Today's Walnut..........

[Bayou City Boy]

So as to not trample any further on the thread looking for a Cooper rifle, I decided to post this here in a a new thread.

Just for the record in case you haven't bought any lately, good quality walnut blanks are literally cheaper today than they were 15-20 years ago when every one with a keyboard was spreading the word that walnut was becoming extinct.

I bought a factory grade limited edition rifle 2 weeks ago for $805 plus tax out the door. It's a factory FW Super Grade rifle in 270 Winchester that obviously isn't available at WalMart. Still, today Hugo's boys would want the keys to the ranch, your left gonad, and title to a couple of your grand children for comparable wood on one of their rifles. And almost as much for far lesser wood. I'd post pictures but right now I'm currently 250+ miles from the rifle.

btw - its one of those inferior Portuguese Winchester Model 70 rifles. It looks extremely good in all respects and it actually shoots extremely well too. Go figure.

The Old Gray Mare ain't what she used to be, and even though I never liked Dan Cooper's politics long before he gave money to Obama and then bragged about it online, he did make quality rifles at good prices with decent looking stocks that made you feel that you got your money's worth without bending over at the waist while you paid for it.

JMO -BCB

[drover]

I am in total agreement with your post. IMO greed is winning out because synthetic stocks are the "in" thing. They can use a B&C stock that probably cost them $200 or less and all they have to do is bed the rifle to it.
With a wooden stock they have the cost of the blank then they have to rough shape the blank, do literally hours of sanding, checkering and finish work to it. So the attitude seems to be that "if you want walnut you can have it but you are going to pay a lot for it".
I would be ok with that if the synthetic stocked rifles were priced lower to reflect their lower manufacturing cost but they are not.

Oh well, I have enough wood stocked Coopers to keep me going for a bit anyway.

drover

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by drover

I am in total agreement with your post. IMO greed is winning out because synthetic stocks are the "in" thing. They can use a B&C stock that probably cost them $200 or less and all they have to do is bed the rifle to it.
With a wooden stock they have the cost of the blank then they have to rough shape the blank, do literally hours of sanding, checkering and finish work to it. So the attitude seems to be that "if you want walnut you can have it but you are going to pay a lot for it".
I would be ok with that if the synthetic stocked rifles were priced lower to reflect their lower manufacturing cost but they are not.

Oh well, I have enough wood stocked Coopers to keep me going for a bit anyway.

drover

Same here, drover. Life's a biotch.........

-BCB

[Bill K]

I believe there are also a couple other factors in today's world regarding good walnut.
One most don't take the time to find and preserve it and there are not the same grade of craftsmen working in the majority of the companies, as there were in years past.

There still are some very fine grade firearms being made, by some very high end producers and if you want it and have the money to spend you can find them, along with the very fine walnut stocks. Bill K

[SmokinJoe]

Interestingly, last time I looked a few years ago both Cooper and Dakota charged more for their rifles in a synthetic stock than in a wood stock. Go figure, huh?

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by SmokinJoe

Interestingly, last time I looked a few years ago both Cooper and Dakota charged more for their rifles in a synthetic stock than in a wood stock. Go figure, huh?

Its called "meeting the consumer's demand"... Dakota is not the same company that it was in the past either. Mr. Kokesh insured that in spades.

Another btw - the last walnut blanks that I bought had been cured and wax end sealed for over 12 years each. And that was just last year. As for $802 for the rifle I mentioned, that was/is not high grade in terms of factory rifles sold today. Hell I could have bought a small caliber CZ for less dollars, but I'd have received far less too. In 270 Winchester, this rifle would have been cheap compared to the CZ price I could have paid for the same cartridge and a similar rifle.

Once again, JMO - BCB

[TinMan]

And economics drive all of it. As I recall, several years ago, CZ switched to have CZ-USA contract all their US stocks sourced in the US to get better wood, and only shipped actions to the US. That was when you got really nice stocks for the 221FBs, etc.

About 20+ years ago, I had the wants for one of the new Classic M70 Winchester rifles in 30-06. I wound up buying a Super Grade model. The rifle shoots fine, but the wood is nothing to write home about. Pretty plain, all things considered.