Are wood stocks ever functionally better than synthetic?
- Thread starter steelgray
- Start date
RJ
With hits like the wood tech, integral triggers locks and electric ignition it’s sort of insane they’ve gone bankrupt so many times. It must be a conspiracy
Am I the only one who thinks the mcwoody looks like a 70s bowling ball?
Bergara offers a very fancy wooden looking stock as well; but only for eu consumers (far classier than us)
Can you imagine rolling up to the range with one of these bad boys? How the fudds would swoon!
I get a mcwoody every time I rub suntan lotion on my mcmillan SAKO classic edge fill!
Licensed to kill
CGN Regular
- Location
- Peace Country Alberta
Nobody uses quality walnut as firewood (nobody with any brains anyways) and your statement is STILL just you opinion. Calling your opinion a "fact" does not make it so no matter how many times you repeat it.
Licensed to kill
CGN Regular
- Location
- Peace Country Alberta
Good one, never heard that very accurate description before. Thanks.Kind of along the same lines of, according to arguments in this thread, what should be the ultimate stock material and best of both worlds...Beaver-Barf! part wood, part plastic just check out the figuring in this fine stock...perfection!
Licensed to kill
CGN Regular
- Location
- Peace Country Alberta
I would no sooner have a synthetic coffee table as I would a synthetic gunstock but that is just me. The intrinsic benefits of the BEST synthetics would be consistency from stock to stock light weight and price. If those things are important to you and you either LIKE the looks or don't care about the looks then synthetics are the obvious choice.
The quote isn't mine... it's the question that started the thread. Your choice, is just that, yours. What is important to me, shouldn't matter to you, or anyone else. Wood is good, synthetics are good, it's all good...
When it comes to performance, as it was asked in the original question, well, that answer has been given, and it has nothing to do with looks. If it does to some, then that is their call, and they can make it that way if they want. It doesn't make it fact, though.
Not sure what the difference is between a synthetic coffee table, and most of the furniture made today, and laminate flooring, and a "marble" countertop, and kitchen cabinets, and most of the materials used today? The list is lengthy. Most coffee tables have less "real" wood than most would think, so it's probably not the best benchmark either.
R.
I would ("wood?") say that there is one functional advantage that wood has over synthetics - as of now.
Specifically, tree meat is the only stuff that you can use as a starting point for making a new stock, from scratch.
And IF you do a great job fitting, bedding and sealing wood against the elements and if you design your custom stock it in a way that leaves no vulnerable weak bits to break off, then the end result can - for all practical purposes - be as durable, stable and consistently-performing as the average synthetic stock. That is, wood is still the "go to" stuff for making DIY customs, from scratch.
However, with 3D printing getting better and better, I suppose the time will come where wood may not always be the only option for making a stock yourself, from scratch.
And of course, shapes are possible with synthetics that aren't possible with wood.
Specifically, tree meat is the only stuff that you can use as a starting point for making a new stock, from scratch.
And IF you do a great job fitting, bedding and sealing wood against the elements and if you design your custom stock it in a way that leaves no vulnerable weak bits to break off, then the end result can - for all practical purposes - be as durable, stable and consistently-performing as the average synthetic stock. That is, wood is still the "go to" stuff for making DIY customs, from scratch.
However, with 3D printing getting better and better, I suppose the time will come where wood may not always be the only option for making a stock yourself, from scratch.
And of course, shapes are possible with synthetics that aren't possible with wood.
blasted_saber
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- A blue part of Ontario
Not always 100% clear cut in favour of synthetics for durability, as sanding and refinishing my synthetic stocks isn’t as simple.
When wood shows love and use, I just lightly sand them to remove the finish, iron them with a damp rag to pull the dents, finish sand at 600 then 1500 and re-oil. A good soaked in tung oil job makes the surface incredibly hard and water resistant too. Even after several seasons of being carried and packed a few months a year they still look good. After an overhaul, they look new again.
Yes, synthetics can be bondo’d and sanded, painted. But that’s a more intensive process than refinishing wood. I don’t mind engaging in wood stock overhauls, or some love and use showing on them.
Clearly this bear died at your feet when it saw that you had dared to bring a wood stock into the rain. RIP in great bruin.
sillychris
Regular
- Location
- Calgary, Alberta
As a guy who tends to carry guns more than he shoots then, do my very best to avoid wood stocks.
The #1 functional improvement of a wood stock is higher mass. This can be better for absorbing momentum from both bullets and skulls. However, if you want a heavier gun, why not just make it out of something really heavy? Polymer stocks can be built fairly heavy, as well.
A wood stock can also be carved by the DIYer mote easily and is easier to refinish when it inevitably gets banged up.
For me, the ideal gun is synthetic and non-rusting metals. Something I can leave in the bottom of a kayak and not eorry about.
The #1 functional improvement of a wood stock is higher mass. This can be better for absorbing momentum from both bullets and skulls. However, if you want a heavier gun, why not just make it out of something really heavy? Polymer stocks can be built fairly heavy, as well.
A wood stock can also be carved by the DIYer mote easily and is easier to refinish when it inevitably gets banged up.
For me, the ideal gun is synthetic and non-rusting metals. Something I can leave in the bottom of a kayak and not eorry about.
sillychris
Regular
- Location
- Calgary, Alberta
I already own a few printed customs. You can even print titanium now.
Licensed to kill
CGN Regular
- Location
- Peace Country Alberta
You can never go "wrong" if you buy what you like and not let yourself be swayed by strangers on a forum. They make them both ways for a reasonBest of both worlds, this way a guy can’t go wrong, right?
Licensed to kill
CGN Regular
- Location
- Peace Country Alberta
You could use a boonie packer sling.
It would take a fairly weak mined fellow to be swayed into doing anything he didn't want to, no?
R.
And 90% of married guys are thinking … dang does that make me a weak minded … person because I do all sorts of stuff I don’t want to do but my wife does .. so I do it ����
Is that really weak minded or just argument avoidance intelligence, aka, smart?
