Thanks for all the input. I think I'll go ahead and bite the bullet and get the laminate. Tough call, though. I can't complain about the predator and Sav 243 I have in synthetic, but then, I glass bedded them, which is probably more work than I want to do on a .22. Now, if it was the flimsy thing that came on the Model 12 308 varmint rifle I bought 10 years ago, it'd be an easy call. That thing flexed just from being looked at wrong.