Red Lion

I like both for different reasons, and own both.

Gangly

Plastic and stainless....never want to have to worry about bangingwood around on rocks while climbing or worry about scratches, plus, why pay a premium for high quality lumber if you are justgoing to tear it up. Like any sport, if you are worried about tearing or breaking equipment, your never going to be your best. Wood stocks are for shooting ranges

AK_Zeke

Aside from the cosmetics of pretty wood, you really should consider the typical weather conditions when and where you hunt.

In wet/humid environment where blued firearms have a tendacy to rust, I would prefer a synthetic stock and stainless barrel and action. Less maintenance, and nooverwelming need to oil down the rifleafter every hunt. If you skip maintenance after a morning or evening hunt, fine, just make up for it the next time. The wood and a blued rifle, rust will set in pretty quickly out in the field.

In dryer and less humid area, wood and blued are fine.

Just my 2 cents worth....

outdoorslover

I like wood for show. It's not practical for hunting though. If you have a nice wood stock you don't wanna get it scratched. I can take my synthetic stock through anything and never worry about it. That's certainly nice. The stainless/synthetic is the ultimate HUNTING gun. Plus it's slightly lighter. If you don't care about scratches on the wood then go ahead and get that.

haugenna

Who made the synthetic stock for the WinchesterModel 70 ultimate and super shadow and how can i get my hands on one?

BowHunterFett

Why did nobody say wood with stainless? I think they look awesome together, but prefer synthetic and stainless for hunting. i have a Savage model 11 in .243 with a synthetic stock and blued barrel, had it for 4 years, and there is rust on it already, wish I would have waited and got a stainless barrel

DANTHEHUNTER

Laminate for me .

MichaelT.

Stainless / Laminate. I just bought a new rifle , and I love the Laminate / stainless combination for weather, durability, and it looks great too.

ButchA

I agree with this... There is just something "old school" about wood stocks and/or forearms. They add character and each little ding tells a story.

My old Marlin 30-30 is all wood and has worn bluing here and there and a few scratches too. I wouldn't think of getting a synthetic stock for it. It would be sacriledge!

My Remington 870 12GA is pretty new and (so far) unharmed, no scratches, no dings, etc... I've been teased by a few guys about it too {Jesus, why don't you use that darn thing? It's an 870... Kick it around, drop it in the dirt, I mean, you gotta give it some character!} But I guess I'm just a little careful with it, because it's new and still "purty", you know what I mean?

Sometimes you just gotta stick with wood....

Butch A.

npaden

Actually on many of the rifles I've been looking at the wood is the same price or sometimes cheaper than the synthetic, especially if you are comparing stainless and synthetic to wood and blued barrels. (i.e. Browning A-Bolt Hunter Blue on Wood = $600; Browning A-Bolt Stainless Stalker = $750.)