Maple grown in the Pacific Northwest is, as SDH says, much softer than the maple from the Eastern US. It will make good gunstocks if you follow this rule.....No heavy calibers without stock reinforcment. The maple grown in the PNW holds sanding marks very well and will show up under stain and finshing procedures. It also has a less dense poor structure than it's cousins in the east...which causes recoil to set back the wood fibers faster then a harder species. That being said....I like working with maple in making gunstocks. It challenges my skills as a stockmaker to make it flawless in appearance. I'm the odd man out on this though.
