experience look for a Hawkeye laminate take off. My son and I traded stocks (my boat paddle for his laminate) and I like the stock far better than a Boyds I had.

Put a Boyds JRS Classic on my custom 6.5-06AI. Inexpensive and did does every thing I need it to do. Zero complaints.

I wouldn't use a pillar-bed Hogue, but I've read enough good things about the full aluminum bed Hogues that I'm ordering one in the near future.

Have a couple Boyds. Even if you don't plan on bedding it, plan on going over it with various OCD tools to smooth the inletting if you want it to be decent. They put a nice, smooth finish on parts that are visible when the action is installed, but the parts the action actually seats on really need some detail work to be OK. Not expensive or requiring great skill or unusual tools or materials, just common sense and an eye for detail.

Here's a Boyds thumbhole stock I used for a Remington 783 experiment. The 783 is Remington's almost Savage 10/110 clone, it uses the same barrel thread diameter and pitch as the small shank Savage. In fact, the barrel nut and recoil lugs for a Savage and Remington 700 will interchange with the Remington 783. Boyd's was the first to produce an aftermarket stock for this rifle, one that is far stiffer and stable than the plastic OEM stock.



The stock fit the 783 without any problem, but I didn't like the font plastic bedding pillar, so I modified it with a steel escutcheon and epoxy bedding. I swapped in a Criterion .25-06 Remington barrel and had to open the barrel channel a tad. Overall, Boyd's is a well made product, completely finished and ready for installation, at a really good price. If you just want a factory replacement stock they are a good value, one that can be improved by a bit of epoxy bedding and tinkering, should you desire.

IMO, good for the money. No trimming was needed for my 700, dropped right in,beaded it,done! Mine was the laminate.
Down side..., heavy,slippery. Get it with checkering!

Replaced a stock on savage 93 LH.

Apple jack color I think.

Works good.

I've been thinking about getting one for a tang ruger so I don't beat up the original stock that is in very good shape.

My son's standard-grade walnut Prairie Hunter w/ $55 laser engraved "checkering" & Boyd's pad:

I think their walnut stocks are great. I detest the laminates.If you have to do any wood working finsihing on them ,they are hell on tools. I finished a few some years back for a local gunsmith that didn't do stock work. I quit working on the laminates. POS