Hey /guns, I just have a quick question. Every shotgun and rifle I've ever owned has had a wood stock. Are there any major advantages to buying a shotgun with a composite stock that makes it worth paying the extra $100-200?
Thanks
Posted Dec 6, 2010, 11:55 PM UTC
Wood=Ah, what a nice hunting rifle. Composite Stock = S&P 500 Synthetic stock = OMG!! Evil black rifle. Call the Police.
Unless it's an AK.
Wood warps with moisture and heat and whatnot.
Composite can be stronger, lighter, and weather-resistant.
Wood is prettier.
It really won't matter unless you're trying to get a very precise rifle or you're looking to carry the rifle around in Vietnam.
Pretty sure the same advantages to having a plastic gun. They hold up to weather and wear and tear really well. You never have to refinish them. You don't have to worry about dings like you do with wood. The stock cracking is not really an issue.
Pretty sure that's all true anyway.
It does matter in that the polymers typically react more uniformly to changing heat conditions than wood stocks. If you're facing a situation where a wood stock is deforming and placing unequal pressure on that barrel, then you've definitely affected accuracy.
Nobody here has yet mentioned F-class accuracy (at 1,000 yards). You'll almost never see a wooden stock there; they're simply just not accurate enough. You'll see a lot of polymer stocks and you'll even see some monobody aluminum stocks like this awesome one. And yes, that is a lot of money, but if you're chasing 0.25 MOA accuracy, that's how much money you need to spend on your components.
composite/plastic = more rugged, lighter. that's about it.
It's mostly about aesthetics.
composite = lighter, stronger, weather resistant
wood = cheaper
With shotguns, the only synthetic stock I've really liked is the Knoxx Specops stock. It's got this recoil spring in it that REALLY reduces recoil. Especially with a tight choke or shooting slugs.
Other than that, I think most of them are for looks more than anything else.
Why would a tight choke affect recoil?
Doesn't it increase pressure in the barrel? I always thought that was the case, I might be wrong though.
With a rifle, the composite is more uniform and does not warp the same ways that wood does, so a composite or laminate stock results in a more accurate rifle. I do not think the distinction is nearly so important with the shotgun.
Exactly. One of the problems they ran into with the M-14 during the Vietnam War was the fact all the moisture in the area would cause the wood stocks to warp which raised all sorts of havoc with accuracy. Fiberglass stocks were starting to be issued to correct the problem but the M-16 was also introduced and replaced the M-14 entirely.