.375 Ackley Improved.

Who else would I think of upon seeing this gun?

(Rifle by Dale Goens!)

Well, looks just fine to me! I'd have no problem owning it - I even like the caliber.

Goens was always my sentimental favorite. I still have a letter on his letterhead I treasure. I sent him a note in 1967 during my (dead broke) freshman college year inquiring as to price of a custom stock. He replied that a custom stock would be $275 plus the cost of the wood, of which he a had a good supply of high grade French walnut for (I believe) $90 to $125. He pointed out that a recoil pad would be extra.

I have been searching for years for that perfect Goens rifle to buy. It's one of those things everyone has to have before they die. So far, I haven't found the combination of caliber, action, wood and somewhat reasonable price that pushed my button, but I am still looking. The G33/40 that Cabela's has had for a while comes mighty close, but I would like a little more figure and a little less dollars.

I became interested in Goens from the pictures in Gun Digest from that era. He made some of the best looking classic stocks I have ever seen. I was truly shocked years later when I purchased some older gun digests and saw some of his first efforts from the 1950's school. They would have made Roy Weatherby blush. Sometime in the early 60's, he certainly got a dose of stockmaker religion!

Dale Goens did swell work on that one. Big Nan's prettier sister rifle, she would make even Hal Waugh jealous. Masterful stock and metal work on a Blackburn-bottom-metaled Pre-64 M70. Does it get any better than that for a .375 AI?
Bravo!

Art: Make Cabelas an offer. I know for a fact they only have about $3500 in that 7x57 Goens rifle. They have had it for quite a while too. I bought that rifle from directly from Mr. Goens unscoped for $3000. He built it for himself but reckoned he was getting too old to hunt. I believe he used an engraver from Texas to do the bottom metal. I fell in love with an English shotgun and traded the 7x57. One of my biggest mistakes ever.