For Discussion:<BR><BR>You're having a once in a lifetime custom rifle build just for you. You can still purchase/ shoot /hunt with all the factory rifles you want but only one custom built rifle. For the type of hunting YOU do and the places YOU hunt what would be your choice ?? I've already made my choice. Matter of fact I should have it back by August. I'll chime back in after a bit. <BR><BR>Note the .30-06 is seperate from all other .30 calibers as it's widely considered THE all around cartridge for North America. Any .30 cartridge classed below .30-06 is in the .24-7mm catagory because there are only five slots in the poll.Varmint Class .17-.224 calibers.24 to 7mm calibers and .308 Win, .300 Savage, etc.30-06 It's just classic that way.30 Magnum something.32 caliber on up

7X57

7X57

35 whelen

7x57 Hagn t/down small action

life is too short to drink cheap wine

6.5x55

7x57 in a Krieger barrel on a pre-64 M 70 all rust blued in a nice piece of walnut, 2.5-8 Leupold in Talley rings.

Be a nice classy killer.

I might not even hang it in the apple tree to paint it camo.

The .270 is my favorite, it would have to be that.

quote:

For the type of hunting YOU do and the places YOU hunt what would be your choice ?? I've already made my choice.

You asked here goes.Pre 64 Win mod 70 slimmed down stock chambered in the .340 Weatherby or a .350 Griffin@Howe!With peep sights!

Custom
= valueable = beautiful = accurate = pleasure
Single shot 2506 or 257roberts

Can always use a factory 3006 when the hunting is harder and practical doesn't require custom.

I picked 32 up, I would probably go with a 35 whelen if I were only going to have one custom. In fact, I would like to get a full blown custom made out of my Rem. 1917 whelen. I think the 35 bore is very underrated and less popular than it deserves.

Yup, I think that would be it.

Red

7 x 57 on a tricked out g.33/40 mauser action with premium barrel, french walnut, premium scope.

You folks certainly have some gorgeous rifles in your heads.

For my part, I think my dream rifle might alredy have been made. Just put a pre-war Rigby .275 in my hands and I think I'll be done.

The 30-06, followed closely by the 9.3x62.


Okie John

So you fellas spend up big on a fancy expensive rifle and actually take it out in the bush and knock it around?
John

256 Newton.

Jeff

I thought I was going to be the only one who would take the 7X57 .......... think again. You guys have good taste. I already have mine, a BRNO 22, with some of Tom Burgess's rings.

If it had to be something classic, depending on what you would like to hunt with it: .257 Roberts, 6.5x55, 7x57, .270 Win, .300 Win Mag, .338 Win Mag or .375 H&H.

I'd probably go for the .257 Roberts.

- mike

8x57 why? because it will handle every type of game down here from dingos to buff

Well,
It should be something classic, like 6,5X55, 6,5X57, 7X57, 7X64, 8X64S, 8X68S, 9,3X62 or 9,3X64.

Cheers
/JOHAN

A pair of Mauser action custom rifles in 7x57 and 9.3x62mm, would do for everything I hunt.

Cheers,

7X57 would be my pick IF That custom was on a Mauser action (it would be.) If not maybe a .257 Roberts but, a .270win would really get me excited.

Terry

Three hard choices:
First a Hagn Single shot, exhibition english walnut, ebony forend, Swarovski 3-12x50 rail mount in 6.5x65R or 7x65R or 30R Blaser.

2nd, a M700 Miller Company rifle built like Craig Boddingtons left hand 7mm Rem Mag, but in 280. 2.5-10 Swaro 1 inch.

3rd, a Holland and Holland new mag mauser 300 H&H, built full out. 3-12x50 Swaro with G&H side mount.

I think if I had the right actions......and considering everything & only two rifles I would choose a 30/06 & a .416 Rigby. In fact I would be happy to have these on fully custmoized cz actions.

No longer have an 06 but have used mine and others enough to know it is very effective and one can load 110 gr to 220 gr. And the .416 well I can load from 300 gr to 450 gr. I think there is not much these two rounds won't do and a big enough gap between them.

i would have to make the choice on the day i gave someone else the money

376 steyr or 358 winchester...

"once in a lifetime" rifle?

I read into that this is to be a totally custom gun, that you would consider an AAR (all around rifle)


jeffe

Put me in with the 7x57 crowd.
25 years ago, when my two boys were in their teens, we decided that the very best Deer hunting cartridge for here in Michigan was a 7x57. So, all three of us wound up with one. My youngest son, 14 at the time, wanted to finish a stock for his, which he did, and did well.
The three of us still use the 7mm Mauser.
Great bullets, great accuracy, user friendly recoil.. What more can I ask for??
Don

I would vote for 284 win

Too easy. 30-06.

Any high quality single shot 18" carbine in 6.5 X 54. roger

If I could have only one full on custom then I would go with a DGR in a suitable caliber. The 458 Lott makes a lot of sense but I could easily do with anything 458 and up. A good double would do here very nicely as well.

This is the only hunting that can get you killed buy the game you persue (within reason).

There are enough factory or semi factory (cooper, kimber etc.) that make satisfactory rifles for everything else.

Still I would hope that I could do a bit of tweeking on the rifles myself to make them more to my liking (bedding, acton smoothing, feed ramp polishing etc).

I shoot a lot of varmints but there are enough long range factory guns out there that I think even that can be covered with an off the shelf gun.

John

Add TrapperP in the 7X57 crowd. When you qualified it with having any factory gun I want plus the one custom my mouth started to water think of how the 7X57 Mauser would look - Mauser action, of course! Probably one of the old FN's would be nice, then go from there!

I will say that after a custom 35 whelen (improved by the way) on an enfield the 275 Rigby was my next choice. My argentine mauser with an octagon barrel, done up in english or turkish walnut, horn tip and cap and the works.

But after seeing that Ultimate Enfield collaboration between Burgess and Fisher I have one dream rifle at the top of the list, cartridge not as important as the rifle itself, because there are quite a few that will get the job done.

Red

375 h&h, in a Mauser action.

Another vote for the 375 H&H!

375 H&H custom by H&H. Got to touch one once. As close as I will ever get.

I also vote for the .375 H&H in a Mauser type action.

Dennis, if I were having someone building my ultimate custom rifle, the only one I'd ever have made for the rest of my life, I'd go with my favorite all-around cartridge, the 300 Win. Mag.

Choosing a cartridge based upon the few tough African dangerous game animals you MIGHT someday hunt is a rather thin compromise. Hunting pronghorn, whitetails, Coues deer, mule deer, elk, and everything else with a 375 H&H just doesn't make sense, and based upon what premise? The need to someday, maybe hunt a buffalo or two???? I've lugged 375s up a lot of mountains in the past, and no thanks, never again! Likewise, going with some popgun for all-around use that may well include bigger game such as elk, moose, grizzly and eland is also a sort of skimpy, unsatisfactory compromise that just doesn't get it done for me.

The great thing about the 300 Win. Mag. is that it'll do all that the 30-06 will do and then some, making it even more versatile than the great, iconic "all-around" '06 is, yet it still doesn't kick all that hard and ammo and brass is still widely-available, plus it's useful on the widest spectrum of game and shooting circumstance that you'll likely hunt and encounter the most often world-wide, from NM pronghorn and TX whitetails to elk and African plainsgame. It's inherently accurate as well and easy to work with, with less recoil than a 300 WBY.

Maybe all of this is why just about ever Weatherby Award winner, almost to a man, has been primarily a 300 magnum shooter........

AD

Tough call. I guess I'd go for a 358 Norma if I wasn't going to be hunting outside of North America at all. That is a very versatile cartridge.

If Africa was even a remote possibility, a 375 H&H definitely.

Sign me up for the 'over .32 club'

I am surprised this question has so many answears while the truth is so clear and simpel.

The answear is a british style custom rifle based upon a Mauser 98 action above a Pete Griesel magazine box, full of beatiful 300 H&H cartridges.

Martin