Where has all the wood gone?

[Gun4Fun90]

I mean yeah it's cost. That's why its rare to see nice wood on a $500 econo model but once you get into a nice $2000+ shotgun it's often offered at little to no extra cost.

 

[shoobe01]

Did we over-think this whole wood and blue steel thing as much back in the '60s (or the 1860s ... through the 1950s)?

Always have. My favorite example of many was the 30s (through to the 60s really), the hate for the Garand. Not so much the self loading, but the look. The lower swell for the magazine et al Ruins the Lines, and makes it Not Look Like A Proper Rifle. Etc.

Times change but the one constant is the old guard hating everything new.

 

[Mark_Mark]

If it will fit in the microwave (thinking shotgun butt stock and/or fore stock) run it for two minutes, check moisture content and continue as needed to get where you need to be. It works for me with rough turned bowls and similar sized pieces.

Air Fryer!!!! or convection oven!!!

 

[Mark_Mark]

My opinion is this is the direction manufacturers would like to head. No doubt the rubber insert cost less for them to make than to have someone checker the stock. They will extol the virtues of it, but the reality is it's just a cost cutting mechanism.

While I understand there are some benefits to synthetic stocks, I think the big push by the makers has more to do with profit than practicality.

Here's a nice piece of wood on a typical Swedish hunting rifle by VO Vapen. I kid, these things go for US $300K-800K. Usually bought by kings and sheiks, not something you throw in your Koenigsegg as a truck gun.

View attachment 1078566

why does this make me feel thingy inside and out!

 

[CoalTrain49]

I wish I could draw. If I could, I’d draw a cartoon of an old-time cowboy or mountain man looking at a rack of Sharps, Spencer and Ballard cartridge-firing rifles in the General Store. And he would be whining about how those “newfangled” cartridge-firing rifles have “no soul.” “Rifles should load from the front” I’d have him say. Of course the store owner would be trying his hardest to convince the cowboy or mountain man that cartridge firing rifles are more reliable than muzzle loaders.

Que up the song Desperado.

You been out ridin' fences for so long now.

 

[Robert]

7 pages seems like more than enough to lament the decline of wooden stocks.