Laminate wood is very stable. I have to believe they use water resistant glues, because this is an out door application. After glass bedding I liberally coat the insides of the stock with urethane varnish, which is an effective water resistant coating. Sunlight will eat up urethane varnish, so don't leave your rifle out on the lawn for months.
Because laminated stocks are heavier than wood, and stronger, I installed one on this 35 Whelen.
the pictures were before I took the belt grinder out of the attic and tapered the rosewood front tip and coated the whole stock in urethane varnish. I prefer a rough texture to the pistol grip and foreend so this stock, with its urethane finish is not glossy or pretty at all. The only part I smoothed down was the cheekpiece and behind and around the cheek piece.
The best service rifle shooter I ever knew was Quin Moore of Alabama. He would have won the Civilian Service Rifle Championship at Camp Perry if Daniel Abbott had not cheated him out of it. She was a junior from Phoenix AZ, and carried additional score cards which after every stage, she filled out a match winning score and turned them in. Anyway, Quin was absolutely unromantic about rifle appearance. They were tools to him, and once when someone commented on Quin taking a wood rasp to a M1a stock, Quin retorted "
Do you want to shoot your rifle or make love to it?". I decided that I would rather shoot my rifles, so laminated wood, which is not as pretty as a high figured wood, but very practical, is an excellent choice in my opinion.
I have not tested this, but I do think that if you create a thick enough bedding, lets say the action is floating in a bedding which every section is 1/4 of an inch or more thick, and the fore end is relived enough so there is plenty clearance between the barrel and channel, even if there is wood warpage, it should not move the action or make the barrel touch the channel. Regardless on all plain wood stocked rifles, I coat the bare wood with urethane to make it as water proof as possible.
Prior to WW2 "the finish" was the linseed oil finish. Wood finished with linseed oil absorb water, I read an article which showed how much water got into the wood. It takes twenty years for linseed to turn a beautiful red brown color in walnut, I think the stuff oxidizes, but I doubt it makes the stock waterproof.
Previous practice, lets say pre WW2 and into the 1960's, stocks were inletted such that the barrel made full contact with the fore end. In these pictures, the pre 64 stock channels have been increased so there is clearance between the barrel and channel, but as they came from the factory, you could not slide a dollar bill between the barrel and channel.
You can see the inletted area on the right for the rear sight and barrel screw.
I removed this screw, located under the rear sight which went through the stock and held the barrel tightly to the fore end. I also increased the clearance between the barrel and this inletted area so the barrel is free floating. I consider full contact between the barrel channel and barrel to be madness and one of the worst possible ways to bed and action. Of course with the barrel screwed to the fore end and in full contact with the fore end wood, any dimensional changes to the stock are going to warp the barrel.
The magic marker dashes on the blue tape is where a piece of paper stopped sliding between the barrel and stock when the action was installed. I would mark that spot and remove a tiny amount of wood with my stock inletting tools, (round scrapers) reinstall the action, and see if I created enough clearance. This takes hours.