I am a new member, and want to say what a forum, and thank you for the welcome. I have a Mauser rifle in 333 OKH made by CM O'neil with a lyman alaskan scope on it. It is a beautful rifle. The stock is maple I believe.

I took some photos of it while I had it apart for cleaning. if anyone has any info on CM O'Neil or his rifles, I would appreciate it.
Thank you, Bill

Welcome willy30,that stock is, Wow!

Thank you crabyx78. The stock is one of those that you can look at all day,and it will talk to you. it has a few hunting rubs and marks. To be expected for how old it is, and I will leave them be. They are part of its history.

That's a very pretty piece of shell flame maple and the stock style is reminiscent of the "other" gun stock company from Warsaw Missouri.....Bishop!

Tell us more about the barreled action.

It is a FN action with the date 1951 on right side. The bolt handle, safety lever, and cocking piece are marked with the last two digits of the serial#. The stock is marked in two places on the inside with "CM ONEIL". The stock is hand inlayed by chisel, with no signs of machine work. Thanks Bill

Welcome to AR willy. Nice original rifle. I think there was a post about the OKH rifles here recently, have to check. You could also read some of Elmer Keith's books, as you probably know, OKH stands for O'Neil, Keith, Haskins.

Congratualrions on a fine rifle.

CHeers, Chris

The 333 OKH was developed by Charles O'Neil, Elmer Keith, and Don Hopkins in 1945. It is the 30-06 case necked up to accept .333 inch diameter bullets. It would be nice to see more pictures of that rifle when you have it all back together. A real piece of history.

I have found only one photo of Charlie O'Neil, in a old issue of the Handloader magazine-1966.
He died in 1963, and I have not found much in print on him. I know Elmer, hopkins,and he developed the 333 OKH. Charlie also built the rifle Keith took to africa in 1957. I know Charlie was in Minnesota, as a police officer, before he moved to Montana, and started building rifles. Does anyone have any photos of him. Is there any info in Keith's book "Rifles for Large Game 1946" I have not located a copy yet. Thanks, Bill

That ios one beautiful rifle you have, in a great old chambering.
Your stock is exceptional!!

Very nice! The 333OKH is what led to my first serious big game rifle, my 338-06. Never regretted the project. The rifle has been a great game getter.

I found an old thread on the forum from 2006 from Sagi, with a 333 OKH rifle. Thanks Rocdoc for the tip.

The two rifles look very similiar in build, when you look at the stock style, the actions, and the safety on the left side.

it looks like Charlie O'Neil liked to build them with a 25" heavy contour barrel.

I found some photos of elmer keith with his rifle in Africa 1957. His rifle looks about the same build. not very clear photos though.

Bill

What a beautiful find! How did you come across it?

quote:

Originally posted by willy30:
I have found only one photo of Charlie O'Neil, in a old issue of the Handloader magazine-1966.
He died in 1963, and I have not found much in print on him. I know Elmer, hopkins,and he developed the 333 OKH. Charlie also built the rifle Keith took to africa in 1957. I know Charlie was in Minnesota, as a police officer, before he moved to Montana, and started building rifles. Does anyone have any photos of him. Is there any info in Keith's book "Rifles for Large Game 1946" I have not located a copy yet. Thanks, Bill

Nope , he is talked about and quoted a lot but no pictures of him in Rifles for Large game.
Here is a Quote by Keith on O'Neil "Charley O'Neil will not checker a stock. He believes that checkering has no place on a fine rifle stock and prefers the beauty of the grain to any checkering"

Was this from Elmer, in his book, "Rifles for Large Game 1946" I havent got a copy yet, Im dying to read it. I have read a few mag articles from Elmer about Charlie, and they crack me up. 1966 G&A, Elmer was talking about trigger time. "I have watched many hunters I was guiding aim and squeeze while I held my my breath until I nearly suffocated, waiting for them to shoot. Charley O'Neil was the worst offender I ever guided in this respect and he would aim for minutes on end before shooting. he was very deadly when he did shoot, but he took so much time." I would have loved to be within earshot of those two, when this was going on. Thank you, Malloy805, for looking in the book for info.

Keiths first rifle in .333OKH was a 1917 Springfield, where O`neil had done a simpel rebarreling job. In one of keiths book, he mentions that he took that rifle for a tour in fall of 1939. Official info states the .333OKH was developed in 1945, but O`neil had actually made it in 1939. I read this in a Gun Digest from the 60`s.

Elmer Keith makes no mention of O'Neil or the OKH cartridges in his 1936 book"Big Game Rifles and Cartridges. 1939 sounds reasonable because in Rifles for Large Game, published in 1946,the .333OKH had been used through out the west and Alaska

I put the rifle back together today. its ready for another Elk season.