Here are the photos of my finished rifle. LeRoy and Connie Barry of Canyon Creek Custom Gun Stocks did all the work for me. I received the photos yesterday and the rifle should ship next week.

I wanted some thing unique in the checkering so LeRoy and I talked and He and his wife did an outstanding job. It is Zulu Spear points with Lions tails. We could not get Masai spear points to look right. The checkering was 20% my idea and 80% leRoy and Connie really making it work.

The big test will be how it shoots when I get it back. LeRoy modified the recoil lugs and now the length of pull will be correct for me. I will let you all know how it works out and I will add a few more detailed photos as well.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n141/wjbarks/cid_002...8b5001365E7A5you.jpg

Very Nice

You by any chance didnt let another one being made did you ? I will arrange a good home for it if you did in Africa.
Envious !!!

That looks like an excellent piece of wood. It's not everyday that you see a new checkering pattern but it looks pretty classy. Do you mind giving a ballpark cost for that work?

Very nice and quite a unique idea!! Very talented stockbuilding and checkering team there.


Phil

Just posting 458Lottfan's photo within the thread.



-Bob F.

Hello,
Outstanding rifle plus superb stock makes for truly ultimate rifle. Yes, checkering from what I can see is well done indeed. Would consider the rifle one would pass on to his children, family members, etc., years down the road and it will continue to delight many folks for many years.

Thank you BFaucett I tried 4 times to get the photo up but could only get the link to work.

If any one wants to know the price of a stock feel free to call LeRoy at 406-546-6433. The options are many.

Will, Congrats. LeRoy sent me these pictures earlier in the week, as we are discussing what checkering pattern to use on the .375 he's building for me.

This is LeRoy's third .458 Lott RSM. He's gotta be getting good at them.

THat is an awsome looking job !!

Oh My. Simply lovely!

(please excuse a drooling old man.)

Super job... I'd be proud to carry it!

What species of walnut? Looks like an amazing piece of black walnut, but I am interested to know its type and where you got it?

333_OKH - I believe it's Bastogne Walnut. I initially contacted LeRoy and asked that he develop a better recoil system for these .458 Lott's in the Ruger 77, and selected Bastogne Walnut at the suggestion of a friend here in Vegas that's a wood broker, because of it's incredible strength. He built the gun for me, then one for Use Enough Gun and then this one for Will. They are are incredible examples of fine rifle building. I recommend him highly.

Lovely rifle. Congratulations.

Does he just do stock work or does he do rebarreling etc. Thanks for the info. I've got a 375H&H rsm that I don't like because it's too heavy, but if he could restock it and turn it into a 458 lott or win, I'd be willing to dish out a reasonable amount of cash to save my ruger.

I'm lost for words! That rifle is just beautiful!

I want to thank Bawanna, for the recommendation to have LeRoy work on my rifle!!

Thanks for all of the positive feed back from all of you. I was so pleased with the work that I could hardly stop looking at the photos.

This was new ground for me. I have never had a customized rifle before.

The checkering was a verbal discussion over the phone with no clear picture of what the end product would actually look like. I just emailed a few photos of african spear points. LeRoy and Connie took it from there.

My original plan was to simply incorporate the recoil modifications in an inexpensive stock blank. I just wanted a rugged hunting rifle. I still have that! But it is a piece of functional art now.

I had quotes from a couple of other stock makers. They all recommended Bastogne wood for heavy recoiling rifles. The grain is stronger and the wood tends to be denser and there for slightly heavier.

The only metal work I had done was, matt bluing the barreled action/scope rings and the grip cap silver work.
LeRoy suggested the silver work when I told him I wanted a rifle rugged enough to pass down to my son. It was a great idea.

When I get it in my hands and put it on paper I will up date the thread on how it shoots and I will add photos that high light the finer details.

I am now going to look at having LeRoy restock my Ruger No. 1S in .338 Win Mag.

Semper Fi and safe hunting
Will

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanna:
333_OKH - I believe it's Bastogne Walnut. I initially contacted LeRoy and asked that he develop a better recoil system for these .458 Lott's in the Ruger 77, and selected Bastogne Walnut at the suggestion of a friend here in Vegas that's a wood broker, because of it's incredible strength. He built the gun for me, then one for Use Enough Gun and then this one for Will. They are are incredible examples of fine rifle building. I recommend him highly.

I originally thought it was a perfect piece of American black walnut. Regardless, it is excellent to look at!

458 Lottfan,

That is a great looking rifle!!!

I had a 375 RSM restocked by a guy here in Aussie, in Bastogne. The rifle shot like crazy, but I sold it to a friend who made me an offer I couldn't refuse

Look forward to hearing how it shoots...........

how did it shot?

Nice wood!

John

I received the rifle from LeRoy Barry today. I wanted to put up some photos that showed more detail on the checkering work that LeRoy and Connie did. I will put it on paper this sunday and let you all know how it shoots.

Will


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Very, very nice.

Absolutely Beautiful! That is definatly a keeper!

quote:

Originally posted by 458Lottfan:
I received the rifle from LeRoy Barry today. I wanted to put up some photos that showed more detail on the checkering work that LeRoy and Connie did. I will put it on paper this sunday and let you all know how it shoots.

Will


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A beautiful stock, but why is the express sight on backwards???????????

Will, Thanks. Those are better pictures of the checkering than LeRoy sent me. That helps me on a decision with the .375. I really like the lion tails, I may have to go with something similar on that gun since it will have an engraved lion on the floorplate.

quote:

Originally posted by MacD37:

quote:

Originally posted by 458Lottfan:
I received the rifle from LeRoy Barry today. I wanted to put up some photos that showed more detail on the checkering work that LeRoy and Connie did. I will put it on paper this sunday and let you all know how it shoots.

Will


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A beautiful stock, but why is the express sight on backwards???????????

My thoughts as well!

I thought somthing looked odd with it last night. I guesss I was looking at every thing but the sights when I pulled it out of the box. Thanks for the observation. I will have to knock them out and turm them around. They must have put them in backwards after reblueing the barreled action.

Will

The rifle shoots GREAT!!! As soon as I find my cameras battery charger I will post photos of the Groups and some recovered bullets from the dirt bank.

I was playing with three different 450 grain Bullets. All groups measured Center to center fired from bags at 100 yards. The battery in my chrono was ruptured so I do not have velocity data at this time.

The bore was cleaned after each 5 shot group which probably accounts for having one flyer in each group as well as me getting settled down with the rifle.

The best loads had 80.0 grains of H4895:

450 Grain NF solid, 5 shot group with one flyer
1.010. Same group with out the one flyer .334 inches. I had to lay a bullet in to one hole to find the center of the group. This is the best group I have shot to date with this rifle. Total spread on the 4 shot group is .732 inches.

450 Grain NF soft, 5 shot group with one flyer 2.450 inches. Same group with the one flyer removed .677 inches.

450 grain Barnes TSX, 5 shot group with one flyer 2.788 inches. Same group with the flyer removed .650 inches.

The NF solids hit 1 inch lower and 1.5 inches right of the group made by the NF softs.

The TSX group shot .5 inches higher than the NF softs.

One huge difference between the TSX and the NF was I had little to no copper on my patches when cleaning after the NF bullet groups; it only took about 5 patches for the bore to be clean. With the TSX bullets the patches were solid blue, it took around 12 to 15 patches to have the bore clean enough for the next group. But even then there was some copper still in small spots in the bore.

This is only target data. I have only killed one animal with this rifle. That was a coyote at 140 yards with a factory 500 grain factory soft. And yes it did kill him. Just punched a nice clean to 3/4 inch hole through like he went through a punch press.

Any how the gun shoots great and I could not be happier. Now to start planning my first Cape Buff hunt!!

Were you shooting open sights or scoped? Have you shot it with open sights since you got it back from LeRoy?

The baggage boys in Dulles cant wait to get their hands on that one.