Not long ago on Gunsmithing forum a European posted up a lot of pictures from a European gun show.

What I found interesting was they we all shiny and some of them could have been almost kissing cousins to some of the rifles from the Weatherby Custom Shop.

The top end of the Sauer range also has the Weatherby style.

But European cars tend to the conservative.

Most Americans on this site seem to dislike the look of the Wby styles but to me the Wby is the Chev Corvette of guns.

I saw a picture a while a go of a Hartman and Wiess rifle and it almost out shined a Weatherby

The Steyrs (spelling?) are very Wby like in the action shape, especially the bolt shroud and the older Sako Deluxes were almost copies of Wby and again especially on the bolt shroud shape.

I am just making some observation from my small corner of the world and was interested to hear what Europeans had to say.

Mike

Mike,

I have seen many European rifles in the style you mention, and personally prefer function over fashion.

It would seem to me that the highly engraved variants are mostly for the German market, where that has been a tradition, while up here in Norway, it is very rare to see such things.

Erik

That is interesting you mention the Germans because I am a Wby and have stuff coming from their custom shop and a mate of mine said to me I would get on well with the Germans because when it comes to guns neither of you have any taste

But he specifically mentioned the Germans.

Mike

I think that I was the poster !
There is abig difference between a wby and a Ferlach. The feeling af hand polished oil stock and a lack finished stock does not compare.

Cheers,

André

André

Yes, it was you. As I remember it was a spin off on wood that Dakota rated at various levels like XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX special select but it looked like fruit box wood .

I realise there will be a difference in the feel but it was just the general principle of the appearance. If some of those rifles had the front scope ring moved off the objective and onto the tube they had the general look of some of the real high dollar Wbys that have been made.

Mike

Kudos Jeff,

I like Weatherbys too, but would never compare a weatherby to a Ferlach or Suhl rifle.

That's comparing cervid tenderloins to fish sticks.

Mike375,

Interesting observations.....

I'm not a marketeer but can say from many years experience in Germany that in the past several years Blaser, Steyr, Sauer & Weatherby and any number of German small(er)(ish) niche rifle makers have great appeal here.

The average German Jaeger still has very traditional and conservative taste - especially when it comes to rifles.

Now that the dead serious bit is over - let's get on with the fun stuff. Since "Made in Germany" cars are so conservative please match the Auto manufacturer with the corresponding or apporpriate Rifle manufacturer?

Mercedes (now Chrysler/Mercedes)

BMW

Audi

Volkswagen

UniMog




Cheers - Mate,

Gerry

quote:

Now that the dead serious bit is over - let's get on with the fun stuff. Since "Made in Germany" cars are so conservative please match the Auto manufacturer with the corresponding or apporpriate Rifle manufacturer?

Gerry

Well, you asked for it Blaser R-93 must be same as Trabant during the DDR era. Expensive junk and customer had to wait for a very long time

Gerry you can't be German Where on earth is Mauser in this comparison Mauser is simply the best

Cheers
/JOHAN

Here is a Sig Blaser selling for US$18K:



Here is a Unimog selling for US$20K:



Any guess which one I would buy?

If it was me I'd cough up the extra 2k & get the Unimog-tough looking rig. I can picture my M70 .375 H bomb in the rear window...Euro red -neck truck?

I can't remember where or when I read it, but was said Roy Weatherby fasioned his gun stocks after the European ones. Not positive though, maybe my gears are a bit rusty.

-Ron

Grizzly,

I have been told that the Mde in Germany Wby had the flashy wood go to European rifles and the plain wood to America.

I think part of the appeal in the flashy style Wby rifle, especially the Crown Customs, is that the shooter's non shooting friends are very impressed by them.

I don't know why Wby discontinued the old Wby Guides as everyone seemed to love them. One of the shooters that goes to our range has a 300 Wby with the birdseye maple stock and fish scale checkering and of course the inlays. The rifle is a real crowd puller.

Mike

Mike375,

Sounds like your up on your Weatherby history-thanks for the info.

Birdseye wood & fish scale checkering with all that style to boot, sounds groovy to me.

I like the classic american lines on stocks, but boy would I like an Anschutz miester grade model 1710. Skip line checkering, roll over comb schnabel forend and that stylized grip....Oh Yeah, .22 heaven.

-Ron

All great responses.....

JOHANN

No I'm not German, you can tell because in the Fatherland "humor is no laughing matter....."

Please do your research and get back to us soonest on who owns what part of the business, SIG.....Blaser.....Mauser.....? Where does Mauser fit in? If I recall correctly Mauser was a SIG aquisition.....and their "new" Mauser 03 reflects what New-Age thinking.....?



Blaser is overcomplicated(?), do you have trouble tying your shoe laces or something.....or is it the over-complicated part about pushing the cocking button forward!


The best Trabant story was the proud DDR owner who showed me how he had taken the clear plastic hull of a Bic ball point pen and threaded the end to fit in his Trabant's steering column. He had made it into his turn signal lever, priceless.....


500grains,

Yellow isn't my favorite auto color but I'm betting even money that both you & I wouldn't be worried much about getting stuck in the local terrain when out & about on our hunting property!


Grizz-One!

I'm with ya; for $1,00.00 each we can easily turn that stinkingly conservative UniMog into a real Euro Red-Neck Truck (Gypsy Caravan?). for starters go to K-Mart and get us an Easy Rider gun-rack for it, we need space for two .375 rimfires, a spirit level and a fishing rod. I really like the readily acessable handle on the left front so we can work ourselves around the cab after leaving Billy-Bob's roadside...... looks like someone in the R&D department has got their thinking cap on!

Anschutz Meister Grade 1710 - now here's a guy with taste.......!

Have fun guys,

Cheers,

Gerry

There are similarities I think with the cars and the guns.

Americans and Australians I think are more into hotting up cars and "accurising" guns whereas European cars and guns tend to be better setup for "out of the box performance"

The rifles such as the Sauer and Blaser are more technology based than American guns and the same applies to the cars.

I would never buy a Sauer or Blaser because I always have rebarreling in my mind and the though of bolts locking directly into the barrels removes a lot of freedom.

You can go and spend a fortune at Weatherby if you have a bigenough cheque book but rebarreling to match barrels and different calibres is the same as a Rem 700.

By the way I have a European car, a BMW Z3 which is now just over 3 years old and I am receiving pressure from the little woman for the upgrade to tho the Z4. But for myself I have the Australia General Motors product with the big V8.

Mike

There is in fact or was at least a factory gun holder for the Unimog. The only fitting rifle is however the H&k G3...

DUK,

Brilliant!

As much as the G3 weighs you need to carry it in a vehicle!

Gerry

Gerry

Mauser 98 are not made by one company.... The 03 is to my mind not a mauser 1898 is the real thing. SIG might own the brand but Golmatic makes the actions

Overcomplicated? If strip down, Mauser 98, Remington 700, Winchester pre 64 and Blaser R93. You will see... Blaser R-93 is full of small crap

Cheers
/ JOHAN

Most of the Johanssen bolt action rifles I have seen in African calibers are quite classic in taste, beautiful wood, hand rubbed oil finish. Most of the Belgian bolt action rifles from Dumoulin and/or FN are along the same lines. These are attractive rifles to both European and American tastes in general and the intent is probably to reflect the lines of the British built rifles of Westley Richards and Rigby from the beginning of the century. When Blaser screws on a mass produced sideplate with sculptured engraving in a style appropriate to a Kiplauf on one of their straight pull actions with the wooden bolt knob it makes me wonder just who is kidding whom. It's not only ugly, it's ridiculous.

quote:

Originally posted by Gerry:

As much as the G3 weighs you need to carry it in a vehicle!

Or by a dumb Norwegian soldier...

Wink,

Our taste in some rifles obviously meld - I was just admiring Johanssen's wares at the Dortmund Hunt/Fish Show, nice pieces, especially since there are left-hand options and of course, FN's classic lines appeal globally.

For both you and JOHANN I've copied Blaser's contact link below so you can inform THEM (as opposed to us) of your vehement distaste of their product line. Personally, I don't give a flying s**t what your opinion on Blaser is.....ask Saeed for a Puke on Blaser Topic line on AR and you can talk among yourselves all day long about your Blaser dislikes. As for the wooden bolt knob?

mailto:contact@blaser.de





Eric D,

Good funny.....now the Swedes can beat me up!

"Ten thosand Swedes ran through the weeds chased by one Norwegian.....the Norske fellow was obviously NOT carrying a G3!



Cheers,

Gerry

quote:

"Ten thosand Swedes ran through the weeds chased by one Norwegian.....the Norske fellow was obviously NOT carrying a G3!

I'm guessing that the knowledge amongst all Swedes that an unarmed Norwgian soldier can kick their asses would be enough to scare them!

The G3 is by the way still used in many places around the world, and although heavy, it functions very well in tough conditions. I would however prefer a C8.

Here's a picture from northen Kenya, where the police and soldiers still use the G3:

Nice line from the white guys muzzle to the black guys toes!

Erik,

Great photo....

Yes, the G3 can be found in many places. I've some expereince with the G3, the regular ole vanilla-flavored version, the folding stock version, which is only a little less heavy and the sniper version, which is very accurate but should be issued with it's own golf cart to facilitate transportation!


I am a dyed-in-the-wool M-16 man.....but I digress.....

Cheers,

Gerry

quote:

Originally posted by 1894mk2:
Nice line from the white guys muzzle to the black guys toes!

As I was the white guy holding the G3, I can assure you that flat pictures can be deceiving! The muzzle was not in fact pointing at his toes, but about 30-40 cm infront of his toes.

Gerry,
In fact, I don't dislike the Blaser line of rifles per se. I even shot one once and found that the trigger was nice and you can reload quickly. I have no problem with the concept or the engineering. Travelling with a Blaser is quite convenient with the barrel disassembly feature. It has a lot going for it. I was talking about aesthetics or perhaps it would be better to say my taste in the appearance of rifles. I like a form-follows-function philosphy in general and that is where Blaser manages to break new ground. The wooden bolt knobs (I'm not kidding, it's an option), the mass produced sideplate frescos (which aren't that cheap), seem to be avalable only from Blaser. Anybody converted their Glock lately to put pearl grip panels on it?

Gerry

Stepped on your toes Everyone has right to their own opinion If you want one, that is fine with me

I'm no blaser owner anymore

Cheers
/ JOHAN

ErikD,

Apologies. The black guy appears to be holding an FN?

Was it a case of you requesting the G3?

I would agree with Wink that the Blaser is a matter of taste. I owned a Blaser in 375H&H, and after a few years of use (somewhere around 25 moose, and various game in africa) I sold it. It had never malfunctioned, but I sold it rather as matter of personal taste. I bought a Mag. Mauser instead.

1894mk2,

The front black guy is as you mentioned holding an FN. We found them to be pretty common in Kenya too beside the G3. When travelling from Moyale on the Ethiopian border down via Mado Gashi and then on towards Mt. Kenya, the majority of personell had G3s, and I presume they are slowly fasing out the FN. As for "requesting" the G3, it wasn't mine, but rather the black guys in the backround. We just took the picture for fun, as I carried a G3 more kilometers than I would want to remember in the past back in Norway! The two of them were assigned to us thru an area with lots of banditry and weekly shootouts. They were quite nervous actually. One was on the roofrack and the other in the front passenger seat. This unfortunatly forced my wife to sit on the cubby box betweent the front seats (we had no back seats) and it was quite tight for her even though she's not very tall! It was the only strech thru 65000 km of africa where we were forced to bring security with us. Of course, in some of the other, far worse places in north africa, you aren't offered soldiers to come along "to protect you". So even if you wanted them, you wouldn't get any!