Wood stock rifles

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Because people have poor taste, and some people just like the durability of having a rifle they don’t have to baby.

@Wiley64
Some think I have poor taste but ALL my rifles get field use be it my blued , walnut custom or stainless synthetic and I can assure you the don't get babied. They do all get cleaned after use tho.
Bob

 

[Safari Dave]

No "Safe queens" for me neither.

 

[Grumpy gumpy]

Thumbhole laminate working rifles? Do you hunt with a forklift? Gad, those must be hefty.

They are not that bad…..mostly…….
the majority of my hunting is vehicle based, though the hmr and the 308 do get carted around, as I have an ankle that will just "let go" a dodgy hip and a knee that will never get better, I need to pick where I do walk and take my time if it’s rough
Gumpy

 

[cajunchefray]

@Wiley64
Some think I have poor taste but ALL my rifles get field use be it my blued , walnut custom or stainless synthetic and I can assure you the don't get babied. They do all get cleaned after use tho.
Bob

I am with @Bob Nelson 35Whelen. I clean and maintain my rifles before and after hunts. Wood stocks are part of the soul of a gun that I appreciate.
Over many years, I learned :

- Proper bedding and sealing the wood, inside and out, including under the recoil pad. Spar urethane is useful, definitely not a London oil finish, but it holds up in cold wet, and hot humid environments in the Deep South.

- Reinforce the bedding, tang, magazine area (I think Mauser 98 types.)
-Threaded drill rod through the wrist, epoxied in, for the big rifles
- After the hunt, clean and repeat.
- I've talked to old guys that would put Carnauba Paste wax on the whole gun, for moisture on corrosion resistance in cold salt marsh blinds, then clean it off properly for storage.
The rust bluing and wood survived, as my grandfather's goose gun in my safe shows.

Wood stocks are more work to maintain than wood laminates, and especially synthetics.
It's cheaper to find a wood laminate stock that is more stable than any run of the sawmill solid wood stock, certainly nowadays. I still seal the barrel channel, and under the but pad.
In this case I certainly look at wood laminates to go on a classic rifle, IF finished out that it looks somewhat like wood, no pink and green streaks in the plywood for me.

With synthetics, I have had the Winchester M70 on .270- and .338-Win Mag, did not care for them, especially the 1990's era Model 70. Too much flex in the fore end and inconsistent bedding when the screws were torqued down to specs.

A Bell and Carlson classic, on a commercial Mauser 98 in 416 Taylor was very nice in consistency, bedding, and I think a little milder in recoil.

It just had no soul like wood.
-

 

[rdog]

They are not that bad…..mostly…….
the majority of my hunting is vehicle based, though the hmr and the 308 do get carted around, as I have an ankle that will just "let go" a dodgy hip and a knee that will never get better, I need to pick where I do walk and take my time if it’s rough
Gumpy

Gumpy you sound just like me! i have 2 light weight rifles a Tikka ultra lite in 6.5x55 stainless fluted & a HOWA 1500 carbon elevate 6.5CM both shoot = moa & are easy to carry.

 

[HankBuck]

I know that plastic/composite stocks are quite popular these days, but why is it increasingly difficult to find a new classic walnut gun? I understand carrying some black stocks, but keep the normal production of wood guns available.

@Dawg2019 - agree, love wood and don’t care if composite is more durable/stable etc…it looks like plastic ——BUT many born after 1980 just don’t care

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

True dat. Mother Nature is the only true arbiter on climate change. We ain’t that important in the grand scheme of things.

@MS 9x56
Speak fer yersef mate I'm important. Well to me anyway. I'm a legend in my own lunchbox.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I love wood. The early plastic stocks were noisey with a sound that alerted everything in the woods. They are better now. Some of my better rifles have both kinds available, as I do not take my nice wood stocks into the field, The truth is at my age I can not do the things like I used to.

@dlmac
Problem is it takes a while for the brain to catch up with the body.
Someone once said the most dangerous thing for an older person is thinking they are a younger person.
When the brain catches up with the body and realises it can't do what it used to life is good again.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I used to think that I liked the old air cooled Porsches until I got the chance to drive a new GT3 911 on a race track for a while. Holy smokes! That thing is so superior to the old 1986 Carrera that I drove that it was not funny. The older car did have that vintage fighter plane cockpit smell of paint, grease and hot metal and looks the part, but it drove like a big torquey VW beetle, which is to say not that well. The GT3 on the other hand enabled me to pass, two Ferraris, a Corvette C8 and one other Porsche without really pushing it to the limit. Sometimes the newer stuff really is better, lol. The GT3 does lack the old P51 cockpit smell. I love my old Mausers with wood stocks but, I can still appreciate a nice Seekins or Fierce carbon/Ti rifle as well. Each has its place.

Man-made climate change is what is a myth. Yes, the environment does change due to both solar output variances and factors on Earth but man's impact is relatively small. I am not in favor of raping the environment but the atmosphere is largely a self regulating biosphere at least with regards to CO2 emissions and global warming as long as we take care of the trees and plants on the planet. If you increase CO2 output the trees grow faster and absorb the excess CO2 and emit Oxygen. If you lower the CO2 they grow more slowly and absorb less. If we believe the greenie dweebs, then Elephant farts are destroying the environment and thus we should all go out and shoot Elephants and don't even get me started on all of them Cape Buffalo, lol

@JG26Irish_2
Don't get me started on stupidity mate.
At one stage the intelligence of the New Zealand government was seriously in doubt when they wanted to put a methane tax on cattle and dairy farmers based on methane output per head of cattle.
Fortunately sanity prevailed.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Gumpy you sound just like me! i have 2 light weight rifles a Tikka ultra lite in 6.5x55 stainless fluted & a HOWA 1500 carbon elevate 6.5CM both shoot = moa & are easy to carry.

@rdog
Your getting soft in your older age mate.
You need to do a 40km route march with full battle pack and loaded SLR.
Those were the days. NOT.
I'm like you nowadays give me light. After carrying my Whelen around for a few hours I'm glad to put it down. My sons Howa is a joy to carry.
Bob

 

[MS 9x56]

Because people have poor taste, and some people just like the durability of having a rifle they don’t have to baby.

If a hunter is worried about his stock on a hunt he is focusing the wrong thing. A proper hunter focuses on the game he or she is hunting. The rifle is only the instrument of the craft. Just one old hunters opinion.

 

[buffybr]

When I posted yesterday, I mentioned my .257 Ackley, but forgot to include a pic of it. It also has a Fajen fancy walnut stock that I made in 1977, and hand checkered in my favorite 5 panel pattern. I've used it since then on almost all of my deer and antelope hunts, a wilderness backpack bighorn sheep hunt that yielded my 2nd best 6x6 bull elk, and the hunts for my 3 bighorn rams.

In '99 I used it on a Canadian backpack Dall sheep hunt, but because I was worried about foul weather, I put it into a plastic stock for that hunt but it's been in wood ever since.

In 2009 I booked a Cape Buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe and for that hunt I bought a Rem 700 in .375 RUM. I put it into a Richards Laminated wood stock that, of course, I checkered with my favorite pattern. I've used it on 2 African hunts and an Alaskan Brown Bear hunt.

 

[Milan]

A Bell and Carlson classic, on a commercial Mauser 98 in 416 Taylor was very nice in consistency, bedding, and I think a little milder in recoil.

I agree with the B&C for Mausers (and others) being quite decent. Especially when bedded.

 

[Milan]

@JG26Irish_2
Don't get me started on stupidity mate.
At one stage the intelligence of the New Zealand government was seriously in doubt when they wanted to put a methane tax on cattle and dairy farmers based on methane output per head of cattle.
Fortunately sanity prevailed.
Bob

Yes. I read about the methane tax. Absolute stupidity. Glad it did not go through. I thought it did. Turned me off NZ.

 

[Milan]

@rdog
Your getting soft in your older age mate.
You need to do a 40km route march with full battle pack and loaded SLR.
Those were the days. NOT.
I'm like you nowadays give me light. After carrying my Whelen around for a few hours I'm glad to put it down. My sons Howa is a joy to carry.
Bob

I'm like you guys. Done hauling heavy stuff around the hills. We don't even carry backpacks anymore. Just a fanny pack. Rifles are getting smaller and lighter too. Less kick, less weight, more pleasure.

 

[Milan]

@dlmac
Problem is it takes a while for the brain to catch up with the body.
Someone once said the most dangerous thing for an older person is thinking they are a younger person.
When the brain catches up with the body and realises it can't do what it used to life is good again.
Bob

I'm at that stage. Struggling with old age and related inabilities. My problem is I don't think I'm that old to be this disabled. But I do know how I got this way. Desk job for decades, no exercise, bad diet, etc. I.e. my own stupidity. Now to just adjust a bit to keep going and mainly mentally accept what happened. Time flew by.

 

[Milan]

I prefer wood and blued and most of my rifles are that. But in the last few years I've added a few plastic and stainless.

Refinishing is not that bad, but I have about 80 hours into hand checkering and finishing each of my Fancy walnut stocks so although I use them, I'm very protective of them.
...
I hand checkered all of these stocks with my favorite 5 panel wrap around checkering pattern from Brownell's.

Beautiful checkering. I refinished couple walnut stocks in my time, with satisfactory results. Want to do it again. Have couple stocks ready. But wanted to refresh the checkering first. May I ask what checkering tools you use. I'm afraid I'm not as handy as when I was younger and even then I was always less patient than my father or my brother. So, my stuff is always more crooked than theirs. Hence, I'm thinking I need something that will cut more than one line to keep them more parallel.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I'm at that stage. Struggling with old age and related inabilities. My problem is I don't think I'm that old to be this disabled. But I do know how I got this way. Desk job for decades, no exercise, bad diet, etc. I.e. my own stupidity. Now to just adjust a bit to keep going and mainly mentally accept what happened. Time flew by.

@Milan
That's the hardest part, accepting it mentally.
Until you accept your limits you just get frustrated and angry with the world because it not you fault.
In reality it is your fault accepting it is the hard part.
Once the mental block is overcome life resumes to your new normal and life is good
Bob

 

[Milan]

@Milan
That's the hardest part, accepting it mentally.
Until you accept your limits you just get frustrated and angry with the world because it not you fault.
In reality it is your fault accepting it is the hard part.
Once the mental block is overcome life resumes to your new normal and life is good
Bob

I'm trying. Trust me. I have good days and bad days. But it is getting better. Never thought old age would bother me but I never thought my body would be so useless so early. But I have friends both younger and less capable and older/same age and much more capable. So the lifestyle and genes have a lot to do with it. But this is off topic. Sorry. Back to guns.