Synthetic Stocks - Remington v. Winchester

[Zachary]

I own several Remington and Winchester rifles that come with factory synthetic stocks.  Specifically, I am refering to the Remington M700 BDL SS rifles and the Winchester M70 Classic Stainless rifles.

I recently took off the factory recoil pads in order to install special aftermarket recoil pads.  I was surprised what I discovered.  

First, both the Remington and Winchester factory synthetic stocks are hollow (at least in the butt stock).

Second, the Winchester's stock is approximately 2 to 3 times THICKER than the Remington.  As such, the Remington stock is very flimsy and thus feels very cheap.

Third, the Winchester's stock has a special type of foam that apparently is poured into the stock and then expands in order to fill in most of the hollow portions of the stock.  On the other hand, the Remington, believe it or not, has a cheap piece of thin foam like paper that is folded into several sections (just like you fold a letter to place it in an envelope), and then simply inserted into the stock.  This is the cheapest set-up I have ever seen.  

Granted, even though Remington's synthetic stocks are cheap as hell, they still shoot sub-inch groups at 100 yards.  But still, for the price that we are paying, you would think that Remington would invest a little more moneyand offer a better product.  The stocks that Remington uses on their Senderos are made by H-S Precision and they are great.  Why can't Remington, or even Winchester for that matter, offer a similar type stock - yet a little slimmer than the sendero stocks - on their sporter factory rifles and sell it for just a little bit more.  It would definately be worth the price.

This is not to say that the Winchester stocks are good, because, in my opinion they are not.  Rather, this is just to say that the Winchester stocks are just better than the Remington stocks - which doesn't really say much.

I am considering getting McMillan stocks on all of my Remington rifles, but it will have to be piece-meal over some time because McMillan stocks, from what I have heard, are about $200 each.

Zachary

[BruceP]

Winchester use to offer McMillian stocks at least the one on their XTR Featherweight in the mid 80's was a McMillian. I have one in 270 win. I'm not sure why they dropped them unless it might be that most people did not wont to pay the difference in cost. The last time I checked McMillian still offered the exact same stock and it was about $200. even though they were only offered for around 3 to 4 years and did cost more than the other offerings by Winchester I have never seen a seperate listing in the blue book for this model.
Not that mine is for sale because its not
BruceP