Thanks for sharing Mark - a nice looking Roe. How did you enjoy the experience of hunting in the UK? A touch different from your usual I'm guessing.

Ian

Marc I would like to see some photos of your handi work with the rifle.

Nice Dall on the Alaska pages. Damn nice dall.

IanF:

yes, it is much different htan around home. I travel most of the time, so I have seen a lot of the world. i love experiencing new things. Can't wait to go back on a stalking/shooting trip to the UK. I go there some for work and got to see my old friends at RDMS back in May.

I was supposed to be in Teeside in October, but I have been home for major neck surgery. I have been in the house since October 1, and will not be able to go back to work until mid January at the earliest. That is how I found this site-have too much time on my hands. I have been heavily medicated for many months and I can't move my head, so all I can do is read, watch TV, and kill time on the net.

On a much, much sadder note, it looked like there was a 50/50 chance I would move to the UK by Christmas. I was dating a girl from Portsmouth and we were going to get married by the end of this year. She was going to move here, but it was not definite. I would have moved there if it worked out better. Unfortunately, she broke up with me some months ago and now wants nothing to do with me. I was devastated and I am still not too jolly about the whole ordeal.


KOKDYER:

Unfortuantely, that particular rifle is stuck in FInland right now. I had soem trouble with KLM on my retrun flight from a business trip/moose hunt. The rifle, along with a shotgun, is at my ex-fiance's house in Nokia, Finland (different girl, she and I are still best friends). Hopefully she will get it shipped to me next week. SHe has been in Germany and callled this morning saying she was back in FInland and would mail me the rifle. I can take some good pics of it then. I am setting up a home photo studio to take pictures of rifles I make. Here is a link to an album of rifle pictures. I just pulled a few real quiick from other hunting trip folders I had. ANd in it is a pic of my old Finnish girlfriend shooting it as well. Maybe it will give you a better idea of what it looks like. Hey, I am stuck inside and can't do anything more physical than type anyway. It may sound lame, but it gave me something to do for 15 minutes.

TO sum it up, it is:

VZ 24 action trued up and rebuilt
60cm Lilja barrel with 9" twist
lever floor plate release
Kepplinger trigger
3 position safety
barrel band front sight and single blade rear sight
barrel band sling swivel
Warne lever rings
Schmidt&Bender 3-12x50mm scope
English Walnut stcok I made from a blank in what I call my Teutonic Style
and a lot of other little things

All work done by me.

THis rifle has accompanied me to 4 continents, 5 US states, 2 Candian provinces, been over 10,000', sea level, used at -40 degrees (C or F, all the same at that point!!!) to +115 degrees F, mountians, swamp, forest, etc. Taken game from 8# fox to 450# bear.

I made the stock from a blank and inletted it full wood to metal contact for the whole action and barrel. No glass and no gaps. This is the worst way to bed a rifle to be honest, but you have to be able to do it to get in the American Custom Gunmakers Guild. I am only an associate member of the Guild, but I will get in this next year. My job has changed since I have been out and I will now travel less and be in the US a lot more, giving me more time to finish my rifles to submit for admission into the Guild. I was taught by a Guild memeber and I have been doing a little metal work for a former president of the Guild.

I am sure no one cares about any of this, but remebr, it took up 15 minutes of my day typing this, and that is a good thing. I am at my wits end here being shit in and not able to work on anything

Here is a link to an album with the gun pics. I did not want to post a lot of pictures here that did not have much to do with anything, so I linked them:

VZ 24 imagestation photoalbum

It is a 7x57 on a VZ 24 Mauser action that I built myself. I make custom guns and did all wood and metal work on this rifle. Stocked it in English walnut, making the stock from a blank.