the trend towards ugly rifles....

[Shinerlight]

Prettiest stock I had was a Remington 700 in 270...but couldn't stop it from stringing shots vertically. Had it worked on by gunsmith with no help. Hogue overmold stock corrected that.

I own a 1975 Rem 700 that has a beautiful lighter colored stock, and it still shoots great.

[2Ws]

Have a few composites with no complaints but the prettiest wood I have on a gun is on a Rem 740, my dad got it for me Christmas of 62 he stripped it rubbed it down good with boiled linseed oil. We left the day after for the YO Ranch.......shot 4 does with it

[BretE]

Damn Bret I can't believe you said that. I figured you as someone that would treat his firearm great and not beat one up! I've hunted with my Browning 270 a-bolt since 1986 religiously and the stock is flawless.

I definitely take care of my guns but the daily hauling them around in my Mule, climbing ladders/stairs, incidental bumping into deer stand doors/walls scars a wooden stock over time. Hunting as much as I do, there’s no way around it…

[dwilliams35]

I don't even bother any more, just tie a chain to the trigger guard and drag it up and down the gravel road a few times when it's new to get it over with.
Yes, that's a joke, but I get scratches on them by putting them in a case. Don't even worry about it anymore.

[BretE]

LOL…buddy of mine use to pour about half a beer on his floorboard when he bought a new truck….just to go ahead and get it over with….our stands on the Batesville ranch I hunt have 12’-15’ ladders and a small “porch” and door. Me, with a backpack, big camera and a rifle, in the dark, are gonna bang into something at some point, it’s guaranteed….

[tec]

Had a banker buddy that was given a brand new beautiful Browning shotgun from his employees. First time he took it hunting he tossed it in the bed of his pickup. Said he planned to hunt hard with it and it would get scratched up sooner or later anyway.

[Trouthunter]

I sold most all of my wood stock hunting rifles, save for a few favorites in preference to composite stocks.

Wade, Don Dobratz was a great guy. He bedded my .270 Weatherby Fibermark for me and it still shoots sub moa after all these years.

This Weatherby Mark V High Country is on my list. If I can't get it in .270 Weatherby mag I'm going to get it in .257 Weatherby mag. Can't find a .270 anywhere.

[Stammster]

Life is too short to shoot ugly rifles and drink cheap beer.

[Wado II]

Don was in the American Gunsmiths Guild I guess after so many years your name is removed I have tried to see if he was still recognized nothing there. He was best known as a stock maker he had the largest collection of mesquite anywhere among other hardwoods. Little shop at Telferner wasn't much to look at but did work for some of the elite he had a waiting list that was over a year. One of my cousins has a thumbhole mesquite stock made by someone in the Devine area there a couple of guild stock makers in the Boerne area I believe. You might know Andy Lauderback I think he is a gunsmith around Edna don't know if he does stock work. Charles White in Palacios did my only really nice stock and he used a Fajen rough semi inletted blank Don did stocks from a piece of wood he did have a machine that traced the outline. All the inletting was by hand though. Charles White was really talented and once was a lawman I bugged him a lot when he built me my rifle.

[Trouthunter]

Don was in the American Gunsmiths Guild I guess after so many years your name is removed I have tried to see if he was still recognized nothing there. He was best known as a stock maker he had the largest collection of mesquite anywhere among other hardwoods. Little shop at Telferner wasn't much to look at but did work for some of the elite he had a waiting list that was over a year. One of my cousins has a thumbhole mesquite stock made by someone in the Devine area there a couple of guild stock makers in the Boerne area I believe. You might know Andy Lauderback I think he is a gunsmith around Edna don't know if he does stock work. Charles White in Palacios did my only really nice stock and he used a Fajen rough semi inletted blank Don did stocks from a piece of wood he did have a machine that traced the outline. All the inletting was by hand though. Charles White was really talented and once was a lawman I bugged him a lot when he built me my rifle.

The only Andy Lauderback I know is Sheriff of Jackson County and is running for state office.

InfamousJ had a mesquite stock on a .243 that Don made. It was nice but it got wet and warped badly lol.

[Wado II]

Yep, that's him. I was told he did gunsmithing I remember his dad had something to do with the Palacios schools they were from there. Might have been the principal. My BIL left his dads nice .270 Remington in a truck tool box and it got wet I don't know if it ruined the stock he wasn't too happy. One of the ranchers I know in Matagorda County had all of his guns stored in an airtight fiberglass cabinet he got from the Palacios Airport that housed electrical switches. He thought it would make a good gun safe had it in a big equipment barn decided one day to open it up and they were molded and rusted all to hell. Dang thing sweated he brought me a left handed Savage .270 that had an empty brass stuck in the chamber I got it out but the riflings were almost gone after cleaning it. He was sick had all of his grandfathers guns and artifacts from South America when he was a surveyor years ago in that thing.
Before I moved to Palacios there was a gunsmith same last name as mine that was also the superintendent of the school. Everyone called him Professor even named the street by the high school after him. He made lots of custom rifles did fancy inletting on the stocks he liked to put a little compass in the stocks he did. He was getting hard woods that used salt some how to dry the wood I think Weatherby might have used some also. Was a bad idea, lots of his rifles rusted the metal under the stock line badly. Back when I was working in a machine shop a friend of mine brought me a Mauser the Professor made to put in a new stock. The metal was rusted so bad even the trigger was ruined. I pulled it all apart and took it to Johnny Sliva's hot bluing shop and he salvaged it by polishing then doing a bead blast finish. I installed a new Timney featherweight trigger with safety and put it in a Ram Line composite stock after glass bedding it. I bought lots of black composite stocks from Choate Machine And Tool for Mauser rifles they were 100% drop in even had some camo stocks and did a Savage for a guide with a Choate stock. I went all out on it machined an aluminum bedding block for it and epoxied it in the stock.