I'm talking about one with m-70 type action or similar with probably mid-grade wood.

Also approximately how much for say a model 70 etc. to have a gunsmith make completely reliable for dangerous game?

Please please please be more specific.

This question is akin to asking:

"What is the cheapest price on a sports car, with uni-body construction and a nice paint job.
And also how much for a mechanic to make it suitable for racing?

-Spencer

Mod 70 in 375 H&H, look for a good specimen used. Mine is excellent, prompted my gunsmith to comment something like "must have been farmed out to somebody else". I paid 650 with two boxes of shells, nice leather sling and some minor cosmetic damage to the sling swivel (which I had fixed bringing total investment to around 750).

Red

I agree with above post. The "Completely Reliable" is the key part. That statement covers a lot of ground. Of course that is the part that seperates a DGR from an average hunting rifle. If it fails to feed/shoot/eject/whatever at a critical piece of time, someone in your vicinity may just get their ticket punched to the next world. My advice is to get a good used rifle in 375 and have your gunsmith look it over before you buy. Then put 1000 rounds through it. Dry fire it 3000 times. Then you will have some ideas about whether it will function everytime or just almost every time. In DG hunting therein lies the difference. If it is just, "almost every time", You do not have a DGR. Good gunsmiths that have built lots of DGR can on occasion massage the "almost" out of it for more or less money. MHO

read my recent post on the very thing

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tp.../458103403#458103403

jeffe

I might suggest the following new barrelled action--great design, based partially on the M70 but better (in my opinion.)

Less than $800. $120 for hot blue and then stock it, should be good to go for less than $1300.

I did one for even less by stocking and bluing my self.


http://www.montanarifleman.com/barreled_actions.htm

I doubt that this rifle will ever see Africa even once the way things seem to be going.
I just want it mainly to hunt around here with and then just in case someday I go to Africa I will already be familar with it

i'm thinking about just getting a LH model 70 375 H&H and then if I want a different caliber I will just rebarrel it

quote:

Originally posted by Jarrod:
I doubt that this rifle will ever see Africa even once the way things seem to be going.
I just want it mainly to hunt around here with and then just in case someday I go to Africa I will already be familar with it

Jarrod,
okay man.. you know, if you are left handed, you have less than 11% of new guns to choose from. Would be nice to have known this in the first post
jeffe

Jarrod, I think you are on the right track. The 375, as Elmer said,"makes a fair deer rifle". I have used mine that way for years now. It has seen Africa now. Yours may someday too. Don 't let go of your dreams. Dreams sometimes come true. D

anyone with any experience with wff hein? their tracker in 375 seens pretty reasonable.thanks

On ANY rifle you build, the barrel is the MOST important part of that rifle, thus I would use a Lother Walther myself and its one to the most expensive...You can get real good wood at a cheap price, it just won't have a lot of flash, but a plain piece of French, Turkish or English is not expensive and much of it is hard as woodpecker lips and finishes up into a beatiful gun...

I have a theory the pretty wood many times takes the eye of the inexperienced and they miss the workmanship, fit, finish and detail work that goes into a custom stock...Nothing on a custome rifle should capture the eye, its the overall appearence that counts...balance...

The main cause of mechanical failure is improper assembly. A rifle is a mechanical device and the path of lest resistance is to buy the best design and have it tweaked by someone.

If I did not have the 375's that I do I would buy a new SS M70 Classic in 375 H&H and have the extractor and stock replaced with a composite like McMillian makes. Have the safety slicked and timed so as not to jam like Atchesons did. The trigger would need work too but keep the orginal components except for a new trigger spring.

I would have the reciever drilled and tapped for 8-40 base screw holes also. I would keep the orginal barrel. Not sure on the sights but I would use QD rings and have a back up scope available.

Some would add a drop box magazine. I would have the smith do what has to be done to get three down when restocking.

This rust resistant rifle would be useful for both AK and anywhere else.

I would estimate $600 for the stock and maybe $500 more for the tweaking. If it shot 1.5 moa I would call it good. So thats maybe $700 for the new gun for a total of $1800 sans scopes.

Some things to do to a model 70:

polish the raceways

open up the receiver where the extractor slides through because they sometimes bind

remove the barrel, widen extractor cut because they are often too tight, radius the edges of the cut so they are not sharp

while the barrel is off, polish the ramp and remove all sharp corners on the ramp

polish the rails, including their underside

radius the chamber edge to remove sharps that can hang up a case mouth

replace extractor with a spring steel one

polish bolt body

replace the magazine box and bottom metal with an extra deep one from Sunny Hill or Blackburn

New stock that is deep enough for the new mag box

Throw away the trash factory sights and get NECG Masterpiece sights.

Free float barrel and glass bed.

Lighten trigger to 2.5 pounds.

Smooth safety.

Drill receiver holes to 8-40.

Install Talley bases and lock-tite in place.