What has been said is accurate as it pertains to Maple stocks.
The two most popular sub species of Maple that are used to make stocks are hard and soft Maple. Silver and Red Maple are soft, and Sugar is hard. Sugar being the most widely used. Maple is not a particularly hard wood, and Silver is on the bottom end of the Janka hardness scale with red a few notches above it, and sugar quite a bit higher than Red.
When choosing a blank to make a stock out of, one must consider the following.... Typically, the more "figure" in the blank, the more susceptible is is to breakage. One must also consider the proper layout with grain structure flowing through the grip area, and the use of a quarter sawn blank. Most customers I talk to want the greatest amount of figure they can get for the money. It's up to me to lay the stock out properly on the blank to insure structural integrity throughout. Burl is beautiful to look at, but lacks structural integrity.
The sporter stock styles with the open grip offer less chance of breakage in the grip area over the vertical style grip stocks. I typically install a steel pin in the grip of the tactical style stocks as a precautionary measure.
I had a customer want me to make him a stock with a full burl blank. I refused to as I know that the burl offers no strength. He settled on a laminated blank that I made from Madrone burl, which is slightly stronger than Maple, but not much. I cautioned him against breakage. This was a lightweight .17 Hornet build. Long story short... The stock broke when he dropped it. The burl is brittle, and offers no strength. I pinned it back together and made it useable again.
The bottom line is, if you go to a reputable stock builder, he will properly lay out the stock to give you the best combination of structural integrity and presentation of the figure present in the blank.
