tominboise: there has been a lot of discussion on synthetic versus wood stocks for use in hard hunting areas, especially for fellas like you who have a nice piece of wood on your rifles and want to keep them looking good and not have them suffer from the weather. So I want to tell you the same thing I've mentioned to others about waterproofing wood stocks. I've never seen or heard of a problem with wooden stocks on military rifles, even the snipers, because they have absorbed so much gun oil and cleaning solution (which is petroleum based) they would probably float fully loaded.
Whenever I have worked on a stock for one of my rifles or have restocked one I make it a point to make absolutely certain every square inch of that stock has absorbed as much protectant as possible. That included the barrel channel, the buttstock under the pistol grip cap, under the recoiol pad, and down into the retaining bolt chamber. My favorite combination is linseed oil and beeswax. I put together about a half quart (8 oz) of linseed oil - you can use raw or boiled if you wish - and enough natural beeswax to thicken the mixture. You can experiment all you want with your mixture and get it to whatever consistency you desire - nothing about that stuff will hurt anything on your stock, nothing at all. You can get the beeswax from any hardware store in the form of the ring that seals your toilets to their drainage pipe. Just make certain you get one made of beeswax and not something else.
All I do is heat the linseed oil to steaming - why by already boiled?? - and add in as much beeswax as you want to thicken the mixture. It won't take much. You will want to apply it while the mixture is warm and when it cools all you need to do is warm it up again and stir or shake it up to get it mixed. Once you have made some of that stuff up you will quickly understand that there is literally no way any piece of wood is ever going to suffer water damage if that is used to seal your wood, inside and out.
I figure all of that might cost you less than $10 and half an hours time putting the mixture together. That's one heck of a savings over the cost for a piece of plastic. I've always rubbed it into my stocks by hand and just kep on rubbing until the wood had absorbed as much as it was going to. I've had walnut stocks turn just beautiful with that stuff and it gives me as much pleasure to hunt with and carry a well protected hand rubbed stock as it does to make a difficult but successful shot with a hand loaded round.
Tom, if you have ever handled an original revolutionary war musket or a civil war rifle or a well used Trap Door or anything else that still has the original wood on it and have asked yourself how the hay did that wood last so long and keep looking so good, the answer is oil, of one kind or another. The more natural the better. You can use the linseed oil/beeswax mixture to preserve and protect the wood, age it, and clean it, and all the time it feels good doin' it.
If your stock has a nice grain to it but the polyurethane on it makes it shine too much or if the finish has chipped, remove the old poly finish try the linseedoil/beeswax mixture. Sometimes, after I have rubbed the mixture in for a couple of sessions (over a period of days) and my hands get sore, I will use a piece of leather wrapped around a stick of wood to burnish it up and it just comes out looking beautiful.
Hope this helps, and saves you a few dollars. Mikey.
