All right, I know it has been over a week, and I am just now getting pics up, sorry everyone. Here are some of Marks Octagon barrels on the rifles he had on display. Sadly he didn't have any of his 1/2oct 1/2 rounds at the table (for shame!). Happily Chic was setup right next door and had one on top of some of his beautiful wood.

Integral rib
This is too cool, look close gentleman, integral full length VENTED rib.
And take it from me, there was nobody at the show with a 1/2 Oct. barrel that had a better transition from the oct. to round

I do have these in much higher res. if anybody wants them.

Red
PS
I did get Marks permission at the show to post pics of his work.

Thanks for the pictures DR. Keep 'em com'in.

Thank you for posting the pictures and keep them coming please!

Thanks for taking the time to take pics and post them. More please!

Dago

Even more impressive than the full length rib is the beautiful square bridge. Do you recall what action that was.

thanks for the photos. Please send more!!!!!

You know, I don't know what the action was. I was so busy dreaming about what my 09 would look like with a half oct. barrel that I hardly noticed the rest of the rifles. :-)

Seriously though, Mark is probably about somewhere, he would be willing to tell you I am sure.

Red

Dago

I have a few 09s here that I have been dreaming about for a long time. Gosh that square bridge would look good on one wouldn't it?

Blue

Blue, I cant remember what the name on the action is, but it is a 98 copy made in Johannesburg, RSA.

Chic,

Weren't the Selous Square Bridge Mauser Actions made in Jburg, South Africa ??

Blue,

I think I didn't get a picture of it, but I'll describe for you something that in my opinion looked very good. Fisher had a 505 gibbs there, with a color case hardened action, double square bridge mauser, and both of the flat surfaces of the square bridges were checkered to eliminate glare when shooting (setup open sights only of course). It looked very good I thought. Take an 09', have it made double square or single square bridged, put an octagon barrel on it, hmmmm....possibilities are mind boggling.

Red
PS
It is unhealthy to have too many 09's around, you should send some to me. :-)

Dago

I only have 5 of them so I am still feeling pretty good yet. But if I get too many I will keep you in mind.

Blue

I don't generally log onto message boards, but since this one is about my work I'll stay for a while.

The square bridged Mauser was built by Vektor in South Africa. I barreled the action for the importer Tom Carter in Alaska. It's a Shilen barrel chambered for .375 Ultra Mag.

I enjoyed meeting Dago at the show.

Hey Mark! Good to see you here! Beautiful work!

Mark, thanks for joining the group. I was thinking earlier about some of your special knowledge and how much of a boost you would be to the overall gunsmith IQ of the forum. A member had posted about his new mill and making integral ribbed octagons I think.

to everyone else, mark was very friendly at the show, and having never met me before still spent a good half hour explaining things to me about making the barrels and other work he's done. And never let the fact that you need a barrel in a reasonable amount of time keep you from getting an octagon. From what I understand from his website Mark keeps a good stock of Shilen barrels around ready to meet your specs.

Red

Mark

Absolutely gorgeous work.

I wonder something. For those of us who are not machinists, is there a general geometric forumla that you use when you put a barrel in a mill to mill an octogon? By that I mean, do you figure out where you want to come out and then go ahead and cut until you get there, or do you cut and stop when you get there. Or to put it another way, if you wouln't mind sharing, what goes into making a barrel such as the one in the photos?

thanks

Blue

Hey Bill, we missed you this year. What happened?

Hi Blue, glad you like the work and you want to know how to do it? First off, I design everything on a Computer Aid Design program called Rhino3d. I work out all the numbers and send the customer a copy so he knows what's coming. You know, I wrote an article on octagons and how the set them up, if you go to my web site hit the "ACGG" icom and click on octagon barrels.

I'm glad your interested..

Hey Blue,



The octagon barrel with the integral rib, I've been writing an article in the Guild's publication GUNMAKER on octagons with integral ribs, maybe someone will send you a copy. I think I have two installments to go.



Mark

Mark

Better yet, I will subscribe, and also purchase the past issues. Thank you very much.

The reason I ask is not because I really want to be able to do it myself. Rather, I ask because I don't think that the general public has much of an idea of how much time and skill goes into making these custom rifles. I think the general public hears about the cost of these things and automatically thinks that you fellows are getting rich on making those fancy "smoke poles". And so I ask only to understand just how much expertise goes into that beautiful work so that the next time I hear somebody say something negative about it I will have the correct answer in return.

Thanks again.

Blue