I have seen pictures of this gun with black synthetic stock but cannot find anywhere to buy it. Does anyone know if any vendor in the US carries it?

Like this one? I think it's a  wood stock painted black, not synthetic. I could, however, be mistaken. You can buy that rifle directly from Umarex USA, but it may be more expensive than you could find a  new (on the net) or used M48. Then you could use black paint or the spray on truck bed liner to make your own black/tactical stock.  I've seen pictures of guns with the truck bed liner on the Chinese (yellow) Forum.  If done properly it looks cool, and adds a textured finish that should improve grip.

Regards

http://www.umarexusa.com/specials-closeouts.aspx

Thanks Nathan. Yes I contacted Umarex and sure enough it is just wood painted black. I wanted to find a way to reduce the weight of the 48. I love the power and accuracy of the gun but I simply cannot handle shouldering a 10 lb. (with scope) gun around in the field. After a couple of hours it feels like a 30lb 2x4! and what you had in accuracy you loose it by not being able to hold the gun steady out of exhaustion. I wish RWS would give us options on the same actions with less overall weight.

Just curious, would a 22.cal in a model 34 be more appropriate for hunting in woods where most of the shots will be 25 - 35 yd range. A mag rifle seems like it would be a great weapon for a sniper type of rifle where sit a wait for a shot. Maybe even using a bipod.