Gun Stocks: Part IV

Reprinted from Chuck Hawks, for your information.


Light weight is often cited as a benefit of synthetic stocks, and laminated stocks are often criticized as being heavy. But in fact, most synthetic, laminated, and solid wood stocks weigh about the same when built to the same pattern. There is little advantage to very light stocks in any case, as rifles need a certain amount of weight to swing smoothly, balance correctly, and limit recoil. If a stock is made too light, it simply has to be weighted with lead or some other material so that correct balance, swing, and recoil control are maintained.

Synthetic stocks do have some significant drawbacks. One of the most important is that they are flexible, particularly the forearm of one-piece injection molded stocks. They lack the natural rigidity of wood, so if a hunter shoots with a sling, for instance, the forearm can flex, alter the bedding of the barrel, and change the point of impact of the bullet. Even changing the strength or angle of one's grip, or using a rest, can change the point of impact of a rifle with an injection molded stock. Laid-up fiberglass stocks with unidirectional fibers (not the common "chopper gun" type of construction with short random direction fibers) are stiffer than injection molded stocks and generally more accurate.
Synthetics can warp in hot weather and freeze in cold weather. In extremely cold temperatures injection molded stocks become so brittle that they can literally shatter. In very hot weather black synthetic stocks can become literally too hot to handle with bare hands. But the legend of their strength and climate resistance persists.

Nor has anyone in the shooting press, so far as I know, questioned the necessity for a waterproof stock.Few hunters regularly take their rifles swimming. I, for example, have been hunting in rainy Western Oregon since 1964 without a bit of water damage to my various rifles, all of which wear walnut stocks. The factory finish on a walnut stock is usually all the weather protection required.

Everyone in the industry knows these things; they just don't want to address them. The lack of stiffness in most synthetic stocks is a serious problem because it degrades the accuracy of the rifle. To help rectify that problem, some gun makers offer synthetic stocks (at extra cost) made of exotic materials with aluminum or other internal reinforcement.

The Weatherby Accumark stock, for example, is made of a combination of Aramid, graphite unidirectional fibers, and fiberglass molded around an aluminum bedding and forearm insert. Such stocks are stiff and strong, but much more expensive than simple synthetic stocks.

Other issues are the clammy feel (especially when cold and or wet) of synthetics, and the fact that they are not very attractive. Most synthetic stocks look like they were cut out of the inner bottom of a cheap fiberglass boat. When combined with the crude matte metal finish used on so many rifles with synthetic stocks (another cost cutting measure sold to consumers as an anti-reflection measure), the result can be a firearm without any aesthetically redeeming virtue or even a shred of individuality.
Factory made rifles are equipped with stocks designed to fit the average person from about 5' 8" to about 6' in height. However, there is some variation between brands and sometimes between different models of the same brand. The conformation of the individual shooter's upper body (arm length, shoulder size, chest size, etc.) and the shape of the face (long, wide, flat, big nose, high cheekbones, etc.) will determine which stock fits best. The very tall or long armed shooter may require a longer than average length of pull, shooters with thin faces generally find a thicker comb more comfortable, and so on.

Two stocks with identical length of pull, drop at comb, and drop at heel from different manufacturers may feel quite different in practice. The thing to do is to search until you find the rifle stock that fits best.

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