Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Concensus on Bell and Carlson stocks?

If poundage is no worry you wont regret a laminate

+1 Medalist!

My BC stock that came on my model 70 EW weighs 29 ozs. Can't imagine I would save that much weight with a Mickey. After purchasing my kimber 84 classic, the wrist area feels a bit substantial.

As we speak I am fitting and sanding and rasping on a 1st Gen TI to "drop in" a 700 ADL.

Then seal up the pores with bondo sand a bit more then lots of paint and done!

No complaints here... Worked miracles on group size from a M7ss.

My M77 long action tang safety was a drop in.

My M77 MkII .300 WM was not. I had trouble with the MKII fitting at all. This was quite awhile ago, about the time the MKII version came out. I never did use that stock with that rifle.

Unfortunately, poundage is a worry. The lightest this A-bolt will weigh with a light weight scope and mounts will be 8 pounds, with the factory walnut stock. The factory stock by itself weighs 33 ounces. I wanted to lighten it up by about a 8 ounces. The B&C will weigh about the same, if not more than the factory walnut stock. So, if I want to lose that half pound, it's going to cost me. Looks like it will have to go in a McMillan Browning Classic, Edge tech. "If you want to play, you must pay the piper".

Laminate is good stuff, if as you say you aren't stressing ounces. They will likely be butt-heavy with lighter profile barrels, but you can do wonders in that regard by hollowing the buttstock.

Think I paid 2 hundo for a 700 Varmint BC Medalist with aluminum block. Dropped right in, looks great, fit is excellent and the barrel is only slightly off center in the channel but you almost need a caliper to tell, almost.

Finish is excellent, but it is paint and will flake eventually but for now is fine. It totally free floated my barrel with a lot of clearance. Gun got slightly more accurate after the stock swap, but infinitely more comfortable to shoot with the Decelerator pad. Had I had the scratch for a Mickey, I would have gone that route but for an approximately $1,000 rig it works great. Shoots crappy Serbian ammo into an inch-ish if I work hard, not so well with some other factory ammo. Started hand loading recently so as soon as I get out again we'll see if I can do better with roll-your-owns.

Would I buy again? Absolutely. But I personally would only put it on a stainless rifle...