Frizzelr and DG, I' m with both of you on this one...way too much hype for " other than wood stocks " but a lot of people buy into it. I have never really had any problems with any of the three stocks, but I absolutely love the look of wood and no amount of arguing will change my outlook . I take very good care of my guns and don' t use them for boat paddles, crow bars or let them spend the night in a snowbank irregardless of their construction and it shows. I suppose you can dunk a ss syntetic stock rifle in a river and keep right on hunting with it ....right. I detest most factory synthetic stocks and their floppy foreends ...just a cheap way for the manufacturers to rack in more money since the price of walnut keeps going up up up. As far as better performance with a real hand laid up stock my buddy shoots a 270 win Model 70 SS with a very nice walnut stock from the factory, has had it about 8 years or so. He absolutely had to have a Mcmillan stock though and he went ahead and ordered one along with a 1 pcs custom floorplate and had it bedded... guess what it doesn' t shoot one iota better but he is out 600 bucks.