My gunsmith recommended a Monte Carlo style stock for a 308 Norma Mag I am building. It's almost done and it is beautiful. I was told it is very good for hunting as it is quick to the shoulder, good cheek weld and handles recoil. But, I have noted a lot of large bore hunting rifles have a straight comb with a pancake type cheek pad. So what gives? Does one have a functional advantage over the other? Or is it aesthetics?
Elmer Keith claimed to have invented the reverse slope comb as a means of dealing with heavy recoil. the idea is that the rifle tends to recoil back and up, so if the stock slopes down then as it moves back it is moving away from the cheek. One of the offsetting aspects of the California style stock is that it has more drop at the shoulder, so as the rifle is pushed back by the recoil, it tends to torque up more so than rifles that have the top of the buttplate almost in line with the bore. My preference is to keep my face tight against the stock so that the recoil pushes me along rather than hitting me, so even on fairly heavy recoiling rifles the recoil can be endured.
Very few take the build of the shooter into account when discussing the stock style that will best suit a certain cartridge or shooting activity be it a staking rifle or a rifle that will be shot primarily from a rested position. A tall thin man will need a vastly different configured stock to one that is shorter and carrying more weight. Bringing a lady into the debate will change the dynamics completely so unless there is a correlation between the body shape and the stock shape then in essence the debate is highly symbolic of what suits me and that may be entirely unsuited to you.
