I've always been a "blued steel and walnut" man. In fact, that's all that was available during my younger years. So my rifle is a Model 70 blued & wood, and my PD duty pistol is a Browning Hi Power of similar materials. But since I also instruct other officers who carry Glocks, I have a Glock 19.

Just before my recent RSA trip the Browning had some ejection failures and I didn't have time to resolve the issue, so I carried the Glock.

The weather during my hunt was perfect and the Model 70 was fine. But just before that we had the rifle in safe storage while we spent some time in a tent camp. It rained for three days and I never got close to being dry during that time. The Glock received no maintanance at all and was in perfect shape, the Browning and Winchester would have needed frequent drying and oiling to survive. Made me wonder if I should start switching over to polymer and rustproof guns.

The traditional guns are beautiful, but using them makes me think that I should start doing everything the traditional way- no malaria pills or bug repellant, no sunscreen, toss out the GPS, etc. Of course I'm kidding about that part, but you can understand my quandry.

Let's hear some opinions on this. How many of you stay with the "old fashioned" guns and get good service & enjoyment from them, how may have gone the modern route and like it that way?

I also have that problem, the answer is clear,get BOTH the pretty classic with walnut and deep bluing,then get the stainless wet gun. In your favorite calibers of course. happy hunting

I have not been to africa, but have had problems with blued guns before get rusted while hunting. Woke up one morening to see my pistol with a film of rust starting because of the condensation in the tent. Does this mean I should get a stainless gun, probably, just to have both. :-) But in seriousness, there are BLUE finishes (blue/black) that are not going to give you a hassle. and rust bluing is reported to be very durable. Many of the guns in africa have been there for decades and still have not rusted up.

Now, stainless, at least the brushed, looks good in contract to a dark stock, that is enough reason to get it there!.

Red

Gearhead, I have several "pretty" guns that are buled steel and walnut and they a great for Africa where the weather is usually pretty good. When I used these guns in Alaska where it rained the entired trip the wood soaked up a ton of water and the metal rusted. I now have several bad weather guns that have synthetic stocks and teflon finishes. These thing are great in the rain, but certainly don't have that "pretty" look. IMO you need to have a "pretty" traditional gun and a foul weather gun as well.

Gearheadjim,

I have been to africa once, but have done lots of other hunting. I'm of the opinion there are two types of wet weather guns, one when its wet and rains the other is coastal hunt around salt water and prefer SS around salt water. I have done a fair amount of Alaska Coastal hunting around salt water. SS is the easiest way to go, but a good blued gun will do fine for the most part. I've hunted from Zodiac rafts in Prince Willian sound and had SS rifles underwater in the bottom of a raft when the weather got bad, they turned orange with rust. I'm of the opinion the surface rust is not that big a deal, it will clean up for the most part on SS or blued. Triggers etc can be a big problem on saltwater hunts, most people worry about the outside when they should be worrying about the inside.

Its not traditional, but I would have not problem building a SS gun in Walnut for anykind of weather with exception to coastal hunts. I'm also of the opinon haveing a wet weather gun and blued wood gun is a very good excuse to build another rifle. Blued guns and wood stocks were used for many years before SS and Syn stocks came along and they all work with the right care.

If I do a salt water boat hunt of any kind, I will not take anything but a Syn stocked SS gun, just feel more comfortable.

In the Zambezi delta you don't need any rain to have your guns begin to rust. The very air is so damp that it is just good policy to give your rifles a good rubdown with paste wax (you know, the kind serious housewive used to use daily on their hardwood floors?) before you leave. Then you can take if off, if you wish, with a bit of Gun Cleaner and rub down with silicone cloth before you put them back into the safe. That being said, I have a Traditional (boy, is it traditional!) African battery and an all-weather fiberglass and Teflon-coated .375 for the Arctic. I am thinking of carving a pretty walnut stock for the Arctigun.

Gearhead -
I have the exact same question and quandry. I am a practical traditionalist. I like blue and walnut, but fully understand stainless and plastic. I think I am going to do both as I have 2 sons that will go in 2005 on a buff hunt with me. My sons do not care, but I like to look good- whatever good is.

I am an all walnut and blue steel man too, but I killed more game with a plastic stocked rifle than any other.
My problem is that it always goes wrong when I try to hunt with two rifles, the black widow Sako and my faithful double rifle. Now my motto is never have the choice between two rifle when you are in the field.

Jim: The wood and blue steel guns will last forever if you take care of them. My first rifle, a 308 my dad bought for me 38 years ago, which I still have and use in the wet Pacific Northwest, is as good as the day I got it. It's been taken care of; dried after it got wet and oiled before storing for a long time. In my "old age", I'm starting to favor synthetic just because I'm too lazy to take care of them like I used to.
Gary T.

I have a s/s rifle and it's a love hate relationship. I like the easy care, but wish I had that traditional look. I think for my 375 I'm going to go the ol' fashion way. I think a nice stainless steal and laminate is the best comprimise.

Sevens

Everyone has the same quandry
what you are asking is beauty or function,its that simple.
For myself in a rifle in hunts for which I spent more than I should,there is no question: I dont need my gear to fail,some people call that:cant afford it to fail.
But the qustion needs to be answered,its the same for a car,a ? woman ... Life is full of compromises
sheephunter

I prefer to hunt with fiberglass-stocked rifles with blued metalwork, and I prefer scopes to open sights. If that doesn't fit someone's sensibilities in terms of "tradition", too blinking bad.......

AD

Sheephunter,

you pose an interesting question. I think the best approach is a s/s rifle even though I prefer the wood, but there is nothing stopping you from buying two rifles, one blued/wood and one s/s. As for cars, there like rifles, I have multiple cars for multiple uses. The SUV is for function, the sports cars are for fun and looks, and the sedan is to drive the family to dinner. As for women, I'd have to go with beauty.

Sevens

I'm currently building my hunting rifles with two stocks. I can take care of blued steel in damp conditions but the stocks are another matter. At home the barreled actions sit in (usually) very fancy walnut. When they go hunting I install them in a McMillan stock. They never warp on me and they can survive a scabbard or even a SAA airline.

I like nice thin shelled walnut wood and rust blued steel, it worked for my great grandad, my grandad, my dad and me..You will never see a rifle in my gun cabinet that looks like a kitchen utensil or an old car bumper...

And yes, I like iron sights about as well as a scope up to about 150 yards, I prefer the receiver sight then the shallow V, but its close as to which... beyond that range, I like a low power fixed or varible scope...My favorite all around scope is a 1.5x5 or 1x4 Leupold in varibles and a 3X in fixed scopes...If I had to hunt with iron sights the rest of my life it would not be earth shaking to me....

I have nothing against SS and plastic stocks as far as someone else using them, they are practical and the certainly work.. but they are cold, void of feel, have no warmth and they are totally sterile IMO.

I have and hunt with both stainless & synthetic, and blued & walnut rifles- I prefer the "ugly" guns for rougher weather but I just had to take a "pretty" gun to Africa where it did fine (it was quite dry and keeping the dust out of the moving parts was the only challenge.) I think a decent compromise, however, would be a gun finished in one of the black rust-resistant finishes (teflon, etc.) stocked in a laminate. This configuration would look more traditional than the black & stainless, and probably afford similar resistance to corrosion.

It's like women. I'd rather start with a beautiful one and risk she might show a few signs of wear after years of hard use than to go straight for butt ugly figuring it couldn't get any worse

Jeff

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder guys.A wiser man than me said that.I am probably a bit younger than most of you , having never met or hunted with Pres.Roosevelt, and I find a well made stainless gun with a contrasting black synthetic stock to look rather nice.Not traditional , but nice all the same.
eyedoc

I have used my custom wood and blued rifles all over the world without any serious incidents that couldn't be quickly corrected...If one is too lazy to wipe off a gun and keep the wood and metal waxed, then perhaps the synthetics are better...

On the other hand I have seen the synthetic stocks twist in car trunks, back windows, by the tent stove, on a hot trunk hood, and under a light bulb used to cure a glass bedding job...I have seen laminate warp as a result of improper finishing and I have seen SS rust from neglect...

I know that bead blasted blue thats so popular today rust like hell as it has little pits that hold water, a high polish, though not desirable to me, is hard to rust...I like the old world slow rust blue that lasts forever and shows a lot of resistence to rust, I guess because it is rust.....

A rifle, at least to me, is a thing of beauty, not a tool like a wrench or hammer, I certainly do not pamper one, but I do use it and most of mine show a lot of wear, none show abuse.

If I lived in the far North where it was wet and cold year around, then I would probably get me a SS rifle and a plastic stocks, but I don't and my guns work well enough in our Idaho blizzards!

I agree with Ray. A little bit of oil, wax and care will keep a blued/woodstocked gun working without problems in wet/harsh conditions. It's worked "forever" for most people here in cold/wet Norway, so I can't see why it shouldn't nowadays. SS rifles need care too, so it's not like you're saving lots of time going with them IMO. I do see the benifit of SS in saltwater conditions like seal hunting though. But not for "normal" hunting.

Erik D.