The advantages are several, not the least of which is aesthetic. Blued and wood has always defined a rifle or a shotgun for me-- the only long gun here that does not have a wood stock is a Bushmaster. :?
Savage is now using their proprietary vibratory media tumbling on the 10ML-II, so the blued finish is upgraded with less tooling marks.
4140 chrome-moly weighs .283 lbs. / cu in. vs. the .309 lb. / cu. in. for 416SS, so there is a weight savings of the barreled action by 8% or so. Not huge to be sure, but not trivial either.
Chuck Hawks feels, "Laminated wood stocks are actually the strongest and most stable of all stocks. Functionally, they are superior to both solid walnut and the synthetics. If laminated from decent woods and well finished they can be quite attractive. They are cheaper than solid walnut stocks because they are made from smaller slices of wood, most of which cost less than good walnut. The grain in the various layers of wood is designed to run in different directions and cancels out any tendency of the stock to warp. When properly glued under pressure and sealed laminated stocks are immensely strong and warp resistant, and virtually impervious to the elements. Laminated stocks are generally regarded as the stiffest and most accurate type of stock." MacMillan may not agree, but one of their completely installed fiberglass hunting stocks retails for $662 applied to your barreled action after you ship it to them.
Beyond the increased accuracy potential of a more rigid 10ML stock, a laminated is far easier to bed properly, and easier to fit a recoil pad of your choice to as well. As far as I'm concerned, it is a logical combination of the best 10ML-II stock and the best 10ML-II hunting barreled action. The cushion you might want with corrosive propellant burning guns is of course not an issue with the Savage with smokeless.
Savage is not enthusiastic about adding SKU numbers for a small run, so I'm doing the next best thing while it is possible to do so-- which is selling a 10ML-II blued with two stocks, the black synthetic AND a laminate including the longer action screws required for the laminated stock.
So, it is being made available for those who want them through the 3rd week of January 2006-- a 10ML-II chrome-moly with two stocks, laminated and synthetic. Cost is $545 + 25 Priority Mail shipping to your door. The best I can do is at least make them available to those that wish them for a short while, so I have. Naturally, I'm buying one for myself. :wink:
