Full wood stocks

ThePlato · Feb 6, 2012

Gentlemen and ladies,

As a rifle is discharged a barrel tends to move and flex. Modern firearms allow this flex with free floating barrels and other devices. However this knowledge has been around for quite some time. Why then were military rifles of ww1 and ww2 generally fully enclosed by wood. The mauser, garand, enfield, etc etc etc. Wouldn't removing the wood have allowed greater relative accuracy?

Was the wood kept to protect the barrel against the harsh environments of combat?

Thank you in advance and for your troubles I will post a gorgeous firearm photo

Sam Cade · Feb 6, 2012

ThePlato said:
Why then were military rifles of ww1 and ww2 generally fully enclosed by wood.

It keeps the user from burning himself on the hot barrel, mostly.

MachIVshooter · Feb 6, 2012

It keeps the user from burning himself on the hot barrel, mostly.

This. A Garand barrel will get pretty darn warm after a couple clips emptied quickly. Even the slower bolt guns would get hot in a firefight.

rcmodel · Feb 6, 2012

Military rifles were also used in bayonet fighting back them

The hand guard was there to keep a solder from burning all the skin off his hand when grasping the rifle in a bayonet charge.

Anyway, ultimate accuracy of individual rifles was never a big concern of the military, and still isn't.

If you notice, all AK-47's and M-16's today still have a full hand-guard and no free-floating barrel.

rc.

Orlando · Feb 6, 2012

The Garand can easily hit man sized targets the way it is. They were killing machines, not match rifles

Shadow 7D · Feb 6, 2012

In addition, accuracy well, look at what goes on in benchrest competitions

Long thin pencil profile barrel can actually improve consistency if upward pressure is applied to the right spot OR dampening is applied to the right spot, there's formulas to figure it out.

BUT like RC said, full stocks have everything to do with handling and that's it.

BrainOnSigs · Feb 6, 2012

Also there have been a lot of advancements since WWI and WWII in synthetic stocks.

d2wing · Feb 6, 2012

As RC said, the last rifle designed to be used for hand to hand combat was the M14. We actually had martial arts training using the M14. A number of strokes involved grasping the rifle by the full handguard. It is a handle not just to poke with. Also accuracy is a major concern for American Rifles and always has been. More so than most other countries that still follow volley fire doctrine.

Full wood stocks

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