It’s been over 5 years ago since my dear friend Dick Wright passed. There were 6 of us that formed a small but tight group of gun lovers in Mid-Michigan (two now remain). Dick wrote for Precision shooting and Accurate rifle magazines and contributed here often, but he also built a few very special rifles. I want to tell you about one that I’m now the “caretaker” of. If my memories’ correct, this one was completed in the early 80’s. We had found a stash of Mexican Mauser actions in lovely shape a few years earlier and one of us bought about 6 or 8 from a fellow by the name of Ben Meeks.

We loved these actions for a myriad of reasons. They were intermediate length and as such were perfect for cartridges like the 7X57 allowing longer bullets to be seated out flush with the shoulder without encroaching on case capacity nor requiring metal removal from the feed ramp. They have all the attributes of other small ring 98 Mausers but their thumb slots were shallower and as such, didn’t need a cut in the LHS of the stock. They also had a much stiffer rear tang than more conventional 98’s which allowed for some artistry in shaping.

We were off to the races with the first 3 being 7mm Mausers. The fourth however was to be Dick’s "smaller" Michigan Deer rifle as he was tired of being pounded by his 358 Winchester pre 64 Model 70 custom. He chose the 6mm Remington with the idea of using an older 85 grain Nosler Partitions (a bullet that is flat-out great on game in 6mm). He and I consumed much of my Scotch in the never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way, i.e., barrel length, contour, throating, metalwork and wood choice. Our friend, Chuck Grace, had just bought a stick of Don Allen’s French and we had to have one for this project as well. So, armed with these decisions being made, off went the action to Herman Waldron in Pomeroy Washington.

While the metal-work was underway, the Teyssier blank was sent to Sterling Davenport for precarving as he left ample wood for personalized stock lines and allowed for precision inletting. The goal was to end up with a trim, light 22” sporter and when both halves were back, Dick did an incredible job as the inletting was flawless and the shaping superb. My only regret is that I never said such to him, a terrible mistake that can’t be undone …

Dick spent an entire winter on this and on the finishing using Flecto Varathane plastic oil and sealer that Jerry Fisher had recommended (before he found out about unintended consequences with this product). It turned out so very well, the pores fully filled, glass smooth and with just the right amount of sheen. The stock was checkered by Ted Nicklas of Goodrich Michigan who was our version of Gary Goudy and I had the pleasure of doing the checkering layout, which was a Fleur de Lies pattern but with Fleur’s about 7/8 the size of more conventional ones.

Golly, I loved that rifle. It weighed under 7 ¾ pounds scoped with a Leupold fixed 6 by 36mm in Lenard Brownell rings and bases (also fitted by Herman). If you knew Dick, you knew that come April 15th timeframe, there was a gun sale coming up and Kim Stemler was the lucky guy this year as it went home with him. The rotten guy kept it for decades (what friends do to other friends is unthinkable). However, he did add one thing which was the perfect touch. He sent the rifle to Jack Haugh who engraved it. I’ve heard people talk about the goldy-locks syndrome and here it was; enough engraving to just set it off without being too much to relegate it to the rack for a lifetime.

Whenever we all would get together, I’d take Kim’s scotch bottle and Dick’s rifle and go off into a corner contemplating whether he notice me if I tried sneaking off with it into the night. There is a God and so finally, after all these years, it’s where it should be, with ME of course! The following pictures really don’t due justice to it but they help. I hope you enjoy this rifle and maybe even more the story of friendships.

If there’s a moral here, I think it’s this; enjoy both your rifles and your friends. Know that there’s a chance for dreams to come true and most importantly, never wait to say something you feel, as the day will come when you can’t. All the best and as Dick would say, cheers!

Pictures to come shortly thanks to Kelly...

New images added for ED. Lovely rifle all around.

A classic in every sense and a nice read. Thanks for sharing.

Appears to have a Neidner style buttplate and I'm very partial to the ebony tip with the widow's peak. A lot of people don't realize how difficult it is to style a new bolt to have the proper look. Yours is near perfect.

Very sweet - I am consumed with jealous envy!

That is a truly beautiful rifle!

Great rifle, and thank you for sharing the story. I remember reading Dick's articles in PS magazine. I see what you mean, that could easily be mistaken for Goudy checkering. I've got a neat little Sako that Waldron did the metal work on. Top notch work. Congratulations, I hope you enjoy the rifle and the memories of your good friend.

John

Very nicely accomplished and a good story. I talked with Dick several times when we both were writing for PS and TAR. He sure was enthusiastic about his stockmaking and this one shows his attention to detail.
Waldron's metal was always professionally done, I never did meet the man. He was slowing down when I was entering the trade. Great stick of walnut with perfect layout and nice marbling.Perfect low scope mounting for straight comb. Goudy like checkering. Nice scrollwork by Haugh.
I like everything but the caliber. Never had any use for 6mm, always a fan of .257R.

I never cared for engraving... until I saw this picture. Just right!

Removed.

Hi eddiel,

Very nice rifle!! Love everything!
Specially the L. Brownell original bases and rings. I will like to see a maker to make the same Brownell serrated bases and rings.

I agree with you, those Len Brownell sets are really nice. Believe it or not I bought a set of 7/8" levered rings from Lenard at the Denver NRA convention in 1982 (or was it 84?) where all the gunmakers honored Joe Oakley. He said he made up "a couple dozen sets" but wasn't going to make any more.

I still have these rings after all the years, waiting for just the right project to come about. When you first see them you obviously think them to be 1" but you keep wondering why they look just a little smaller and trimmer until the lightbulb goes off. I have wanted to mate them up to a Leupold Alaskan on some very trim little custom. Hope there's time....

Very classy and nice and trim. Wow. CB

Stunning rifle! Like SDH, I’m partial to the 257 Roberts, but the 6mm Remington is undeniably outstanding. That is a classy, and classic, American hunting rifle!

How would the shape of the lower half of that lovely cheekpiece be properly described?

Radiused.

There's been a fair amount of discussion on the cartridge Dick selected. The truth is that I can "live" with about any but prefer a select few. I tried repeatedly to talk him into a 7X57, especially considering the magazine length, but as mentioned we had done 3 previously (can you ever have too many 7mm Mausers, I don't think so) and within our little group, we had a half dozen Roberts, so the 6mm Remington made pretty fair sense.

Dick had owned a Ruger No.1 in 243 and had quite an experience base with it and the Nosler 85 Partition. It was a dynamite combination on Whitetails. We both felt that in 6mm Remington, we'd have the same results on bigger bodied Mule Deer when substituting the old 95 grain Nosler spitzer bullet. I'm quite happy with it as it is.

By the way, if I had my druthers, I could get along ok with just a 22 LR, 222 Rem, 7X57 and 375 H&H. I'd be ecstatic with those and the addition of 22/250, 257 Roberts, 30/06 and 404 Jeffrey. Not trying to rial anybody, just my take on a simple life...

I did not mean to bad mouth the rifle. Even though I don't like the cartridge, I'd be thrilled to own the rifle especially considering your background with Dick. That connection and it's memories transcend the caliber~~
You are a lucky man.

I think Dick did a article on the number one. I always liked his articles about his rifles.

Beautiful rifle!