A proper fitting stock is as important a part of the rifle as the barrel or action in my opinion. The stock should be measured and fit with you as the pimary user. The typical stock made in the world is for the typical guy. With the average male at 5'9" tall in the world. If you're not then those standard stocks will not likely fit either. The long eye relief of the scope is what makes most stocks fit properly. Thats fine for bench shooting but not so good when you throw up the gun freehand and try to get a clear picture through the scope.
Try this,..... close both eyes and bring the gun up to shooting position. Settle into the stock quickly with cheek planted into the stock and open your shooting eye. If you're not even close to seeing clearly through the scope you need stock work, or different lower rings and bases. If you can see well with a touch of adjustment to your view then you're probably Okay. Just be sure you have maximum eye relief set into the scope.
Make sure you have used all the eye relief the way it was designed in. For your eye protection, not to make the stock fit you!
Three stocks come to mind, Walnut, laminated, and synthetic. I have owned and used all three. Both my hunting rifles are stainless steel with synthetic stocks made by Pacific research to fit me exactly. Pacific Research has sold the stock making to James Borden back east someplace. He is worth looking into, second choice is Mcmillan also a top maker.
If you have a blued gun synthetic is not as critical because you still have to really care for the rifle exceptionally well. Blued guns rust fast and severe so that synthetic stock is not matching up with the whole package.
My 468 Lott work rifle is blued. I only use it in Africa, it's a dry climate. I went with a laminated walnut stock and am very glad I did. The newest of laminated stocks are inexpensive compared to walnut customs stocks and are hell for stout. They will not split, warp, expand or contract. Simply put they are the best idea going for a blued rifle used for serious rough hunting conditions.
The down side is the finish work if you get a blank. The amount of resin compressed with heat into that wood makes sanding them into form difficult. You also need to be very careful who you pick a stock from. The outside pieces need to be thick, as in 3/16 or so to allow proper checkering. Thin laminated stocks when checkered through the first layer will have the checkering break away over time. My 458Lott stock has each side 1/4" thick from the same piece of wood the grain on both sides match. Yet the center of the stock looks like walnut plywood when viewed from the top. From the side the majority(all) of the wood looks as if it's one solid piece. They also tend to be heavier then synthetic and walnut do to the resin. Might help with the balance and some recoil help. But they will weigh a bit more then pure walnut, and 2-3 times what a synthetic stock weighs.
The solid walnut stocks custom made from nice wood are a thing of beauty when checkered properly. However they are not for me on a hunting rifle. I don't own a single walnut custom fitted stock. They are a risk to warp, split, expand contract, barrel flex issues are significant when flying or moving from habitats that have a different humidity index. I would also worry too much about dinging or scratching.
If your gun is blued and you want that resolved/improved, I strongly urge you to send the action and rings once the whole works is sorted out to Robar in Phoenix. They will put a black matte coating called Roguard on your rifle that will make it nearly into a stainless quality finsih. This industrial coating applied by experts in the firearm industry and military business is as good as it gets for rust prevention. My 30/06 is stainless but I sent it to them anyway so that it would be black. They did the whole thing including the rings bases and the screws. Good stuff.
Finally the recoil pad. I have Decelerators on all three rifles. My two hunting and the Lott. No complaints, fit is good last a long time and they work as well as any I have tried.
