Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Wood or Plastic

I don't worry about my hunting rifles. I hunt with them. I take the same care of a rifle in wood as I would if it were in synthetic. It's simple and I've never had the slightest bit of trouble. Obviously, I don't hunt in the places some of you do, with the temp extremes and the endless rains. So, we all do what works best for us and still fits in our aesthetics closet and wallet size. I'll probably never own a stock that I'd be protecting to the point of affecting my hunting, ala any of the rifles posted in that recent thread on the Customs Rifles board that started with the interesting Biesen.

Wood still works, just as long as it's stable, and by nature, it's not uniformly stable. For whatever set of reasons, there are those wood stocks that simply don't change zero, but most of them will, even from mere changes in humidity.

Out here, we hunt in everything from desert-dryness to drenching gullywashers, and an Oregon hunting rifle can go through everything in between, plus zub-zero dry cold, high humidity and so forth.

I hunt not only here in the State of Confusion, but I do a lot of hunting in the Southwest, as well as up north and in Africa. I want a rifle that'll work anywhere I might hunt and yet not change zero, so I went with good synthetic stocks nearly exclusively quite some time ago.

Wood feels better and it looks better, but I don't miss it......

AD

Plastic will never have the chracter of a nice wood stock.
But it's a wee bit hard on you when your very nice wood stocked rifle gets it's first ding or scratch.
Back in the late 90's i bought my first plastic stock rifle which was a Remington 700 ADL in 270.
I could just never get used to that hollow sound that cheap stock would make when you tapped on it.
However i liked it the time the jeep got stuck three miles from camp at dark and i had to hike back in a pouring rain.
I certainly would not want to subject a nice wood stock to that kind of treatment.
My Rem 700 LVSF in 308 has a synthetic stock that is pretty nice in it's own way.
But after buying this weekend an absolutely beautiful Ithaca LSA-55 in 243 i would hate to get that stock scratched and dinged up.
But as my brother said to me while looking it over that it is a hunting rifle which,although very nice, it's still a field piece.
So honestly i prefer wood but if the stock is not to cheesy i can live with synthetic.
But they will never have the chracter of wood.

Synthetic, except on my west-side elk hunts. I have never found a synthetic stock that can be slid silently through walls of maple and rhody. Wood will do it, and even if a twig makes a noise on it, it's not a plasticy "tink" to give me away.

I have hunted all over the world in all kinds of conditions and have done this for the last 60 years..I will never own a gun with plastic for a stock or SS for the metal, at least not yet, however I reserve the right to change my mind at any time...

Good wood, properly cured and finished, and quarter sawn with a proper grain flow will never give you any trouble. At least so far so good..

My old M-70 pre 64 with a custom stock may look like SS, and the stock is akin to driftwood, but it still holds its zero year after year with a the 200 gr. Nosler. Wish all my guns would do that.

Hunting is a traditional sport with me, I have been hunting since a very early age, I am of a nostalgic nature but I expect things to work, so I'm sticking with good walnut, rust blued steel, and traditional calibers. Pretty boring to some I suppose.

Every ding and scratch on any of my custom stocked rifles is a handwritten note of a hunt gone by, a memeory that cannot be replaced and that scab is a written record of its existence, you just have to learn to read..

Jimmy, if you're a wood/blue metal guy, DON'T FIGHT IT! I hold my head high when razzed about my old fashioned choices in outdoor gear (wood stocks, blued steel rifles and handguns, carbon steel knife blades, wool clothing, leather slings). There are tradeoffs, and "romantic" isn't always to most practical or efficient (though sometimes is) but this hunting thing is about having fun, and only you can determine what's most enjoyable for you. I bought a 700Ti last year only for it's light weight, and the reasons Brad mentioned but I live for finding pretty wood figure in a factory stock. Each stock is unique and beautiful in a different way. Yeah, a ding does hurt me more than the wood, and I've taken some nasty face-plants just to save my rifles since I can heal, but the rifles can't! A wood stock and blued metal can be weather proofed enough for year round hunting, or just your once a year stand hunting. Then during the rest of the year, you've got a rifle you're proud to have leaning in the corner of your livingroom or office.

IMO, a blued steel/wood stocked gun can start out pretty, and then gains character throught decades of use. Discounting some very nice custom guns I've seen built, a stainless/synthetic rifle starts out ugly and just gets uglier with more use.

Would you rather date Rita Hayworth or Hilton/Lohan/Richie/Spears, etc? I'll take the "classic" one myself. OK, maybe that was a poor example, but you get the idea....

I dearly love my wood stocked guns, all the way to the point of building the stocks myself. But when push comes to shove, I am grabbing one of my guns with a piller bedded stock of African walnut.

With rifles and shotguns I also dearly love the wood stocks...it actually plays into my choice when buying them. With handguns esp semi-autos I am the exact opposite...the lower maint. the better.

222 Rem, exactly what you said, they gain character from the hard knocks just like a human being does after years of living on this earth!! I find myself hunting with my wood stocked blued guns over the synthetic stocked guns for some reason. They both shoot the same but I just like the wood guns better. Every time I go to buy a gun these days I come back with the one I said I was not going to buy and it has a wood handle....so my new Kimber 338 federal is going to be the classic or maybe the select classic!

The walnut Kimbers are undeniably gorgeous. I'd love one.

Still and all, my Montana (and laminate M700's) git 'er done for me and in the end, as wet as I get, probably make the most sense.

Someday I'll have a really nice blue, walnut rifle... I do have a nice blued and walnut shotgun at least. Well, my BLR is walnut and blued!! I'm in the club! Forgot about that one.

-jeff

I guess I'm not in the club......I hate wood stocks.

Good call Jimmy! IMO the Select can be worth the extra money if you get the chance to choose one off the shelf. I've seen some very nice Classics, but some even nicer Selects.

Post some pics for us after you get it. We're not the only two guys who love pretty walnut.

Hunting in Botswana in 1988 with a Ruger 77 7mm Magnum in a Fiberpro fiberglass stock, got almost too hot to handle by midday under that remorseless sun.

On a Sod Poodle safari to MT about ten years ago, a guy I went with had a fiberglass stock Sako get ho riding in the back of my truck and put enough bind on the action that he couldn't work the bolt.

It's certainly a personal thing as to which type of stock and material the rifle of choice has. I am suprised how many like the stainless and plastic though.
If the rifle was just a tool, I suppose the plastic and stainless could make some sense. How many of us really look at them as just a tool though?