Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Laminated Wood Stocks, is it truly impervious to rain, snow, humidity...

I like walnut. It's light and works great as a stock wood. I can't look at plastic all day while hunting.

Interesting rewrite on reality...
Temperature induced size changes in wood are very small and virtually unrelated to the water in the wood.
I doubt you could find a single stock at 15% MC. Wood does lots of moving around 15%.
While brittle wood is a function of drying it is more related to the speed of drying than the actual MC. Further, "brittle" wood is not necessarily much weaker, but rather transitions rapidly from sound to broken, but at similar pressures when talking about wood in a stock which will be 5-9%.
Changes in MC cause changes in wood size. Virtually all damage done in real world conditions is a function of swelling from taking on water.

No... I didn't say that, and it's not my experience at all. My main "rain" gun is laminate (a .358 M7) and it gets soaked. I just lean it by the woodstove. No problems in about 9 seasons of consistant wet hunting.

My '06 also has a laminate stock, the Mountain Rifle version. Love that stock. It has seen a lot of water too. No problems; very stable.

Given the composition of the two materials (walnut vs. plywood) I cannot understand how the case could be made that they are the same, functionally. Laminate is very stable. SOME walnut might be, but certainly not all, or even most. That's just my uneducated opinion but it seems pretty obvious to me?

I've drilled out the butts of each of my 3 laminate stocks. It works so well to lighten them and correct the balance that I'm surprised it's not done by the factory!

I love laminate stocks and have seen nothing but stability and toughness from them. I also love fiberglass- but that's a different question. I don't know much about walnut. It rains so much here that I've just run with stainless and lammie or fiberglass or even (gasp) plastic stocks. No walnut.

That is a 300 WM. I special ordered it with a 40x barrel turned down naturally, a 40x trigger and stainless action. Had the whole thing Black-T coated by Birdsong. It's wicked accurate.

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JeffO ,

I guess i misread or confused an old thread ? but i thought you had spoke of a laminated stock that had changed POI due to rain/snow conditions .

Ol' Mike, I think you are remembering a story I might have told about an experience my buddy Tom had. He aimed behind the shoulder of a raghorn elk at 75 yards, shot, and the animal dropped instantly... well, you would too, if someone just shot you in the neck!

Turns out the stock had warped in the wet conditions, and moved the POI by something like 14". He kept shooting it over a long period without re-zeroing and as the rifle dried the POI gradually moved back to where it was supposed to be.

But that was with a WALNUT stock.

I've never seen a laminate stock budge one bit, but I've only hunted three of them. For a laminate stock to warp would take,... I don't know what! Hard to see how a block of epoxy impregnated plywood could warp, but I'm sure it's possible somehow. I haven't seen it though.

Big 10-4 --actually i just love to provide disinformation -especially about you !laf

I guess i'm back liking laminated stocks ,walnut is great too --for furniture .
And yes a good neck shot would drop me in my tracks -providing a tsx bullet was used.

http://www.realtree.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75679

Wow!

Who makes that badboy???

Swampman does!

Looks like he was funning us all this time about plastic stocks.

That big kidder..

That is great.

Too funny!

Maybe I should camo the Horse Gun with some of that scentlok paint?

Ingwe

That kid must have just seen the stock!


Speaking of laminate, I would love to get one of those Ruger or Tikka 204's. I like the solid feel of the laminate stocks.
They are heavy though, think the sporters go about 8lbs nekkid?

Juat say no to Plywood..

There's better living through chemicals.

Gotta go with Johnny on this one...it'll take about a pound off a Tikka...

.204 instead of .223..???

Dude....

Ingwe

I want a lam 204 coyotepronghorn rifle.

Badass bros!

Are dey makin' any good boolits for a goat in that calibre yet??

Ingwe

I was just wondering the exact same thing.

Gonna look right now.

Midway didn't show anything goat worthy.

I bet soon enough there will be something.
Amazing velocity though, gonna have to be a tough little slug.

Dats what I was thinkin....exactamundo...

Ingwe