Posting this beauty for Phill. Phill please give us the info on this one.

Very nice. Simple and elegant. I really like that.

Terry

Here goes. Its a Granite Mountian standard magnum barrelled action chambered for 338 Win. Mag. The photo of the front sight shows it is integrally milled as is the rear sight and sling stud. The blank is turkish walnut.
Thie bottom pic is my 375 H&H built on a LH Fred Wells action and engraved by Rachel Wells. I put that pic in to show the style of stock the 338 will be.and also to show off.The Smith is Dennis Olson of Plains Mt.

Phil

What, if any, are the differences between the Granite Mountain action and the Fred Wells action?

22WRF
The Wells is a magnum length and the GM pictured is a "standard magnum" which I think is one eighth in. or so shorter, also doesn't have the drop magazine. GM does have magnum length actions ofcourse. but I don't need one for a 338 as its just extra weight. The Fred Wells is basically one of a kind so to speak. This action was not a CNC job, it was totally milled by Fred's hand before CNC was available.Fred passed away a year or so ago so there won't be any more either. His wife Rachel is still alive and still engraving I think.
Later sometime I will put a bunch of pics of the Wells gun on. The pic shown is not very good, the wood is much nicer than this picture shows . It is really much darker. I also have some close ups of her engraving and front sight which replicates the vintage Holland and Holland sight.

Who did the barrel? It looks great.

Hi Cas 11
The barrel on the 375 is actually a factory CZ barrel.It has a talley barrel band filed thin and as I said a custom replica of the old vintage Holland and Holland front sight. I really like CZ barrels. I have never had one that wasn't accurate and I like the integral milled english base and the general profile.They are a good example of not having to be expensive to be good. I had a Heymn custom barrel by Ralf Martini on it originally but changed it to the CZ and it shoots just as good and looks better I think.I think I got the CZ barrel from Wayne at AHR as a new take off for the outrageous price of $85. The Heymn barrel was over $600 so go go figure.
If your referring to the GM barrel, it is from a Krieger blank and Granite Mountian mills in the integral front sight, base and sling stud. This is needless to say considerably more expensive than the CZ barrel but in truth I doubt it shoots any better.

quote:

Originally posted by phill pittman:
22WRF
The Wells is a magnum length and the GM pictured is a "standard magnum" which I think is one eighth in. or so shorter, also doesn't have the drop magazine. GM does have magnum length actions ofcourse. but I don't need one for a 338 as its just extra weight. The Fred Wells is basically one of a kind so to speak. This action was not a CNC job, it was totally milled by Fred's hand before CNC was available.Fred passed away a year or so ago so there won't be any more either. His wife Rachel is still alive and still engraving I think.
Later sometime I will put a bunch of pics of the Wells gun on. The pic shown is not very good, the wood is much nicer than this picture shows . It is really much darker. I also have some close ups of her engraving and front sight which replicates the vintage Holland and Holland sight.

Yes, I felt lucky to meet Rachel at the ACGG show this past February. She was there showing some of her engraving work, and also selling her engraving text book. She had two of her sons there as well. A very nice lady. Took the time to talk with me for at least a half an hour. I felt so grateful that I bought a copy of her book.

I asked the question because I believe that the owner of GMA spent a lot of time with Mr. Wells before he passed on, which would lead me to believe that the GMA action is pretty darn close in design to that of the Wells action.

Regardless, the metalwork on both of your rifles is just spectacular, especially that drop box magazine/trigger guard on the Wells action.

VERY nice ....gives me more ideas. I can't wait to see it when it is done

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 22WRF:


"Yes, I felt lucky to meet Rachel at the ACGG show this past February".

Gosh, I missed that one, I went to the one in January in Reno instead.

Jim is correct. The show was in January.

Finally! Most gunsmiths seem to put the bolt on the wrong side. Good to see it done correctly.
Gorgeous rifle.

22wrf

You are correct about the relationship of the owner of GMA and Fred. I talked to Fred when I first got the gun and he verified that Mike Roden, the owner of GMA, pretty much learned everything from him and there is little difference between the two actions. I bought this rifle several years ago from Champlin Firearms in Enid Ok. It had a big clubby stock and was a 300 win mag.A real light caliber for such an action. I basically just used the action.I traded another rifle to Mike for the 338 barrelled action. He is a real good guy to deal with if your considering a project.

Beautiful! Phill, you are a lucky guy.

Perfection.

I thought that first barrel looked like one of Mike's. He does a great job on those integral barrels.

You are absolutely right about Granite Mountain being great to work with. They are helpful, knowledgeable, and deliver when they say they will.

Fred Wells would make beautiful, functional rifles from the ground up, including the actions, barrels and stocks. Rachel is an active member of the engravers guild. Rumor has it that the sons are building a few custom actions now also. Wells Sport Store is alive and hopefuly well in Prescott, AZ.

I have one of the last rifles Fred made, and unlike most it was made for himself. In typical Fred fashion, it is built on a Magnum Mauser action, has huge exaggerated bridges/bases, it's in a Mannlicher stock with faux Schnabel, sports a full 26" barrel, and is chambered for his 35 Wells; a 378 Weatherby necked down to 35 caliber. In talking to Empire at the DSC 2 years ago, the rep I talked to knew the rifle, as he had cut his hand filing the action while working under Fred's tutelage! Small world. Rachael did all the engraving, pewter nosepiece, bridges, etc. She said that Fred passed on before the final completion of the rifle, and she and the sons finished it up. Interesting piece. Pix are on the www.griffinhowe.com website, where I have it on consignment, but it may already be spoken for.

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:
I have one of the last rifles Fred made, and unlike most it was made for himself. In typical Fred fashion, it is built on a Magnum Mauser action, has huge exaggerated bridges/bases, it's in a Mannlicher stock with faux Schnabel, sports a full 26" barrel, and is chambered for his 35 Wells; a 378 Weatherby necked down to 35 caliber. In talking to Empire at the DSC 2 years ago, the rep I talked to knew the rifle, as he had cut his hand filing the action while working under Fred's tutelage! Small world. Rachael did all the engraving, pewter nosepiece, bridges, etc. She said that Fred passed on before the final completion of the rifle, and she and the sons finished it up. Interesting piece. Pix are on the www.griffinhowe.com website, where I have it on consignment, but it may already be spoken for.

Very nice Biebs. I was looking at that gun a few weeks ago, I did not realize it was yours.

JC

It is something of an odd one, but that was Fred! I guess he decided to put everything he liked in rifles all into one rifle, whether the resulting asthetics were pleasing to anyone but him or not. One of these days I'll have to get RCBS to make me up a set of dies and see what it will do.

Looks great....really like the integral front sight.

since there seems to be interest in Fred's work I'll see if I can get Allen to post some more pics of my 375.