RE: wood stocks
Probably every gun manufacturer is using mostly cheaper grades of wood for their gunstocks. In fact, the gun manufacturers probably don't make their own stocks....they have them made by an outside supplier. I strongly suspect that, under the finish, most of these are of the same grade of wood. Don't confuse "nice" wood stocks with "sound" wood stocks. The thing that matters, with a walnut rifle stock, for instance, is the straightness and uniformity of the grain, especially through the action and wrist area. The heavily "figured" riflestock (with lots of special character) is often somewhat weaker structurally than a plain, straight-grained stock. I think it is more important to be sure that the stock is WALNUT, rather than some cheaper wood type....than it is to have a fancy-figured stock. Another issue that figures into this is likely the supply of "fancy" grade woods. The prices of such woods have been climbing steadily, especially the really nice pieces. For a mass-production rifle maker, such as Winchester or Remington, to use some of these fancy- grade woods would be prohibitively expensive in this day and time. Not everyone appreciates (and would be willing to pay for) fancy grades of wood. So, I imagine that most of the rifle makers use a "standard" grade, except perhaps for "custom shop" rifles.
I'm sorry, but I do not know which, if any, of the big rifle makers uses "high-grade" walnut....with the exception of CZ. They do use (often) nicely-figured Turkish walnut for their stocks - some of which (I've seen) are quite beautiful. However, every piece of wood is different. So, even the CZ stocks are not ALWAYS distinctively nice. Again, I would be more concerned with some sort of assurance from the manufacturer that the stock (of a particular model) is of walnut, instead of "selected hardwood"...or some such cr#p..... If you are looking for a rifle, and find several different ones (of the model and calibre) in which you are interested, in a particular gun store....you can always pick and choose based on the figure of the wood. Beyond that, buying an aftermarket "select - grade" stock is probably the only way to be sure of getting a really nice piece of wood, for your rifle.
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