Upgrading from synthetic stock

Alan12013 · May 27, 2018

Has anyone changed from a standard synthetic to a chassis system or better yet, a nice wooden varmint or bench rest stock and compared their bench rest shot groups before and after? I've got a new Bergara B-14 hunter and installed a cheapo 20 dollar "vlife" bi-pod on it. Today I noticed that when I push on the action, scope, or back of stock, the entire action/barrel/scope, etc will wiggle pretty extensively to the point where I can get the barrel to touch either side of the stock with minimal effort. Seems flimsy. I'm now thinking that I could improve my groups from the bench with a better stock.
I will go hunting with this this year but my primary concern is bench accuracy with this gun so as to improve my knowledge and skills before I get a more mainstream target shooter.

No_Regerts · May 27, 2018

Factory synthetics, for the most part, are not well made and are very flexible. You want a stock to be as stiff as possible. Once you bed the rifle properly into a stiffer stock, the rifle will become much more consistent. This can be achieved with a laid-up fiberglass/carbon fiber stock, well-sealed wood or wood laminates, and the chassis things you see more and more of these days. My preference is for fiberglass/carbon fiber stocks like those made by McMillan.

Member 5605 · May 28, 2018

I like my Magpul and my H S Precision.

Both are solid but that carbon fiber HS is tough and light.

Ura-Ki · May 28, 2018

Masterclass stocks, hands down one of the best laminates around for bench rest, prone, F-2 and any thing else you could want! First rate folks to deal with, the owner handles every order personally and they can even do custom colors and some minor tweaks to the stocks they offer! I have three of them, all are the F class prone 3/4 toe, all in shadow laminate! Every one was a perfect fit to the receiver and only needed final fitting around the barrel to clear! Very happy with mine!