I guess I have to be the other guy on this. I've had wood stocks that absolutely affected the accuracy of my rifle. It wasn't a really old rifle. I actually think those were made better and didn't have the kind of problems I had. The problem was that the stock would warp according to the humidity and temperature. And it put pressure on the barrel when it did. On different days it would cause a lot of trouble or very little at all. It was a 30.06 Savage 110 rifle made in about 1990. I eventually got tired of trying to sand off parts of that stock to make it quit pressuring the barrel and receiver and I bought a Bell and Carlson synthetic stock for it. Problem solved.
I had problems with another rifle that were actually linked to the wood stock but in a different way. The wood wasn't strong enough to hold the amount of torque needed on the action screws to keep a consistent shooting pattern. I will admit that this was a problem for a target rifle and most people wouldn't have even noticed the issue because they wouldn't be trying to squeeze out that last tiny bit of accuracy from their rifle. That actually was a laminated stock which is mostly wood in about the same way plywood is mostly wood. Both are actually stronger than true wood and less prone to warping. But the particular stock I had problems with just wasn't designed well.
There are plenty of good stocks around made of wood though. It is mostly a question of the quality of the wood used. Savage didn't use the best walnut for the one stock IMO. I have other wood stock rifles that have never had issues. I have lots of them actually. But some wood stocks can cause problems.
And there is no denying the beauty of a nice walnut stock. My CZ 453 is a really nice looking rifle IMO. It's wood and blue and it's good wood. I certainly haven't had stock related issues with it other than the fact that the stock was softer than it should have been at first. I got several small dents in the stock that shouldn't have happened but that appears to have stopped happening. Go figure.
I certainly don't suggest you avoid wood stocks though. Most are great. I just had to point out that sometimes the cheaper models can be a problem.
I had problems with another rifle that were actually linked to the wood stock but in a different way. The wood wasn't strong enough to hold the amount of torque needed on the action screws to keep a consistent shooting pattern. I will admit that this was a problem for a target rifle and most people wouldn't have even noticed the issue because they wouldn't be trying to squeeze out that last tiny bit of accuracy from their rifle. That actually was a laminated stock which is mostly wood in about the same way plywood is mostly wood. Both are actually stronger than true wood and less prone to warping. But the particular stock I had problems with just wasn't designed well.
There are plenty of good stocks around made of wood though. It is mostly a question of the quality of the wood used. Savage didn't use the best walnut for the one stock IMO. I have other wood stock rifles that have never had issues. I have lots of them actually. But some wood stocks can cause problems.
And there is no denying the beauty of a nice walnut stock. My CZ 453 is a really nice looking rifle IMO. It's wood and blue and it's good wood. I certainly haven't had stock related issues with it other than the fact that the stock was softer than it should have been at first. I got several small dents in the stock that shouldn't have happened but that appears to have stopped happening. Go figure.
I certainly don't suggest you avoid wood stocks though. Most are great. I just had to point out that sometimes the cheaper models can be a problem.
