Synthetic Rifle Stocks

An Abbreviated History

- John Barsness

The development of what are generically called “plastics” began in the mid-nineteenth-century, when the long molecules of cellulose – abundant in plants – were treated to form various polymers used in products from camera film to billiard balls. Traditionally, billiard balls were made of elephant ivory, but the popularity of billiards kept increasing while the supply of elephants kept decreasing. In 1869, a New York chemist named John Wesley Hyatt developed a suitable polymer – which could also be shaped into various other items normally made from animals and plants, including cloth fibers.

In 1907, another New York chemist, Belgian-born Leo Baekeland, developed a totally synthetic plastic named Bakelite, which could be molded for mass production. Initially, Bakelite was developed as an electrical insulator but ended up being used for thousands of products, including telephone bodies, toys, kitchen bowls and plates. It was also used on firearms, though usually for handgun grips as it was too brittle to take much recoil.

As plastics continued to evolve, several became more suitable for stocks. Among the early synthetic stocked long guns was the Stevens .22 Long Rifle/.410 combination gun, with a buttstock and forend made of Tenite, a tougher plastic made from softwood cellulose. Produced from 1939 to 1950, the Stevens was adopted as a survival gun by what was then the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. This may have influenced the 1963 adoption of the first synthetic-stocked U.S. military rifle, the Armalite Model 15 – officially designated the Rifle, Caliber 5.56mm, M16 – with stocks made of a composite resin similar to that used in billiard balls.