Just a little bragging. We've had plenty of custom rifles in the field posts, how about a custom rifles on the firing line?

My son made the inside front cover of the CMP magazine "On The Mark".

On The Mark

Location was Camp Perry Ohio and I believe he was getting ready to shoot a rapid fire sitting string. Custom built AR-15 service rifle by his dad. I know, not rust blue and fine walnut. Ben just got his Expert card and was shooting master scores at the end of the season.

Thanks for indulging a little proud papa moment.

John

Very cool! Happy for you.

I have met and hunted with John and Son. Just a great pair! The relationship means most to me and they have it.

Well done John! Looks like he'll be following in his father's footsteps. I shot the Nationals at Atterbury this summer and as you know, lots of custom rifles on the firing line there.

This was my custom across the course gun, a Remington 40X, converted to accept detachable magazines, in caliber 6mm.250 Savage. A potent combination back in the day when I was still fit enough to engage in competition.

Nice rifle. Can you tell us who did the magazine conversion and what magazines it uses?

Thanks,
John

That rifle was created about 15 years ago to take advantage of an experimental NRA rule change allowing optical sights in National Match competition. At the time, most of my work was being done by the late George Fullmer of Oakland, CA. The magazines are single stack made by a company whose name I can't recall, but who is evidently no longer in business.

I also had one of my McMillan fiberglass stocked pre WW II Model 70 Winchesters converted to use Tikka magazines by a firm in California, again whose name I can't seem to remember. This was in the days of snail mail and I have moved since then and a lot of my paper records went astray.

The NRA stopped the experiment a year earlier than originally announced, and about that time I decided to retire from competitive shooting at age 65. The fact that I could no longer assume the sitting and prone positions and fire the required ten shots with magazine change in the time allotted for rapid fire also had something to do with my decision.

That is interesting. The NRA now allows scopes of any magnification on match rifles. Not even a separate class for irons like in smallbore. Lots of expensive Warner sights collecting dust.

George Fullmer. There is a name I have not head for a while. I really used to enjoy his articles in Precision Shooting back in the 80's.

John

I have shot a little bit of highpower competition myself. A fine sport for a young person to get into. Congratulations on your son's picture.

quote:

Originally posted by gasgunner:

George Fullmer. There is a name I have not head for a while. I really used to enjoy his articles in Precision Shooting back in the 80's.

George was a unique personality, much like I imagine Harry Pope was to deal with. When I first met him he had been widowed for some time, lived alone and operated out of his basement. His passion for precision was second to none. My oldest son was living in San Francisco at the time, so I combined visits to him with visits to George. Losing both him and Precision Shooting at roughly the same time was hard to take in those pre-internet days.