I have McMillan, Manners, B&C, Boyds; well just about every traditional stock brand that is produced by a mainstream company and honestly the amount of time, effort and shear PITA it took to not only sand out the stock overall so it didn't have any major flaws and then to more or less do a full inlet job for my the action and finally shorten the pillars so it would fit without binding was simply obscene. I would say the stock was closer to 75% finished than a drop in and if it weren't for the fact I had spent at least 50 hours inletting stocks before hand I would never have been able to get the stock to fit as advertised. I still have slight issues with the fit of the action when torquing the action past 45ft lbs. The only reason I didn't just throw the choate stock in my barrel of old stocks and throw on the McMillan T5A I had laying around was because I wanted to try the stock out and thus I needed to put some rounds through it and use it in some training drills to make an honest assessment for my own personal records.

However a the stock has some great features such as adjustable length of pull with spacers that are extremely solid, sling mounts that are literally a connected through the stock with a solid steel rod so there is no way you will be pulling those out, a solid block that seems well machined to hold the action properly and a great palm swell and specifically for my rifle an incredible overall balance that increases maneuverability significantly even with a 26 inch barrel.

I highly doubt I will ever buy the choate stock again unless it is to be used in a project gun to teach others how to fit a stock to their rifle. Unless you have a rifle that just works well with the choate stock and you personally have held the stock and it felt right to you I would get a Boyd (knowing you will have to bed it or pay for someone to bed it) or a B&C. Although prehaps I got a lemon.

Point is from my experience the stock works but is far from ideal and there are better options that are likely more common for a reason.