Why Some Guns Have Soul and Others Do Not

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Kimber’s Tactical rifle (top) has a wood stock painted black. Its Montana is synthetic-stocked. Elegant in profile, both look exactly like every other rifle of their type.

Had anyone asked me, I’d have suggested that certain elements of the 95 (and its forebears) be carried forward. Soul resides in design, fit and walnut. Surely, the best hand-laid carbon-fiber stocks are clean to the point of elegance in profile, besides being strong, lightweight and waterproof. Still, the most attractive guns wear walnut. Claims of wood bending to the whims of weather have over-stepped. Most hunters can’t shoot well enough afield to tell if a stock is nudging the barrel or not. And wood is durable. That’s why trees worth cutting for gun-stocks live longer than we will. Even straight-grained walnut has character to plumb, like the plain girl no one thought would become a CEO, or the “square” who later earned a PhD and a Guggenheim. Polymer has the eye appeal of tractor tires. Every black polymer stock is the same, as soul-less as it is colorless.

Even rusted, battered and taped, an early Winchester 94 has pick-me-up appeal. Original fit of wood to metal was tighter than on many more costly rifles now.

Had anyone asked me, I’d have suggested that synthetic stocks dress in color. Henry Ford had to buy lots of paint, and sticking to black gave him the leverage of volume. It also absolved him of having to decide which color the next customer would want. Eventually, even Henry conceded there were other profitable colors. Many gunmakers remain hung up on black. While hand-laid stocks do come in a variety of shades, and McMillan offers a giddy selection, the rule is still black. I’m tired of it.

Had anyone asked me, I’d have insisted that metal never “stand proud” of the stock; that rifle and shotgun stocks, fit more neatly than the doors on a tool shed. While CNC tooling has reduced variation in dimensions, tolerances in mating parts seem to have increased. Close fit shows care in manufacture. Once you could get it in a Winchester 94, millions of which traded for under $100.

Had anyone asked me, I’d have required any firm contemplating a commemorative floorplate to install a boxcar-size façade with said plating on the lawn of company headquarters. If it looks good there, it will probably pass muster on a floorplate. Otherwise, plain blued steel works fine. Triggers of bright pot metal might also accede to steel. Ditto plastic grip caps. Steel too costly? Omit floorplate and grip cap. If they’ve been stamped with decoration borrowed from lawn ornaments, it’s best they leave anyway.

Had anyone asked me, I’d have scotched superfluous parts, starting with automatic and redundant safeties. A firearm’s function is to fire. Multiple impediments make it as useless as a boat with holes.

Had anyone asked me, I’d have declared fixed throttles more useful than non-adjustable triggers. Pulls as heavy as a rifle’s weight almost ensure the rifle will move as the trigger breaks – just as double-action handgun pulls with the resistance of a bumper jack ruin accuracy.

While my opinions are mostly dismissed, gunmakers still sell serviceable products. Shooters still buy them, as 100 years ago they made peace with the mulish kick and finger-chomping lever of the 95.

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