Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing verdict on Boyd's quality?

I'm looking at walnut and laminate stocks on Boyd's (for an old tang safety m77 that I am having rebored from 06 to 35 whelen) and I'm wondering what y'alls experiences have been with their products? Is the standard walnut finish decent or am I better off just paying $10 extra for an unfinished stock to oil finish myself? Are their laminates sealed well? How close to drop-in ready are they?

Thanks!

I had good results with Boyd's, never had a bed one

I've bought two stocks and fore arms from them for shotguns.
One was great
The other was a mess. It looked like their router bit was shot and burned and wandered it's way through the tang. When I called them they said no returns on custom stocks. I guess having them set the LOP for me made it custom. That was about six years ago. It's still laying on a shelf.

I’ve had a couple, one on a a Rem 700, the other on a Ruger 77/17. Had no issues with either. Both were laminate.

I’ve done 3 Boyd’s lately.. two Savage A17’s, and one 1903A3.

They now use CNC machines to inlet them, the A17’s have a metal insert, one of them was not fully inserted because it had some wood splintering in the inlet that held it out of place before they painted it.. easy fix.

Other than that they were fine.

If you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed. GD

Have bought 3 and they were VG. Glass bedded them and very little work was needed.


Lefty

I bought a finished walnut stock from them and gave it away and kept the repaired broken one. The finish was like brown paint. It fit all right but was thicker than I would have liked also.

I have had 6-9 for Remington 700's, BDL. I skim coat bedded them, they shot small groups. Their checkering is a nice touch. Add a limbsaver recoil pad and pillars.

I’ve been very happy with the 2-3 I’ve had over the years. Their laminates are chubby and clubby. The walnut models are decent; my son’s Turk sits in a finished Prairie Hunter with their laser checkering and is quite nice especially for the price:



I have an old JRS Classic that I bought in upgraded French walnut and sent to one guy (Karnis for you old timers here) for refinement and ghat I had hand checkered that is absolutely stunning but don’t have pics.

I’ve been quite happy.

43B62081G1ZZ Pro Varmint Centerfire Savage110 1St Generation Short Action Blind Mag Factory Barrel Channel ZZ 1 $174.00 $174.00
C10017 Custom Upgrade -Walnut Standard Grade 1 $0.00 $0.00

That one was Walnut, but I have done a number of Boyds pro varmint stocks that shoot well, but a laminated clunky painted. They shoot well.

I think they're pretty good for what they cost. I had 6 or 7 for various rifles and they've all been workable. I just bedded the lugs yesterday on this Ruger American .450 "Deerblaster". I will say I didn't care for the Pro-bed 2000 they included for that purpose, too thick and still has a tacky feel to it after 24 hrs.
*I got both the stocks below off their "Rapid Fire" sale section for a good discount.



This is a Savage stock I modified to fit their muzzleloader..........opened up the barrel channel, drilled a ramrod hole and filled the mag well.

I probably have 2 dozen of them, mostly the the Heritage, Prairie Hunter, and Rimfire Hunter styles. I had one bad stock, somehow they cut the barrel channel off-center. They replaced it, but I had to pay shipping to return the defective stock and to have the replacement stock sent to me, so I paid for shipping 3 times for 1 stock. When I addressed the shipping charges with their customer service people, their answers distilled down to "take it or leave it". That didn't set well with me, so I haven't bought any stocks from them recently.

If there are factory stocks available in a style that I like, I prefer to buy them than to buy any of Boyd's products. That said, their fit and finish is much better than Richards Micro-Fit and a fraction of the cost of Wenig.

I have had 2 in the last 20 years. they were both drop in fit, no problem. They were a little heavy (2lbls 8 oz is their average weight on a traditional sporter stock). Do yourself a favor and get the checkering for $57. They can be slippery in cold weather.

They're 100% machine-inlet, so the barreled action will drop in right away, but it can't possibly be expected to fit without bedding. I bought a laminated one. Bedding was essential -- I could not really expect the action screws to hold it in there. Also, I had to drill out one of the action screw holes for the factory roll pin (spacer). No big deal. It's functional, but ugly -- it's a laminated "At-One" model, so it can't be blamed. I would buy another one. I would buy a solid walnut, unfinished, for a Model 70 where I don't want to modify or use the original un-modified pre-64 stock. They Boyd's would be much less expensive than doing it "properly" and I wouldn't worry about beating it in the field while hunting. I would expect to have to bed it and then I would finish it myself with Tru-Oil. I would never be happy with the polyurethane they would put on it, but it's great they offer it unfinished. It would function and look good but not custom or hand-checkered. I figure doing it "properly" would cost at least four to six times what Boyds asks and take about at least a year longer.

Not careful you'll end up with a $500 stock. Everything cost extra, even to get what to me is considered standard 13 1/2" LOP
one will pay $30 bucks for the upgrade of any LOP other than 13 3/4" which they claim is standard..

Just the principal of that sort of crap is a no-go for me.

I was very pleased with with my Boyds “At-One” stock. It fit very well but I pillar bedded mine just because I always do that anyway. Only suggestion would be to get the $20 “Target” grips if you get this stock.

The weapon that I bedded was a Browning AB3 bolt-action rifle. It’s a very good thing that I like my Boyds Stock because I am not aware of any other aftermarket stock that would fit that particular rifle.