At the request of fla3006, I am posting pictures of my .458 Lott. In my opinion, my Lott is every bit as nice as the 7x64 that Duane built for me, but in a very different way. The 7x64 looks like a rifle for hunting swift creatures in high places, while the Lott looks like a rifle for hunting creatures that bite back, in tight places. The rifle was built as a .450 Watts by Duane Wiebe for another customer who died shortly after taking delivery. The original owner�s widow placed the rifle on consignment in a local gunshop, which is where I found it. I fell in love with the rifle on sight, and traded several guns plus some cash for it. After I bought the rifle, I called Duane to find out its history, and then took it to Africa. While in Africa I killed a warthog, gemsbuck, kudu, two bushbuck, impala, heartabeast, and the pictured buffalo with it. All animals were shot with 500-grain bullets, and ranges varied from 15 yards (warthog) to 243 yards (heartabeast).



Shortly after I returned from Africa, Duane moved his shop from Washington State to Placerville, California, approximately 20 minutes from my home, and I had the opportunity to meet him. He did some additional work on the rifle including shortening the length of pull by one-half inch, and remarking the caliber to read �.450 Watts or .458 Lott.� For those of you who don�t already know, the only difference between the Watts and the Lott is that the Watts case is 0.050 inches longer.


I had the rifle engraved by a local engraver, Charles Lee, who had recently moved here after spending over 20 years as an engraver for Purdey in England. Duane then reblued the rifle for me. After working with Duane on this rifle, and seeing his other work first hand, I had Duane build the 7x64 previosly posted.



The details of the rifle are that it is built on a very highly modified P17 Enfield. It has a Weisner safety, Blackburn drop-box magazine, Timney trigger, cock on opening conversion, 24� Kreiger barrel, laminated stock, and a Leupold 2x scope in Tally rings. There is also an auxiliary peep sight that mounts on the rear scope base. The peep sight and an allen wrench for removing the rings are stored in the trap grip cap. The rings originally had release levers, but I replaced the levers with the button head allen screws after I got hung up on the lever while hunting buffalo in Tanzania. With my 500 grain hunting loads at 2,200 feet per second (fps), the rifle shoots 1-inch groups at 100 yards, and prints softs and solids right on top of each other. Groups with 400-grain Barnes-X bullets at 2,400 fps run around 2 inches at 100 yards.



Several Californiua AR members are going pig hunting with guide and AR member Kyler, in April, and this is the rifle I will be carrying.



[ 03-06-2003, 13:03: Message edited by: loud-n-boomer ]

Very nice. Would you mind posting a closeup of that rifle?

Loud-

The rifle is a beauty. Pardon me if you have already described it but, would you mind giving us a brief description (i.e. action type, barrel, etc.).

I like the laminated stock.

Best regards,

Nice rifle, nice buff! Thanks for sharing. I wish more AR folks would post pics and stories of their rifles.

[ 03-06-2003, 18:28: Message edited by: fla3006 ]