Regarding the Lawson Thumbhole: it is designed to be fast handling and capable of dealing with heavy recoil. Note: both McMillan Lazzaroni stocks the Thumbhole and the Sporter were made by Randy Lawson for John Lazzaroni. Both help the shooter deal with heavy recoil.
It is not a prone LR rifle design. I must say that most thumbhole stocks just have a hole for the thumb and are poorly designed. There are a few features the Lawson thumbhole that makes it unique. The safety is a crossbolt built into a proprietary trigger guard. (The after market thumbholes require you move your hand from the thumbhole to flick off the safety. ) The stock shape is straight which eats up recoil. The thumbhole area is canted for a more comfortable wrist angle. Recoil pad is flared wider where it meets the shoulder to help mitigate recoil. Many of these rifles used the model 600 actions with regular shaped bolt handle. Some are very light and short, a perfect handling rifle for a hunter who would do walk around hunting.
I knew Harry and also know his son Randy. Randy had to close down last November or so due to health issues. He was recently back in his shop finishing up projects that were begun before the issue. To be honest I don't know if he will be staying open for new work.
