Some thoughts on stocks and stock designs

During the course of a long(some would claim miss-spent)life I have had occasion to fire many weapons,some with shoulder stocks,some without.There are 3 main requirements of a weapon fired from the shoulder,comfort,comfort and comfort!If you feel comfortable with it,it is going to work for you!.I am sure we have all seen crossbows with extended channels,counterweights,and various other gadgets and widgets on them,and I don't doubt that they are there for a reason,but unless you are an olympic class shot,and do nothing but target shooting,you need to ask yourself do you need them?When designing a stock you can design for form,function,or a combination of both.Shoulder stocks have been around long enough that the basic function is thoroughly understood,and in the last forty years,I have seen only two major innovations in stock design,the addition of a cheek piece,and a pistol grip type stock.Neither of these two designs seem to be universally adopted,as there are still weapons being made in the old style.The thing to look for in a stock are simple,when you hold it into your shoulder,does it feel comfortable?,does your eye find the sight picture naturally,or do you have to move your head around to find it?does you finger rest naturally on the trigger,or do you have to extend it to reach?does your arm feel comfortable when supporting the fore-end,or do you have to extend or retract your forearm to find a comfortable position?if your answer to all of these questions is yes,then you have the right stock design.The only way that I know of to achieve this objective,is to make a rough model of the stock,and adjust it to fit.If you are making a medieval replica,or a crossbow that will look pretty on the wall,then please feel free to ignore all of the above...........I have learned during my shooting life,that there are two types of marksmen,one is a natural shot,and the other is a trained shot.Natural shots are rare,but you can become a trained shot.No amount of fancy stock ware,or fancy stock design, is going to help you,if you can't shoot well in the first place.

Quite often it seems the accuracy of the weapon far exceeds the abilities of the shooter, however, I like what you have to say about the relation of comfort of the weapon to the shooter, and therefore, should bring a positive result between the two.

Nice thoughts.

Chaz

My goals have been stability, and ease of firing. Cheek rest and high sights help, bullpup pistol grip with close, light trigger helps. My latest bow design has so far proven the most accurate. Long, light trigger draw and a stock that just snugs perfectly into the body with no awkward bending of the neck.

bullpup designs are certainly compact and attractive, but they DO bring the lock and bowstring very close to the face.  That worries me.  Geezer.

I know what you mean geezer. I had to pull my trigger position back and lengthen my stock a couple of inches for exactly that reason.

Yeah:  Of course if your design is good and string properly made, there Shouldn't be any danger... but when you've had a couple of unexpected crossbow-adventures, you get a bit shy of these things.  Geezer/Adventurer

I hear that! I have been working to see how much recurve I can build into a wood/fiberglass composite bow and I made the mistake of trying to use hickory as a core wood for a 200lb set of limbs. I am glad the belly and back were both glass laminated. I am on the 4th generation of material combinations but the first couple died scary deaths. The first one exploded, thankfully on a vice. Even so I still got a good scratch on the neck....right on the carotid! 

No more hickory cores.