A friend asked me to check into these rifles... anyone have any personal experience with them?

Thanks, Jeff

Have had mine for about 10 years. I had mine made before they came out with the 457 and 50.

Love it and will never get rid of it.

anything in particular you want to know?

quote:

Originally posted by AzGuy:
A friend asked me to check into these rifles... anyone have any personal experience with them?

Thanks, Jeff

The Guns are Great the Company / Employees are a bunch of Dick Weeds

Guys,

I'm just looking for feedback.... positive/negitive OK...... trying to find the real story..... Thanks for your input

A friend of mine had one and I got to reload and range test it. I used the Hornady load data and bullets and it performed exactly as the book said. It was absoutely the best rifle, as designed, that I've ever shot. Over the chronograph it performed with the 16" barrel as the 24" barrel did in the book with the same bullets. He decided he didn't want it and offered it to me for $1,000 dollars, scope and all. I couldn't take advantage of him like that so he sold it back to WWG here in Anchorage for that same price. Wish now I would have taken advantage of him. WWG got one hell of a deal! Bottom line is if I could have that same Co-pilot in 45-70 it would be mine!

AZguy,

the rifle is worth it. I had a stock 1895 and my co-pilot. the stock rifle knocked the snot out of my wife. she shot the co-pilot alot after that.

Its accurate.

If he wants one, tell him to get one. Yeah WWG can be a pain in the ass but there products are pretty dam good.

I know of 2 or 3 of them that only would fire once and then not open ....And this happened on bear hunts on Baranof Is.

Sounds like an ammo problem. Marlins tend to work just fine with ammo within specs.

.....Sorry IME they tend to do weird things at very bad times .... Thats why I got a 375 Ruger Alaskan instead of a Marlin Guide Gun .......

Some people have great luck with them but if you shoot them much with full house loads they will loosen up pretty soon ....... Not overly hot loads but just good strong book loads that are safe ....

Mr. AzGuy,
Our .50 Alaskan from WWG has proven to be 100% reliable regardless of loads we have used. Marlin makes a fine firearm and WWG fine tuned it for our requirements.
Best possible choice for us.
Best Wishes

You can do allmost all of the work yourself with wild west aftermarket parts. They actually do have very good parts. I did up my guide gun and had much less than what I would have payed for wild west to do all the work.

I just modded my 1895XLR using their Ghost ring/WIlliams Firesight's and Bear proof ejector. Bought the parts from them and had someone else do the work. They sell quality stuff but the BS sometimes makes it difficult to go there. Just take everything they say with a grain of salt. Ken is a friendly guy but a little to arrogant and pushy IMO, still, I do like their stuff.

My friend is very impressed by being able to shoot 410, 457 WW, and 45/70 thru the same gun. Does the action really handle all three cartrdiges or is this approach just a problem waiting to happen?

Gumboot It seems a natural tendency for 45/70 shooters to want to make it into something else. I have shot loads of SAAMI spec rounds through Marlins without a problem. If those aren't enough for you then another rifle is in order. How do you like your Ruger?

quote:

Originally posted by AzGuy:
My friend is very impressed by being able to shoot 410, 457 WW, and 45/70 thru the same gun. Does the action really handle all three cartrdiges or is this approach just a problem waiting to happen?

From their FAQs page.

quote:

13. Can you shoot the 45/70 in your 457 Magnum guns?

Yes. You can also fire a 2½" .410 shotshell.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikelravy:
Gumboot It seems a natural tendency for 45/70 shooters to want to make it into something else. I have shot loads of SAAMI spec rounds through Marlins without a problem. If those aren't enough for you then another rifle is in order. How do you like your Ruger?

...They are my go to rifles but the CZs are pretty great also ...

Push come to shove , the Ruger 77 mk 2 is the battle rifle of modern bolt rifles ,, All the parts are large and tough and IME fool proof .... They always feed and always fire and always eject .....They can be stored underwater in a skiff and still function fine ........

No one has ever asked me why their Ruger won,t open after being shot ....

There are a number of gunsmiths doing the same type of work. It's not worth putting up with their sass if you ask me...which you did.

Here is my 50 Alaskan that I shot the ele with last year and WWG had nothing to do with it.

Gumboot
Glad to hear it. I'm almost a Ruger only guy. If I could only have one rifle it would be my Ruger All Weather in 338. Ruggedness is athe cardinal virtue of rifles IMHO.

I've shot Joels co-pilot and it's a sweet gun.

I also agree with the comments of others about WWG, it's been nearly 10 years since I've set foot in their shop, and I don't see myself visiting there in the future.