Re: Williams Firearms One-of-kind Oberndorf Floorplate

14 May 2004, 14:41

Matt in Virginia

Matt,
The rifle is quite simply amazing... Good show to everyone involved...

I'll only say that I would love to see you turn your attention to an Obendorf Guard Bow Release for public consumption. I just bought another one of your M70 one piece guards for a Custom M70 last week. I can only say that I don't know how you do it for the money. Tremendous quality...

Regards, Matt Garrett.
Chesapeake, Virginia

Btw, the only suggestion I might offer is on your ST700 Guard. It needs abit more room to accomadate both custom and factory triggers. G.A. Precision had to mill relieve my factory 700 trigger bolt release in order to make it fit... fwiw.

14 May 2004, 15:40

Chuck Nelson

They do all their stuff from forgings, I think. Then comes the machining. Are you thinking casting?

Chuck

14 May 2004, 15:28

fla3006

Beautiful. Any idea of when the new Mauser bottom metal will be available? Pricing?

14 May 2004, 13:59

triggerguard1

Thought I'd let you guys see a trigger guard assembly that we made for Kent Bowerly of Redmond, Oregon for a rifle that he sold at the guild show last year.

Here's the before and after pictures

Stock work, including checkering was by Kent Bowerly.

Mark Stratton did the majority of the metalsmithing that included the barrel, quarter rib, and sights.

Larry Brace built the scope bases.

Jim Wisner installed bolt handle and steel extractor as well as working on feeding issues.

Robert Evans was responsible for the beautiful engraving work.

Gerome Glimm checkered the bolt release and talley bolt handle.

Rings were Dave Talley's.

And we had the pleasure of designing the floorplate assembly, which is a one-of-kind design that incorporates our current system of assembling the rail and trigger guard into a single piece, but with the Orberndorf guard bow.

Our new line of bottom metal that we are working on will incorporate the Oberndorf-style bow, but will be forged from a single piece of steel, rather than our assembly techique that we are currently using.

This particular rifle was chambered for the 270WSM and sold for approximately $12,000.00.

Kent Bowerly can be reached at
710 Golden Pheasant Drive
Redmond, Oregon 97756
541-923-3501

Kent is a longtime member of the Guild, and one helluva nice guy. His work is outstanding, and if you like what you see, I encourage you to look him up.
He recently completed the stock work on the 2006 guild rifle that will honor 100 years of the 30-06 cartridge. It's built on a Pre-64 Model 70 and should be quite something to see. I hope to get some pics of it in the next few months. Word has it that there is approximately $32,000.00 worth of labor and materials in her. $22,000.00 of that in engraving alone.
Our own forum member Jim Wisner had quite a hand in this one too from what I understand. It should prove to be quite a magnificent piece of artwork.

Hope you all enjoy.

14 May 2004, 16:57

jeffeosso

Matt,
you are a TEASE!!!

AWESOME

jeffe

14 May 2004, 18:08

Customstox

Matt,

That is a wonderful rifle. You can be rightly proud of your participation. You mentioned what a great guy that Kent is. Let me tell you a story about him.

Years ago, I joined the guild as an associate. The first show I attended was at the Sands Hotel in Reno and I met Kent at that show. He had a gorgeous rifle with a leather covered pad in his display. I asked him a hundred questions regarding the installation. Kent finally asked for my address. A week after I got home a package arrived. In it was enough leather to do 3 or 4 pads and the Guild Issue that explained the installation. Kent had bought this from our headquarters and forwarded it to me. That is the kind of guy he is. He is one of the first people that I visit at the show each year. To me he epitomizes what the guild is all about, sharing knowledge and experience.

14 May 2004, 23:37

<JOHAN>

triggerguard1

I hope we soon will be able to buy obendorf floorplates/magazine for mauser from you. A design with magazinebox and floorplate in one would be nice.

What is the large action for 416 Rigby etc beeing presented from the shop?

Very nice work

Cheers
/ JOHAN

15 May 2004, 05:29

triggerguard1

Quote:

Btw, the only suggestion I might offer is on your ST700 Guard. It needs abit more room to accomadate both custom and factory triggers. G.A. Precision had to mill relieve my factory 700 trigger bolt release in order to make it fit... fwiw.

When we go to our new one-piece forging, we will be eliminating that problem. Our current forging was developed over 10 years ago for manufacturing M70 trigger guards for their "old-style" system of a hinge, trigger guard, and floorplate. It has it's limitations as far as being able to make it work with the Remingtons. We originally developed that particular part for McMillan to replace their M40-A1 assembly, which at the time, only needed to function with the factory Remington trigger, considering that is all Military and Law Enforcement personel are allowed to use.

15 May 2004, 05:39

triggerguard1

Quote:

Beautiful. Any idea of when the new Mauser bottom metal will be available? Pricing?

Since we are devoting most of our time toward getting our actions up and going, it's gonna get sat on the backburner for a while, but I'm hoping sometime next spring, if not earlier, we'll have it ready to go. Retail price will be around $250.00-$265.00.

15 May 2004, 05:49

triggerguard1

Quote:

I am very curious as to why you have gone to forging rather than machining. Is that being done in house?

Blue

As Chuck pointed out, we manufacture all of our trigger guards from drop-hammer forgings, then we completely CNC machine every feature on the part.
Here's what are trigger guard forging looks like before it goes through the shear die, which is somewhat like a cookie cutter that removes the slug from inside and shaves the outside remaining material off.

15 May 2004, 05:58

triggerguard1

Quote:

triggerguard1

I hope we soon will be able to buy obendorf floorplates/magazine for mauser from you. A design with magazinebox and floorplate in one would be nice.

What is the large action for 416 Rigby etc beeing presented from the shop?

Very nice work

Cheers
/ JOHAN

I'm a little hesitant to give too rough of number as to when these will be available, but I'd figure that by next spring or summer, we should be up and going.
We're attacking the short-actions first, with the long-actions coming right after that. Since both of these actions will drop into existing model 70 stocks, it will be much easier for us to move these and get our capital on the project established. After that, the big bore will soon follow. There are a number of things that will have to be modified on the existing receiver in order for us to accomplish our goal on this action, which is to deliver an action that handles cartridges up to the 585 Nyati, and holding 4 down for the Rigby. It will be fully blueprinted and finished to the point that if the gunsmith chooses to bead blast and blue the rifle, it's ready.....no prep work, or final sanding, stoning, or polishing. All of our fixtures will have to be modified in order to accomodate the "big one", and some will just have to be completely redesigned, but overall, I think it will be well worth the effort.

15 May 2004, 06:44

kutenaymtnboy

I think that you will find that a great many of us will...think it is worth the effort, too..., I eagerly await the Mauser bottom metal and I wish you every success in this action venture.

15 May 2004, 06:50

Rancher

Matt,
Your action project sounds exciting to all parties concerned, both producer and consumer. Please keep us informed as to when production may start. I'll take a couple of long mag----.
Pat

15 May 2004, 07:03

Scrollcutter

Matt:

Great looking stuff. Didn't you mention something about a trade in the future?

15 May 2004, 07:08

triggerguard1

Quote:

Matt:

Great looking stuff. Didn't you mention something about a trade in the future?

I most certainly did, and I could rarely find a better person to trade with than yourself. We will most certainly be in touch.

15 May 2004, 09:01

Wstrnhuntr

Thanks for posting the pics Matt. Thats an outstanding piece of work. Is that stock french Walnut?

That 2006 30-06 Ive got to see!

15 May 2004, 09:10

Harry

Thanks for putting that photo of the forging on the page. Now you can really see the work that goes into it all.
Neat to see how stuff is done anyway.
Evidently not done with whiffle dust!

15 May 2004, 12:28

Matt in Virginia

" We originally developed that particular part for McMillan to replace their M40-A1 assembly, which at the time, only needed to function with the factory Remington trigger, considering that is all Military and Law Enforcement personel are allowed to use.

Matt,
The trigger that had to be relieved was a factory Remington 700 unit.

At any rate I look forward to your new design...

Regards, Matt.

15 May 2004, 12:43

triggerguard1

Quote:

" We originally developed that particular part for McMillan to replace their M40-A1 assembly, which at the time, only needed to function with the factory Remington trigger, considering that is all Military and Law Enforcement personel are allowed to use.

Matt,
The trigger that had to be relieved was a factory Remington 700 unit.

At any rate I look forward to your new design...

Regards, Matt.

In the event that you ever had that problem again, please contact us directly so that we can replace the guard or fit it here free of charge.
Tolearances vary greatly on the Model 700 trigger as they relate to the fit within the bottom metal, but we've tried to eliminate any fitting problems of any kind.
George Gardner no doubt has the ability to fit those up, even if there is a problem, but that's the kind of feedback that we need to eliminate the chances of it happening again.

Appreciate the comments.....just wished I'd seen it before it was modified.

15 May 2004, 14:11

Brad

Matt, is it safe to assume this new bottom metal unit will require different inletting than the standard M70 two-piece unit? Will it be available in stainless?

Thanks,

Brad

16 May 2004, 02:44

The Specialist

Thanks for letting us have a look at your brilliant work.

16 May 2004, 15:07

djpaintles

As soon as you have your actions and oberndorf style triggerguards available please let me know how to order them......DJ

17 May 2004, 05:19

M 98

i say what a PITY that these actions will not have the internal c ring like the original mausers and will have cone breech ...rifle /action that is propley put together does not need a cone breech to feed smoothley
daniel

17 May 2004, 06:18

30 Caliber Mag Fan

Matt-

Based on your design for a "long" action, will your long action accomodate H&H/Weatherby length cartridges or will your Magnum action be reserved for those length cartridges?

Thank you for sharing your work with us, it is outstanding.

18 May 2004, 07:42

triggerguard1

Quote:

Matt, is it safe to assume this new bottom metal unit will require different inletting than the standard M70 two-piece unit? Will it be available in stainless?

Thanks,

Brad

It will require some different inletting, but it will be easier than our current model, since we will be drafting all of the sides of the assembly.
It will be available in stainlesss.

18 May 2004, 07:44

triggerguard1

Quote:

i say what a PITY that these actions will not have the internal c ring like the original mausers and will have cone breech ...rifle /action that is propley put together does not need a cone breech to feed smoothley
daniel

I would imagine that within the next couple of years we will be offering a C-ring designed action, but the cost is going to be quite a bit more than for these receivers. Not as much as what's being offered on the market now, but more than our first line of actions.

18 May 2004, 07:48

triggerguard1

Quote:

Matt-

Based on your design for a "long" action, will your long action accomodate H&H/Weatherby length cartridges or will your Magnum action be reserved for those length cartridges?

Thank you for sharing your work with us, it is outstanding.

You'll have no problems using the 375 H&H class cartridges, as well as the Weatherbys on our long-action version.
We're developing the "big one" for use with the 416 Rigby and above, however, if you wanted to purchase the larger action for the 375's, we'll be offering that as well.