What exactly is "popular" wood?

[Ting]

I'm newbie at woodworking, only built some bookshelfs and racks before. I was to try to make my own rifle stock, and I'm looking for a inexpensive but sturdy material to work with. I know nicer stocks are made from walnut or exotic wood, but I'm on a budget. I've seen sites that sells stocks made from popular or walnut(popular being 1/2 the price of walnut, so what exactly is "popular" wood? Finally, where is a good place to get a piece roughly 2'X3"X6", does anyone sells wood at such small dimensions. Thanks!

[Tom_Cooney]

This sounds suspiciously like Poplar. From a wood description web site I pulled

"This East Coast and Canadian wood is very easy to get and is reasonably priced. The wood is quite bland with greenish tinted heartwood. Weight of lumber is 30-36 lbs./cb. ft. The wood is relatively soft and dents easily. It is suitable for solid colors and is close grained. It is easy to machine, nail and glue."

This is readily available from home improvement stores in the standard sizes. For stability you might want to consider gluing up several pieces to get your desired thickness as opposed to solid stock. I've built stocks for crossbows and I'd recomend using a denser/harder wood if you can fit it in your budget.

Hope this helps!

Tom