Pictures of your figured gunstocks

[Walnut Beast]

 

 Let's see your pretty wood gunstocks

[mike_belben]

Boy thats a dandy.

[Sedgehammer]

@Walnut Beast That sure is a beaut. I much more like the look of a wooden stock, but I prefer the straighter shooting of the fiberglass stocks more so. It's a shame in a way, as guns can be things of beauty. I've went to stainless and fiberglass in all my shooters.

Here's my whitetail set up.



 

[kantuckid]

I competed in smallbore rifle (high power in Army) for many years. Life member of the KS Rifle Assoc.. 
Myself and the many people (state champions and more they were, including one KS Olympic Champion shooter, Margaret Thompson, who shot at my club) who ;Dutsh ;Dt me!, used high dollar target rifles with walnut stocks and regular steel barrels.
 Those rifles usually had straight grained wood not the fancy stuff as more commonly seen on shotguns & deer rifles. I shot a Remington 40XB. 

I'll admit to some reluctance to talk about stocks here on the web. Having lost an entire collection some years ago in KS, web talk scares me, even here in this forum. Suffice to say I have done a number of custom stocks over the years. I do my own inletting and checkering. Not sure my senior eyes would like checkering now? I still have 20/20 but it is the most extreme vision killer I have experienced! The women who did the checkering in the old Missouri gun stock factories all suffered from eye problems later. 
I have one striped maple stock. 
A great source for walnut stocks (and bowl turning blanks too) is often free. Go to a log concentration yard and sweet talk the people there (out of their firewood source :D) and make stocks from the log trimmings. Some loggers leave the walnut stump trims in the woods or on the creek banks, etc. and yours for the asking. 
As we speak I have two walnut treess lying on my log lot that were freebies for my removal. They both were yard trees and forked a few feet above the ground. I cut them below the surface a bit using a shovel and now have two about 4' long "Y" shaped chunks of walnut that can no way for on my LT15 unless I clip the tops of the "Y" down to mill frame size. My thinking is to clip one side and leave the other natural. Top logs that would become firewood in other species, I saw into cants trying to keep the pith centered. They make table and bench legs.  

[Sedgehammer]

@kantuckid Yes, wood can be just as accurate. Especially in competition shooting, as weather is less of a factor. In the hunting realm, it can be 30° and rainy to 55° and sunny same day. Wood moves. If bedded wood stock, that improves it immensely.

[kantuckid]

One of my favorite pastimes was coyotes & rabbits in below zero weather. 
BTW, we did not get to choose the weather at a match. But true that it went indoors into winter months. ;D maybe a sport for wusses?  ;D 

[stavebuyer]

As per usual I find myself in the minority. You can post all the spreadsheets you want that show how superior composite stocks are to walnut. I don't own a composite and never will.

I am no longer the marksman I used to be; but many a groundhog met his demise at 300+ yards when I had teen aged eyes and lived to shoot.

If you can't hit a deer in the vitals using a wooden stocked rifle within ethical distance limits then you need some range time.

!000 yard sniper tool yes otherwise just a way to cheapen the production cost while the marketing department sells you on the principle.

[Southside]

Sedge - you hunting white tails or pastured cows in that picture?  :D

[doc henderson]

my styer 270 is a consistent shooter, but the composite stock had issues in the area of the rotary clip.  got hard to remove the clip,  had it redone.  I like the look of wood, but I find, I hesitate to go where I need to go sometimes if hunting.  My Dad's (mine now) M 1 Garand has a great walnut stock, so if I let someone else shoot it, I am always watching to see if they are propping it on something.  trying to keep the wood pristine

[Southside]

I have a nice older Savage 99 with a walnut stock but growing up never dared to take it deer hunting as it was all woods and brush hunting so the odds of scarring it up were too high.  Awesome brush gun, light, short, and fast, but pretty.   Had one of those padded wraps for it at one point but that would hold moisture so never really used it.  These days any of my carry or frequently used guns are synthetic solely for the utility of them.  

[kantuckid]

my styer 270 is a consistent shooter, but the composite stock had issues in the area of the rotary clip.  got hard to remove the clip,  had it redone.  I like the look of wood, but I find, I hesitate to go where I need to go sometimes if hunting.  My Dad's (mine now) M 1 Garand has a great walnut stock, so if I let someone else shoot it, I am always watching to see if they are propping it on something.  trying to keep the wood pristine

Rules of thumb on loaning stuff: no guns, books, cars or tools...
Truthfully I learned the hard way on all of them! One guys way to handle a stock is as an electric fence buffer while me & others cringe!

[stavebuyer]

When I first got out of the Army I had a job managing farm properties for an extremely wealthy couple in Charlottesville Va. Among their myriad possessions was a matched set of Purdey Shotguns .410 through 12Ga in assorted barrel lengths and chokes that were stored/displayed in special gun room. None of the guns showed any appearance of ever being handled let alone fired.

One fine fall day the "Mrs" of the estate requested I assist her and her guests to go shoot a few doves over one of the cornfields. As I drove a farm issued 4x4 truck ; the dandy folks just tossed their selected loaner Purdeys in the bed of the truck like I might have a garden hoe. 

As an aside after the divorce... the "Mrs" got and then lost the farm which is now owned by no other than DJT.

[doc henderson]

When i was a kid, my brothers, my dad, my uncle and cousins went coon hunting with Uncle Duck's coon dogs.  only the grown up had guns, and the goal was to work the dogs, not to just get coons.  My dad was carrying a "Kodiak"  22 mag rifle.  this is the one I picked out for him for Christmas when I was 4.  I did not know anything about guns of course, but I think it was one of those magical memories as a child.  My mom took me to Everett's hardware store.  he fixed bikes and had parts to fix lots of other stuff, instead of just buying new one.  1964.  My mom took me in, it had a great smell, and the floor looked like they spent 100 years being finished with foot traffic and motor oil.  Mr. Everett was about 6 foot 4 and 400 pounds, slicked back hair and tiny glasses.  I think my dad had already picked out what he wanted, and my mom was in on it, as well as Mr. Everette.  So a coon is in the end of a irrigation pipe, and my uncle does not want to kill it, but get it out where the dogs could work it.  at a stand still, my dad holds two dogs on a lease in his left hand, and his prized rifle in the other.  My uncle shoots at the pipe to get the coon in the open and the ricochet comes back and hits the stock of my dad's rifle just below his grip, and blocked entry into his right groin area.  My dad then shot the coon and the hunt was over.  I need to refinish the stock.  my dad did it once after the incident, but it time again.  i will make sure the repair remains visible in that area.  the gun is now 56 years old.  lessons.

[SawyerTed]

I'm partial to nicely finished wooden stocks and grips on firearms.  But put me in the utilitarian category for my deer rifle, it has a composite stock.  I hunt in some relatively rough conditions which make for scuffs and scratches. 

[sawguy21]

When i was a kid, my brothers, my dad, my uncle and cousins went coon hunting with Uncle Duck's coon dogs.  only the grown up had guns, and the goal was to work the dogs, not to just get coons.  My dad was carrying a "Kodiak"  22 mag rifle.  this is the one I picked out for him for Christmas when I was 4.  I did not know anything about guns of course, but I think it was one of those magical memories as a child.  My mom took me to Everett's hardware store.  he fixed bikes and had parts to fix lots of other stuff, instead of just buying new one.  1964.  My mom took me in, it had a great smell, and the floor looked like then spent 100 years being finished with foot traffic and motor oil.  Mr. Everett was about 6 foot 4 and 400 pounds, slicked back hair and tiny glasses.  I think my dad had already picked out what he wanted, and my mom was in on it, as well as Mr. Everette.  So a coon is in the end of a irrigation pipe, and my uncle does not want to kill it, but get it out where the dogs could work it.  at a stand still, my dad holds two dogs on a lease in his left hand, and his prized rifle in the other.  My uncle shoots at the pipe to get the coon in the open and the ricochet comes back and hits the stock of my dad's rifle just below his grip, and blocked entry into his right groin area.  My dad then shot the coon and the hunt was over.  I need to refinish the stock.  my dad did it once after the incident, but it time again.  i will make sure the repair remains visible in that area.  the gun is now 56 years old.  lessons.
I imagine that got everybodys attention! I was shooting a .177 pellet rifle with a young friend, one shot ricoched back near us. It was a good lesson for him.

[doc henderson]

 

 



 

time for a re do, not sure I can see the repair my dad did,  22 mag.  some hand oil grime on the surface.  I will find it when I sand it down.

[Walnut Beast]

Very nice and a very interesting story 👍

[Sedgehammer]

Sedge - you hunting white tails or pastured cows in that picture?  :D

Well, no hunting there, yet. Deer do eat in our rye grass seeded pasture all the time, so if i don't get a nice one out at the lease, it'll be here.

Just sighting it in. Took 5 rounds. New gun and scope. I may shoot a few rounds yet this week to get even closer. Took 46 rounds for my wife's and sister in law's .243's to get sighted in. Their guns are also new. Youth size Moosberg and a Remmington 783.

I'll never buy a wood stocked gun to hunt with. Not only because I don't want to ruin the stock, wood moves in moisture/temp changes. Not going to ruin a long expensive (at times) shot over something so simple.




  

[barbender]

I know it does happen, but I've never had one of my wood stocked rifles shift its POI, in widely varying conditions.

[Walnut Beast]

I know it does happen, but I've never had one of my wood stocked rifles shift its POI, in widely varying conditions.

The bedding and barrels are going to be the biggest factors in accuracy. Synthetic stocks are fine but wood is natural, beautiful and the king of stocks... 

[Sedgehammer]

I know it does happen, but I've never had one of my wood stocked rifles shift its POI, in widely varying conditions.

The bedding and barrels are going to be the biggest factors in accuracy. Synthetic stocks are fine but wood is natural, beautiful and the king of stocks...

That be very correct. If bedded, wood will be fine.
I agree for looks, but for in the field, I'll disagree. Not because wood isn't as accurate. My 3 best shots as a civilian are all wood stocked, but I don't need to worry a plug nickle how I abuse the synthetics. 

[Walnut Beast]

Well everybody is different. If you were to look at my stuff I take hunting it looks brand new or close to it. I don't need to drag my bow or gun through the woods or use it to crawl up a creek bank 😂.  Some do and that's there choice 

[Sedgehammer]

Sure, your right. Mine are tools. I care for them, but I don't worry about scratches and related. Going through brambles, gun leads. 

[WV Sawmiller]

  I love the look of a beautiful gun - stock and engraving and such but in all honesty I would be happy with synthetic stocks on mine. I figure they are there to use and functionality/utility trumps cosmetics. Same with trucks - I think the military has it right with flat paint and such you don't mind driving into the woods and such where you want to go. I always hated getting a new truck that I was reluctant to drive through mudholes and brushy back roads to my secret hunting and fishing spot.

[Tacotodd]

Speaking of brand-new truck, I remember Dad telling me about the time that he bought his only new truck. "Boy, your momma didn't like this, but the first thing I did when I got it home was take it and scared it up in a big ole brush pile, then I'd never be worried about scratching it up again". That was in 1984. Keep in mind, I was born in 1971, and I will ALWAYS remember what he said about that! The only vehicle I've ever bought new, I stuck in a creek a year after buying and was still making payments on, 1999 Tacoma (hence username). 300k miles later and still have, probably will until I quit using O2.🤣 You just gotta love that kind of reliability. Wait, I got side-tracked from what we were talking about about.

I apologize for the derailment.😱