I have a Savage 10FP from before the new trigger came out. I took it through the PR1 class at Gunsite, and then went on to shoot it in the Long Range Firing School at Camp Perry, but with the Choate stock.
The stock that came on this rifle is made from a thermoplastic. It does have molded-in pillars because the thermoplastic is too soft to hold up to stock screw pressure without reinforcement. Unfortunately, the forestock is too flimsy for a bipod. Since the PR1 class required a bipod, I took a Harris with me, but soon found the gun was unable to group much better than 2 m.o.a. off of it. After three days, bluing rub marks were apparent on the barrel just above the tip of the stock. When the bipod was in use, the weight of the gun was bending the flimsy forestock enough to touch the barrel. This caused the inconsistent groups.
Because thermoplastic is dense, the stock is internally skeletonized with hollows. I considered trying to whittle it out under the front of the barrel, but concluded the side-to-side sway would still be excessive. I thought about adding stiffeners. I usually enjoy trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but I spotted the Choate stocks in the Brownells catalog and just had to try one. I got the Ultimate Sniper version, took it to the LRFS at Perry.
Accuracy of the rifle in the Choate stock was superb, and let me stay in the 10 ring most of the time. Most satisfying was that my errors landed where I called them. At short range I got several 1/2 m.o.a. groups off bags and stayed around 3/4 m.o.a. off the bipod. However, three ergonomic problems with the Choate stock showed up at the school:
First, set up for long range shooting, I was using angled scope ring bases. These set the eyepiece of the scope up high enough that none of the cheek pieces that come with the Choate had enough height. I had to improvise by sticking on a big section of polyethylene foam pipe insulation.
Second, the forestock of the Ultimate Sniper stock is too square at the back. Even using a shooting glove, after a day of prone position with my left hand leaning forward against this square, it was sore.
Third, though it was of no consequence at the LRFS, the Choate is very heavy. It may be quite suitable for S.W.A.T. or other urban sniping duty, but when I imagine doing some of the rugged terrain crawling and moving we'd done at Gunsite with it, I believe I would have found it a bit cumbersome and fatiguing.
The following year I returned to the LRFS. This time I had acquired the Choate varmint style stock. Also, heavy and lacking in cheek piece height, but the front rail on the forestock let me use a standard aluminum shooters hand rest. This proved much more satisfactory for slung-up prone. Accuracy was the same.
That's all I have to convey on the subject. Good luck with the new rifle!
Nick
