Can anyone suggest names and contacts of some good South African custom rifle makers? I have heard of a company called Laubscher and Joubert but don't know anything about them! Looking for a custom maker who produces traditional English safari style bolt action sporting rifles.

Thanks,

Arjun

Arjun
There are some great ones and some really awful ones.

Benny Laubscher is probably the best in the country, his prices reflect that, but on a good exchange you will be fine.

Another well trusted one is Alan Henry of The Natal Gun Co.

If you want more info on guys who are good with DG guns I can give you a few names there too.

What are you looking to build and how long before you need it.

As has been mentioned Sabi are also great and work at reasonable rates etc.

Cheers
Ian

Steve Fourie - gorgeous woodwork and stocks.

Danie Joubert - who is no longer taking orders from what I've heard, but should be contacted anyway to make sure.


Ralph Badenhorst.

The others have been mentioned already. There are others, but their names escape me.

Maybe Ian (thought you were Hilton by the way) can recall - there was a father and son team in KZN. They built some nice big bore takedonws at one time.

Danie Joubert built a 500NE on a Ruger No1 for my wife which turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous rifle.
I have posted a thread about that rifle on AR.
Danie plans to build only one full custom rifle per year from now as he has other commitments as well.

I've seen a couple of rifles marked Highman and Laubscher and another just marked Highman. Both of S. Africa. Nice workmanship. I asked the gun dealer if he knew anything about the maker(s). Said he'd seen several of their rifles, high quality stuff, but knew nothing about them. Can anyone enlighten me (us) about these craftsmen?

quote:

Danie Joubert built a 500NE on a Ruger No1 for my wife

How did she find the recoil on the 500?

Not sure about the father and son. Lot of guys gone out of business. Reeford and Bressler may be the ones.

Schwandt Classic Arms has a 500 Jeff by Laubscher & Joubert for sale on their web site. It will give you an idea of their work quality.

quote:

Originally posted by Hunting the Box H:

quote:

Danie Joubert built a 500NE on a Ruger No1 for my wife

How did she find the recoil on the 500?

Not sure about the father and son. Lot of guys gone out of business. Reeford and Bressler may be the ones.

As you can imagine getting some weight into the rifle is difficult, it came out at 8lbs.
Her favourite hunting rifle is a No1 in 416 Rigby with which she has shot up to 18 rounds in a session, thus she is used to recoil. She only shoots the 500 off hand or over the sticks and that is fine.

Thus far we have only shot 570gr at 2050 to 2150 fps. I have ordered 510gr and 475gr CEB from the US and will probably load them to about 2200fps.

Bruce Highmann built me a 7x57 Rifle thirty years ago and it is still my "go to" rifle. I however am let to believe that he has retired. Johann Morkel of Morkel and Crouse has just completed a custom 9,3x62 rifle for me - collected 4 x Impala, Warthog and 3 x Gemsbok with it during the past month. The rifle took a year to complete, but was well worth the wait.Regards