Nothing is prettier than a great piece of wood.Yet some people with these nice guns after putting out the bucks for them,don,t want them stratched ect.Wood does change when introduced to different elements of mother nature such as rain,snow,heat ect. synthetic stocks began to come to being for two reasons. First our forfathers only planted so many type and grade of good woods for stocks like walnut for instance. A lot of these trees have gone by the wayside and orchards are being plowed down for housing developments.With the availablity of wood yrs ago being projected and the hunters wanting a stock that would,nt be effected by the wether like wood is,thhis market was the father of the synthetic stocks and they were and are cheaper to make. Hence also more profit for the companies. They are just trying to fullfill needs of a hunter whom hunts a lot,and i mean a lot,and make more profit for there share holders of the company. vangunsmith