Whilst not exactly what most of us great walnut and rust blue fans have in mind (moi included) this custom rifle was built by the old master, Bill Calfee, to do one thing... shoot as accurately as possible. It did so admireably and looked good doing so.

Not everybody's cup of tea but I think Butch and my old pal, Rich will like it.

Nice rifles! Dick what kind of barrel and tuner is on that? Do you still shoot it in matches?

Love that lineup of bench rifles from the past, Woodhunter.

I have a Suhl 150-1 that I've cobbled into a 10.5-lb class rimfire benchrest rifle with a factory 16.5" twist barrel and cedar/carbon fiber stock I made.



It may not match the top new customs, but I have fun in local IR 50/50 matches when I can get to them and went to St. Louis for the ARA Nationals last year. It was awesome.

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):
Gag!

Shame on you!


.

Duane,
This is my walnut stocked BR rifle before finish.

Next is my redwood laminated BR rifle.

Yes, I dearly love my walnut customs,but think a lot of my wood BR rifles.

I can appreciate the workmanship, and the looks of these rifles.

Yeah, I prefer Walnut and blued or color case hardened rifles, especially for hunting; but these are wicked/wonderful at their intended purpose(s). What's not to like about a BR rifle that can shoot consistent 5-shot groups in the 2/10ths of an inch at 100yds. Some PPC's will do that out to 200/300yds.

When I grow up I want to build a rifle just for shooting itty-bitty groups with cast bullets.

Rich

Ain't no windows or curtains in my shop. The first photo shows the inside walls of my shop which is metal R Panel and it is on the outside walls also.
I believe I took the second photo from the porch of my shop with a white garage door in the background. My shop is 30X30 with a 15X15 computer, TV, beer fridge, restroom, wife installed hideaway bed.It is my reloading room also. I enclosed and insulated my 12X30 porch, insulated it and metal studs. I need to R panel the inside, another garage door, and do the electrical.
It will house my tig welder, sanders, my 3 bench grinders, a Roll In saw, surface grinder, and T&C grinder.
Sorry I hijacked your thread Dick. Yes, your rimfire looks great.

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Ain't no windows or curtains in my shop. The first photo shows the inside walls of my shop which is metal R Panel and it is on the outside walls also.
I believe I took the second photo from the porch of my shop with a white garage door in the background. My shop is 30X30 with a 15X15 computer, TV, beer fridge, restroom, wife installed hideaway bed.It is my reloading room also. I enclosed and insulated my 12X30 porch, insulated it and metal studs. I need to R panel the inside, another garage door, and do the electrical.
It will house my tig welder, sanders, my 3 bench grinders, a Roll In saw, surface grinder, and T&C grinder.
Sorry I hijacked your thread Dick. Yes, your rimfire looks great.

Sounds pretty nice. I guess I am guilty of hijacking too so I will pull my posts. Don't want to piss off Dick.

quote:

Originally posted by WoodHunter:
From way back when. A Webber and a Williams action. Left hand and right hand stock. Barrel blocked, actions float.





These are pretty old also. Painted stock is a Lee Six.

Woodhunter,
I also have a Charlie Williams heavy bench BR rifle.
Charlie was the Benchmaster receiver maker guy. I have a lot of parts for them and one of Charlie's jigs to drill and tap the receivers for scope bases. Probably have a couple extra receivers also.

Dick is a great guy and understands an old man like me rambling on.

My old friend Fatso... This is the most accurate rifle I have ever shot.

Duane, I dearly love good wood, elegantly shaped, rust blued steel and fine checkering. But... I have been a competition shooter since I got out of college and if I can't shoot my guns I don't keep them.

My wife and I have two elegant deer rifles that we hunt with. They get shot a few times a year and the rest of the time we can just look at them. I can shoot a bench gun more in one weekend than I would any deer rifle in ten or twenty years. If you haven't done so, you won't believe the mechanical prefection and the accuracy of these bench guns.

The same thing goes for cars. I have an old Porsche, not a pristine collector car, but a very nice driver that will hold my equipment when I go to a match. A few years ago I had another Porsche, a much more highly regarded car by collectors. It was fast, noisy, quite beautiful but not all that comfortable and I never did figure out how to get both the wife and a rifle into the darn thing. It went.

There seems to be a very high percentage of big bore, dangerous game rifles made today. I wonder often if anyone ever shoots these cannons. Are there really that many people going to Africa?

I like to use my guns. Sorry.

Evan K.

I'm not sure but Bill Calfee used a lot of Douglas barrels. The gun has a Fudd tuner.

Nobody's highjacking nothing. I like bench guns and I really like to shoot them. Precision is beautiful too.

Dick
I followed the conception of Fuggly in Precision Shooting Magazine. As well as the piece you wrote about the farmer that built the 30-378 and his idea of a "deer stand," quite a concept in comfort. I always had hoped for a follow up piece on the Shooting Shack and how many deer went into the freezer as a result of the combination. Was that project Custom, "Do ya think !!!!" I also remember your Classic 358 Win being mentioned now and then, that wasn't picked up at Walmart.

As you said all these rifles have purpose. I am not one to cast stones at synthetic stocks or stainless steel and I think that's pretty well established. I also love to work in traditional materials and have supplied my clientele a cross section of both for many years, built to the best of my ability. It all pays the same and the net goals are the same, accuracy, reliability and cosmetic appeal. The 3 Don't always come together quite like I planned but that's challenge isn't it?

My daughter was shooting 3 different 22 rim fires a couple of weeks ago. A CZ-452 Scout, a M2 Springfield Burgess/Fisher Classic Sporter and a 52C BR/Silhouette rifle. While I have "modified" the stock on my daughters CZ-452 as she grew into a teenager I have done nothing else "custom" to that rig. The 52C is an amalgamation of parts, some stainless, some fiberglass some blued steel and I had no hand in its construction. That rifle is an honest drill. The M2 is a stunning piece of work by two of this nations best rifle makers. Quite a few rounds went down range that afternoon, all three rifles were enjoyed by the shooter. All three appreciated on their own merits. Did she favor one over the other, I couldn't tell and she has been around a few rifles.

Your comment about Heavy Rifles is sadly correct. The future for the really Big Bores is not looking so "Happy Christmas" as they say in Zim. What with Elephant and Lion on the ropes and air travel with firearms in flux, will anyone want a Big Bore for Whitetails in the back 40 ? Building one without a Safari planned for it in the future is questionable at best for most of my clientele at least.

While I have no interest in a building a David Tubbs Tube Gun I would like to shoot one for an afternoon or three. For Tubbs the rifle is a precision delivery system and it's hard to argue with his design and how it was assembled. I have yet to see one with a Fleur Pattern checkered on the grip, if thats what it's called. The results of his "custom" rifles seem to add more Gold Cups to his already sagging shelves.

Any Custom job, be it assembled on an Oberndorf, H&W, Borden or Batt wrapped in Turkish or sprayed in Polane deserves the same amount of respect when done to the best of the makers ability. To do otherwise is ?????????

D'Arcy,

I had no idea that you were a Precision Shooting reader. I've admired your work for years. A few misc. comments...

The .358 is the subject of a short thread herein called "Nostalgia... My old deer rifle". That gun and I have been a lot of places and shot a lot of game together. A few years ago I split a rotator cuff changing a tire on the old Porsche and shooting the .358 ceased to be fun.

There were quite a number of articles in PS about the fancy deer stand my friends, Mike and Karen Stumpfig, own. It's a delightful place to watch deer before season with a few friends. The 30/378 Weatherby, 43 lb. "Cannon" is still there and has put a lot of venison in the freezer. (The Stumpfigs make the best jerky in the world).

If I thought there might be enough interest I would start a thread on the gun, the custom shooting bench and, what has to be, one of the the world's best deer stands. It's really a well designed system that works very well. It's the only deer blind I've ever walked into and found a half-eaten apple pie in the kitchen.

I'd love to see that Burgess/Fisher M2. Got any pics?

quote:

M2 Springfield Burgess/Fisher Classic Sporter

oh my... are there pictures of this beauty?

Here are a few of my 1922 MI with an M2 bolt from the Haugh shop in Milan, circa 2009:

The buttplate has a great story to go with it. I had ordered a Biesen trap that was going to be subsequently engraved in G&H style (Jack copied my 1930-ish G&H Springfield for this build), but it didn't arrive in time and Jack was ready for it. I asked if he would make one and he said, "That's what I've been thinking". So I said, "Make one" then after about a half second I asked "Now this isn't going to cost $1000 is it?" He says, "no, no, F*@k no it won't be $1000". It was $1470...

Didn't mean to hijack, just figured if I was going to see pictures of a Burgess/Fisher M2 I'd have to use a little bait...

If Dick can down load the pics I have of the M2 I'll send some or you can find a few on echolsrifles.com and go to the blog tab. That is a great looking M2 that Jack assembled. That guy has more talent in one of his fingers than I have collectively. Man what a craftsman. Thanks for posting it.

I love the M2 on echolsrifles.com - anyone that likes classics needs to check it out for sure. Burgess/Fisher simply wow!

Forget highjacking... That Springfield is lovely.

Jack's an old friend. Each fall I chase whitetails with a little Ruger No. 1 in .243 that he made back when. I'll post pics soonish.

I agree about Jack's talent. He's also really good at making single malt disappear if he's hanging around for a few days.

I think I can download D'Arcy's pics and post them.

Just happen to have a couple handy from my visit with D'Arcy last year. It's a beauty.

TT

Beautiful rifle, Brynden.

From the ridiculous to the sublime...

I start this thread with a picture of a really nice benchrest rifle and it ends up with, what have to be, two of the best rimfire rifles ever made by two really great artists... Jack Haugh and Jerry Fisher.

That G & H copy by Jack is... words fail me except G & H never made a gun that good. The Fisher rifle is exactly what I had in mind (except for the schnable) when I started my project rifle covered in another thread... lots of luck on that happening.

We are lucky to live at a time when people like Jack and Jerry are with us and making the best guns ever made.

I love the story about the trap butt plate. That's my old pal Jack.

D'Arcy's photos of the Fisher/Burgess rifle.

These are the pics that D'Arcy sent me of his daughter shooting the Fisher/Burgess .22.

There is no such thing as "just a .22"! Those custom 1922s are incredible, thanks for sharing.

Re: the Fisher rifle... I defy you to change anything, any line or detail without degrading the artistic perfection.

That's what I think of Jerry Fisher.

D'Arcy,

Re: the pic of your daughter holding the rifle and standing in front of the target... You need to take a couple of clicks left.

She did in fact

I appreciate ANY fine rifle for what they can do...even the "flashy" ones, but there's just something pleasing about a finely crafted custom that get's my heart racing.
Thanks for sharing. I'm now filled with strange ideas about a classic 22LR.
Zeke

Well,
I'm started on my 40X rimfire. Metal work by kstott on this forum and barreled by Richard Gorham.




Bolt handle looks a little heavy and long, but it isn't. It will have the rest of the 3POS safety installed later. The tang was tigged to fill the factory safety cut out. One of our young and aspiring wood carvers, Evan K, is working on a piece of wood from Roger Vardy in Australia. Shilen supplied the CM barrel and trigger.



The scope will be Mike Walker's personal 20XBR Remington Custom shop scope. Only 3 were made.

You are having way to much fun with this custom rifle thing Butch. Good for you. Is the 40x going to be a bench gun or a sporting rifle? Barrel looks like a sporter, but that is a lot of scope for a squirrel rifle.

John

John,
It will be a sporting rifle. I will use it to shoot turtles and snakes in my fishing pond. I have an easy chair to set in while I quietly wait on them.

Butch,

I had to laugh when I read your post. That's exactly what I will be doing when I get the 17 HMR done. (My New Project.) Our small lake is only 70 or 80 feet down hill from my deck. The 17 seems like the perfect weapon for turtle control.

A short, short... When I was shooting the Calfee bench gun in competition I tested a lot of ammo. I ended up with lots of half boxes of really expensive .22 ammo.

As of late Glorya has been popping squirrels that attack our bird feeders with Eley Red Box. I don't think that it is what Eley had in mind...