Beech is commonly used a lot in air rifle stocks over here and sometimes turns up on lower end shotguns too.
I have always wondered about olive wood, often its for sale in shops when you go to spain and similar countries where it is commonly found, i have thought about bringing some back to try as a stock wood its always beautifull but quite often cracked and knotted, its density makes it exceptionally heavy and i cant see any advantage to using it, on a heavy barreled gun it could bring the weight back between the hands if done well but it think it would add a lot of weight so as to make a gun very much dead weight and not at all lively.
Thinking over this topic brings to mind two other woods.
I once saw a beautifull piece of indian rosewood, highly figured and french polished to stock an old BSA air rifle, it made a very beautifull stock, however well figured rose wood is hard to find particularly in large pieces.
Another wood i have seen; again in the air rifle world was a quite exemplary piece of "Olive Ash" - a cover all term for wildly figured and coloured ash which somewhat resembles the colour and figure found in olive wood. Myself i have used some very nice ripple/fiddleback ash for tool handles and decorative work. I would imagine that it made a very reasonable stock - early musket stocks were, i believe often carved from ash.
Conventional suppliers of wood near me seem to have exceptionally high prices for exceptionally uninteresting stock.
