Good synthetics are superior for tough hunting...good wood looks and feels best. Flip a coin. I have both.

+1

I don't own anything with a synthetic stock. I know they are nice and all, but I always have the assumption that they take away the unique feel of a rifle or shotgun.

If my Savage .308 or Remington 870 12GA gets a scratch or ding, so be it. It only adds character and will have a story to tell for years to come.

Both my Marlin 336 & Rem. 870 have plenty of "character" but are in 100% perfect operating order.
I guess some guys like to keep their rifles looking like fine furniture and that's their bussiness but scrathes and dings from use never bothered me

SYNTHETIC AND STAINLESS AND FOR GET IT. That my opinion and that is like having a belly buttons everbody has one. You buy what you want and then you can have your opinion too. Jim

Synthetic for me. I'd rather have a stock that I don't have to worry about scratching up. If I had a really nice wood stock and it got scratched up, that would bother me. I'm just weird that way.

I have both. Its not "one or the other" for me. They both have a place and a use.

I prefer traditional wood stocks for the aesthetics, but i'm open to synthetic stocks if I know i'm gonna be roughin' it in bad weather.

I'm not to sure how much bad weather will effect a laminate or walnut stock,assuming the stock is properly finished.

I have both and I love a beautiful wood stock. There's nothing better looking then a high figured Walnut stock. Most of my hunting rifles are Ruger M77's All Weathers. No matter how careful you are you're going to bang them up. The synthetics are allot more foregiving. I recently got a couple Laminated stocks to put on a couple of my All Weathers. The extra weight should tame the recoil of the bigger calibers on a bench.
I agree guns are a tool but they are also a thing of beauty. For the range I have no problem using a wood stock. For hard use in the field you can't beat a synthetic stock.

I too have both but given the choice I'd take a nice walnut stock any day over a synthetic.

A properly finished and bedded wood stock will not exhibit any of the alleged "horror stories" that we always hear about.

Men have been using blued walnut rifles in places like the NW coast and Alaska for a heck of a long time before stainless and tupperware stocks came along.