Adjustable stock on hunting rifle

[wtfooptimax200]

I'm getting to a point where I want to buy a super high quality custom rifle that can do the majority of my hunting needs. I don't want this to be a caliber debate but I am thinking that an adjustable stock would be a huge advantage because of the possibility of hunting in a cold climate with heavy clothes and also a warm climate with nothing more than a long sleeved shirt. Does anyone have one? If so what type do you have? Pros/cons?

[Love Life]

Do you mean a stock with spacers that can be added and removed, or something like the M4 collapsible setup?

[wtfooptimax200]

I was thinking either spacer or the style that the tactical stocks use...I'm not sure which is better?

[pietro]

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I live/hunt in the Northeast, so most of my hunting rifles are stocked shorter, for thick winter wear; and I simply slide on a recoil pad/boot for warm weather practice/zeroing.




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[W.R.Buchanan]

I also have a Scout rifle and have found that the shorter stock works the best.

The LOP on a bolt gun needs to be less than 13 3/4" or you can't operate the bolt effectively. I read this in a Griffin and Howe book many years ago, so they had this all figured out back in the 1920's. Obviously shorter people need shorter stocks so this can happen right.

As far as a super nice hunting rifle goes, I can fully understand treating yourself to something nice,,, believe me I do it frequently. However really nice rifles and hunting just don't seem to go together for me simply because of the possibility of damaging the thing and making me sick, and ruinning it's value uin the process.

I just bought a Browning Citori O/U in .410 bore. The gun was used but absolutely perfect,not one mark on it, and I still paid $2000 for it. I have only shot this gun at the skeet field and the gun comes out of the case, gets put together and shot and then goes back in the case. I even remove my pocket knife from my pocket so I don't scratch the stock which is the first thing that usually happens. I am being very careful of this one because I want to sell it in perfect condition when I'm done with it in 20 years and get top dollar, IE more than I paid.

Most of the really high dollar guns are shotguns. And they get used on Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays venues or other places where you can control the handling of the gun easily. As a result these guns can be shot thousands of times and still look perfect. They also retain their values and since they are shotguns designed for the Sporting Games, they are desirable to many people so the resale market for these guns is fairly large. You be surprised how many $20,000 shotguns get resold annually on Trapshooters.com. $10,000 guns are pretty common.

This is not true in hunting enviornments where you are trapesing up and down over hill and dale. All it takes is one slip and you're on your **** and the gun goes flying, and your investment with it.

$10,000 custom Rifles are usually made specifically for one person. They are just as beautiful as the shotguns, but seldom hold thier value as well, unless they are classics (G&H Sporters) or have some history attached to them.(Owned by Hemmingway or some other famous dude) Otherwise they are guns that, unless the right person comes along, just sit on Gunbroker until they get put back in the safe. They are specific to the person who had it made for them, and as a result have a very limited market for resale. Best idea is to go with nice wood and no engraving in a caliber that is relatively common. Whatever you do don't have your initials or name engraved on the gun! (unless you are famous)

I have a friend who just received his new Perrazzi 28ga O/U shotgun which was custom made specifically for him and cost $52,000! I have held the gun and I assure you it is alive and worth every cent. It is absolutely beautiful! (Complete understatement!) It also has his full name inlaid in Gold on the bottom of the receiver!, which pretty much means he's married to it for life.

However my friend also has many other high dollar guns, and shoots shotguns 2-3 times every week. This gun has been in his possession since March and he has already ran 10K rounds thru it shooting Skeet and Sporting Clays. IE: He will get his monies worth out of the gun. When he decides to sell the gun he will have it sent back to the Perrazzi factory in Italy and have his name removed and covered with engraving, and then he'll sell the gun for $52,000+ simply because he knows where the people with the money are.

IE He really knows what he is doing.

When you consider this thinking, a generic hunting rifle that can be easily replaced, and is not of investment grade makes alot more sense if you are actually going to hunt with it. Add in the factor of loss during travel, baggage handler abuse, and on and on, and it is easy to see the sanity of this logic.

Finally Have you looked at the New Ruger Guide Gun? This is what a generic Hunting Rifle is supposed to look like. It has the same type of stock as the Scout Rifle has with the adjustable LOP. It currently comes in .30-06, .300 and .338 WMs and RCMs, is made of Stainless Steel so it won't rust if you hunt in the rain or snow, and looks to be another home run for Ruger. The street price should be in the $850-950 range.

In closing if you are considering spending a bunch on a gun, buy a nice shotgun. It will have higher resale value in the end and you'll be happier. Believe me, the shotgun guys are just like everyone else in the gun world and you'll have just as much if not more fun with them as you will with the rifle guys. We all come from the same mould. Don Verna will back me up on this as he frequents both worlds too.

Randy

[Love Life]

I wouldn't choose the collapsible buttstock unless you can gaurantee that is has absolutely no play. I would go with the spacer system, or the slip over buttpad as referenced above.

Alot of what Randy says has great merit.

Where are you hunting and what are you hunting? What position will you shoot from the most? Hard used hunting rigs always get scratched or beat up a little. You can definately get your value back out of a well made hunting rifle though, even if it has some bumps. It all depends on how it is built and who built it.

A hunting rifle with a wonderful piece of wood and mile deep bluing, but that has been dinged and scratched will take big dump in resale.

Now a custim hunting rifle made with a grieger barrel, big name stock, and put together by a big name builder would hold value better.

I'll give you two randomly made up sample sales adds:
Custom hunting rifle for sale. Has great bluing and world class wood. It has a green mountain barrel and rebarreled by the our local shop gunsmith. It has slight dings in the wood and scratches in the bluing. Only fired 200 times. $2,000.00

^^^I'm not interested in that one.

Next ad:
Custom hunting rifle for sale. Has the following:
Krieger barrel
Mcmillan (or other name brand stock)
Remington/winchester CRF/Surgeon/Stiller (whatever high end) action
Rifle was built by G. A. Precision

This rifle only has 200 rds through the barrel. $2,000.00


With the above ads you can see the difference. In the second ad just the parts of the rifle are worth close to $2,000.00, and it was built by a HUGE name in the rifle building world, and the parts (stainless barrel, synthetic stock) are perfect for a hunting rifle. Now a GAP made rifle is going to cost you a bit over $2,000.00 and on the Hide they don't sell for much less than full retail value even if they have 1,300 rds through them. Same for the other big names in rifle builders.

Or you can get a Blaser. I've never seen a cheap Blaser rifle. New or used....

So it all depends. I would call the gunshop you plan to use and talk to them for awhile. They will be able to set you up.

[Love Life]

Also what kind of rifle did you have in mind?

Nice wood and bluing or a stainless and synthetic.

If wood and bluing go with the spacers. If a synthetice then I guess the collapsible stock would be a better match, but I think the spacers would look better there as well. Plus no wobble.

What platform did you intend to use? Semi-auto? Bolt?

[wtfooptimax200]

I'm not planning on a fancy rifle (from a looks standpoint) I am more worried with function than form...and if it gets a scratch, it's just like scars on my body...another war story lol. I fully understand that the extra money doesn't really buy any practical accuracy over some of the great guns out there at reasonable prices, but it's just one of those cases where I want it. Now I need to convince my wife that I NEED it lol. This is more of a long term project that will likely develop over time...for now I'm thinking a synthetic stocked bolt gun in one of the 30-06 family of calibers. It will kill many deer over it's life and hopefully a few bear, moose, elk, or if I'm very fortunate some light plains game.

[starmac]

Love life, Both of those adds should state that they will almost shoot like a 200 dollar stevens. lol

[flounderman]

In my opinion, all factory stocks are too long. The width of the shoulders and arm length have more to do with fit than how tall you are. Correct position and scope placement, and the shorter stock will feel right for almost everybody. I don't see the need for an adjustable stock unless it's for a kid

[Artful]

There you go pick up a Savage youth rifle and some spacers for the LOP adjustment - done

oops, largest Savage youth looks to be 7mm'08

[W.R.Buchanan]

***: your motivation is not peculiar to just you. Pretty much all of us at this site at one time or another just want to buy something cuz we want it.

My advise to you is to learn as much as you can about what you think you want, shop til you drop! Try as many guns as you can before you buy. If you found out you like a generic gun better than the one you jsut had built it would take alot of the luster off your purchase.

Also consider that in many cases a custom gun becomes something you are married to, especially if it is in some weird caliber.

You stated .30-06 and I couldn't agree with you more. However it is also the most common chambering out there so there is alot to choose from before you get to needing a custom gun in that caliber. There are alot of very nice higher end generic guns like Winchester M70's and Kimbers etc, that are a cut above the $6-700 generic gun you can buy at Big 5 or even Walmart. We are into the $1500 range now and some are really nice and accurate as anything out there.

My Bro in law has an FN patrol rifle in .308 he paid about $1100 total for. It is basically a M70 Win made by FN who now owns Winchester. This gun routinely shoots 5 into 1/2" at 200 yards! Pretty hard to beat that kind of accuracy. He bought a barreled action and put it into a $200 Hogue stock! Added a bipod and a 10x scope. So technically it is a custom gun. This sounds close to what you want?

Like I said earlier, just educate yourself before you spend a bunch on money and only get what you "thought you wanted, " only to find you didn't get what you actually need. Big difference sometimes.

Randy

[warboar_21]

With the adjustable stocks where you can crank a knob and adjust the comb height and length of pull like on the military style rifles you will find that they will add considerable weight to the rifle. If you are ok with having a heavy hunting rifle then they may work for you. The stocks with the spacers may be the best way to go about it and not add to much weight. I think ultimately it will come down to what exactly you want to do with the gun. If you are stand hunting then a heavier rifle may not be that big of a deal. If it is spot and stalk in the mountains then the weight may become a factor for you.
One of the guys I know here just built a custom rifle with one of the McReese(spelling) stocks. It's aluminium and fully adjustable. He plans to use this rifle for target shooting and hunting at long range on Antelope. The gun weighs in close to 11 pounds. Personally not something I would want to be hauling around hunting.