Painted Horse, you don't happen to work for Browning, do you?

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I'm afraid I'm going to side with Orion despite his dancing around the issue in his delicately worded post

I'm at the point in life where the price of a gun is no longer the first consideration. (Whew, finally). Still, you couldn't give me one of those clunky, ugly, old, metallurgically suspect military leftovers, no matter how much someone polished it or twiddled with it. They are just too fugly.

And, there you have it. Some like redheads, some like blondes. Some guys even like them way chunky. If someone likes antiques, no matter how ugly or disfunctional, hey, more power to 'ya. Just don't expect the rest of the world to share your perverse irrational preferences JMO, Dutch.

I've got news for you guys, a good custom Mauser is the cheapest thing you can shoot when you consider the resale value. Try to get more than you paid out of a plastic stocked push feed rifle from any manufacturer.

Mike, rubbish, you have obviously never tried to get your money out of a customized (or even sporterized) action, where you paid for the work.

If you can get 50% out of a true custom, you are lucky. There are two or three 'smiths that have a bit of a cult following where you could recover most of your mad money (it's NOT an investment, folks!), but only a few. Even for those folks, this is a TEMPORARY market anomaly, and their work won't maintain a premium for more than maybe 20 years. For the rest of the gun smiths, just about any customization is a rat hole. JMO, Dutch.

Orion 1,
I was not referring to Allen when I made that post. I was referring to anyone who did not have the ablilty to examine and judge a new product based on its merits versus it being a threat to their prized possession. If he fits that mold then so be it. I would expect people to give their views based on some experience not just their bias .

I was just flipping thru Winchester's online catalog and found it interesting how the WSM's are offered in the lower price ranges, while their custom shop guns, and supergrades are in "classic" calibers (even available in 35 Whelen ) Seems like their marketing is geared toward the assumption that the "under $1000 MSRP" crowd is receptive to the WSM's and the "over $1000 MSRP" crowd is not and prefers the "classics"

Being a guy who has been accused of one who would buy a vanilla ice cream cone in Baskin & Robbins it follows that I still am quite satisfied with cartridges like the 270 Winchester, 7X57, 30-06, and 375 H&H. Yup more or less plain ole vanilla type rounds and I also prefer Walnut and blued steel.

Over the last 40 years in the shooting world there have been a pile of new rounds that entered the manufacture's catalogs. Some are just barely hanging on, some are doing fairly well, and some are doing very well. Where the new short magnums will finally wind up in the scheme of things is still way to early to tell. I myself don't see anything that radically new enough to make me change flavors of my ice cream yet, but who knows. A 338 Winchester has crept into my safe in the last year and I suppose one of these new whiz bangers could also make its way there someday.

I prefer to let others do the testing to see if something new is worth my while looking at, and frankly I must say that so far I haven't seen anything that makes me want to do anything but sit on the porch in my rocking chair and listen further. I wont get upset if you fellas want to try out these new rounds and will happily read all you have to say about them. Please don't get upset if I choose to continue eating vanilla ice cream though.

Gunmakers exist to sell guns. Mass manufactureres have to sell lots of guns to make producing them worth the trouble. If selling a .300 WSM helps a company stay in business so they're still making rifles when you decide you want a 30-06, what's wrong with that?

Be grateful when the gunmakers sell something that people will buy.

BigIron

Browning BAR: "Made in Belgium assembled in Portugal"