.300 Winchester Magnum

it's gonna have to be a 375 H&H in a double-square bridge Magnum Mauser with a nice piece of premium English walnut remember guys the word here is "once in a lifetime" and believe me if I had something like this built for me...i'd hunt with it all my life..

z375

quote:

Originally posted by okie john:
The 30-06, followed closely by the 9.3x62.

Okie John

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

That works for me too. I recently had a custom rifle (with a very nice English walnut stock) completed and I chose the .30-06 Springfield. Other good choices would be the 6.5x55, 7x57, 8x57, .270 Winchester (which is now old enough to be considered a true classic; circa 1925) and the .300 H&H Magnum. Any of these would make a good all-around rifle, at least for North America (and many other parts of the world). I just like the older, classic cartridges and they do still work just fine.

My two cents worth....
-Bob F.

The 7x57mm with receiver sights in a Jerry Fisher Mauser thats pictured in SDH B&W Custom Book. Plain and simple, all class. A very slim and trim rifle.

Bob

Well now, this is almost like a roll-call of the very finest game cartridges of all time, and what a fine list it is.

It seems to me that many are choosing their cartridge on the basis of pure utility, which is perfectly OK. After all, if you're spending THAT kind of money, you most-likely want to get maximum use out of the resulting rifle, right?

For my part, if I choose "MY" favorite one-in- a-lifetime custom rifle, it's gonna have a lot of "atmosphere", aura, tradition, history....call it what you want.

Right now, if I had the wherewithall available, and given my long and positive history with the cartridge, I would issue a very serious challenge to Butch Searcy and order that he build me a DeLuxe-grade side-by-side rifle. The challenge would come due to the fact I would DEMAND that it be in .303 British, regulated for 180-grain bullets, and (the hard part) UNDER SEVEN POUNDS.

I bet that job would keep him entertained for months, and also keep me veeeeery happy for years after its completion. Where's my checkbook? Ooohhh...it doesn't show $25,000.....rats.

I want mine made in 30/06 with Mauser action,iron sights and nice English walnut.Probably I would scope it with a Schmidt & Bender scope.Best-

Locksley,R.

LE270, to be sure, not all Weatherby Award winners have been 300 magnum shooters, but this cartridge class has surely been the most popular with this group by a considerable margin.

According to Jack O'Connor, the 300 Wby. was indeed Herb Klein's favorite cartridge, as it was for Berry Brooks, Elgin Gates, Julio Estrada, John B. LaGrand, Dr. Brandon McComber, Dan Maddox, Weir McDonald, C.J. McElroy, Dr. Ken Vaughn, Basil Bradbury, Watson Yashimoto, Don Cox, Dr. Gerald Warnock of our own Portland, OR SCI chapter, plus others. James Mellon was a 300 Win. Mag. fan, and in a recent article in 'Sports Afield', Mellon stated that he had taken "everything" with the 300 Win. Mag., and in his case, this was literally true.

Also in the case of Dr. Warnock, who I know personally. He's gone through at least FIVE barrels on his favorite 300 Wby., and he's literally taken every species of the world's big game with that rifle, except for a couple that he's taken with the 458 Win. Mag.

AD

David Miller 300 Weatherby with a leopold vai-x 3, 4.5 14 power, and mill dots by Premier Reticle. Will kill anything from Mouse to Moose out to 600 yards. Make that 7-57 seem like a nice toy. If you are going to the Jicarilla- Mexico- Alaska and spending big $ on hunts you need the best.

With 99 Votes there is pretty close to a three way tie between under .30, over .30 and the .30-06. The under .30 crowd seems to favor the 7x57mm Mauser and the .257 Roberts. Both excellent cartridges. The .32 and up crowd seems to like rounds of African grade utility. No mention of of the .338 WinMag yet. .300 magnums not as popular as I expected. Interesting!

We have alot of people with GOOD taste.
I would love to see all of these built and in the same place at the same time. What a sight it would be.

7x57 or a 6.5-284

7x57 or 6.5-06AI.

That said, in 1980 I built a pre-64 Mod 70 in .30-06 with a XXX grade walnut stock and a Redfield 2-7 Widefield with the ladder range finder. I thought it was a great rifle...and it is!!

Times change and I think premium bullets may have made smaller calibers more effective than they were 25 years ago. I would not hesitate to use a 6.5mm on just about anything on North America. I can kill a big bear with it, but I would NOT want to stop it with a 6.5mm!! Maybe a 6.5x55 is all you need!!?

Dennis, as you examine the quality of investment you're trying to make, think about the highest and best use that you'd like to put your "once in a lifetime" custom rifle to.

Personally, I don't have any time for novelty, collector-type scopeless rifles nor for, as our friend Jim Carmichel would put it, "cocktail-time cartridges" -- not when you may well use that rifle for all N. American big game, and all African plainsgame. Shouldn't a "once in a lifetime" custom rifle be most useful under the widest-variety on conditions, and on the widest assortment of animals possible?

That's where the magnum-cased 300s & 338s come into their own as serious candidates, as well as the 7mm magnums and, as a bare minimum, the 30-06. This is the serious class of where-the-rubber-meets-the-road hunting cartridges, and this is what you see in the vast majority of hunting camps around the world.

Here's more wisdom from Carmichel, and one of my favorite hunting quotes: "There's no shortage of all-purpose rifles -- where are the all-purpose hunters?"

They're not shooting small-bore wildcats and popguns, that's for darned sure............

AD

If, I had such a rifle built, it would be on a Parker-Hale "Hussar" action with a Blackburn/Sunny Hill drop mag., Kreiger barrel and fabulous Serengeti laminated stock of very colourful Jug. Reg. quarter-sawn. I would have custom rings by Burgess, an integral ghost ring and Euro front post on an integral ramp; the scopes would be a pair of Leupy 1.75x6 MHDs.

I would have the work done by D'Arcy Echols, Gene Simillion or perhaps John Bolliger and it would be a .338 Win. Mag. using 250 NNPGMFs over RE-22 in Win. brass. With a "spare parts" set, I would use this one rifle exclusively and I would do it, except for the fact that I have enough rifles now and a dearth of ready cash........

Kind of like asking what kind of girl should I marry if I can keep all the girlfriends I want. It's going to come down to personal preference - that's why they call it custom.

If a guy gets turned on by p-dog shooting more than any other hunting, I'd say more power to him if he longs for a full custom 220 Swift. Same thing if he's a bazillionaire and dreams about elephant hunting, he should have full custom 500 Jeffery or whatever caliber floats his boat. After all, they can fill their safes with any factory rifle combination they choose.

Personally, I'd prefer something I couldn't come close to getting in a factory configuration. I'd keep a sweet little full-stocked 7X57 and then fill my safe with quality factory rifles that will handle the other 20% of my hunting.

Damn Forrest, could you please just post a picture of a beater gun, my keyboard won't handle much more "drool"
For my custom gun, it is in the building stage at the moment, being a new classic Super Grade with the Mark Stratton 1/2 round,1/2 octagon barrel. It will be going to scrollcutter for the engraving and its in the 264 win mag. Sort of an odd ball but the one caliber that I used for all my NA hunting for about 30-35 years.
The true fact is, I am getting rid of the big guns and going more into the varmit rigs due to the amount of shooting I can get, insted of a 10 day hunt and shooting once or twice. I like this sage rat hunting where I can take 3,4 or 5 days and shoot in the 1,000's of rounds

jimmy,

The term "beater gun" is a relative term. With Forrest taste, the above is a "beater". The rest of us still drool over such.

Hog Killer

Nice deer, Forrest. Looks like somewhere a little south of Falfurias?

Hate to not go with a classic caliber but just got back from Namibia and the only rifle I took was an old .300 Win Mag Ruger 77. It performed flawlessly there and previoulsy here in US. Best shot was a 439 yard one shot kill, on a nice Oryx. That's pushing the envelope even for a .30 magnum. No problem getting ammo for it there either. I do like the classic calibers but will stick with what works for me.
BJB

Forrest, what is that thing? It looks like a M70 with a Dakota-style stock. Does Dakota do full-stock?
I think if I had something like that in 7x57, I'd just sit around looking at it, crying. Maybe touch it every now and again.
Daddy like....

I prefer tweaking my own factory rifles. I have a few customs and thats enough for a lifetime.

Of course there is no way they compare looks wise to some of the fabulous rifles posted here by Roland1, ForrestB or others. They do work perfectly however.

I am working on this one now to make it fit the way I use rifles. It's a 22f carbine in 8X57S.

Another vote here for the 35 Whelen.

I love it when you guys post pics of your magnificant custom rifles. That Manlicher is trashing my keeboard as well.

I suppose my answer is in my safe, a Ruger #1 in 280 rem (or 7X63 if your on the other side of the pond) stocked in English walnut. But I dont think that the chambering really has too much to do with such a rifle. Hell, if it were done right I could be happy as can be with a m-94 in 30-30 as long as it had that special touch. I like um all..

Here is the list of Wby Award winners

http://www.weatherby-foundation.org/award/previous.html

I think H.I.H. Prince Abdorreza Pahlavi, Iran was a 7 X 57 man.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Hog Killer:

quote:

Originally posted by Noel H.:
Yikes. Has it ever been fired?

You bet! It is a real joy to shoot.

Hog Killer

Hell yes its been fired, it shoots like a ray gun, 80-100 yrds off hand, brake rotor hanging from a tree no problem.........aint that right Keith.

Hey Harry,Keith

A beater gun for forrest is better than the one I threw in the trash after looking at the last set of twins he posted in another thread.

I`ll side with 260 Rem--

256 Newton!

Aloha, Mark

From .218 Bee to .458 Win. Mag., I've HAD nearly all of them. What I still HAVE, and had a beautiful fiddleback walnut stock built for, is a pre-'64 70 with a Douglas (?) barrel in 7x57, which shoots handloads into 5/8" even on my bad days. Any further customizing would be done on this rifle if I fell into a ton of money.

I would have to go with a 338 win mag with my handloads barnes bullets between 160 and 250 grn plus conventional 300 grn available i can do most all jobs some not perfect but still getr done

404 Jeffery hands down. On a Mauser, of course.

So many choices, so little money! I think I am also leaning toward the 7x57 if a small bore and the 35 Whelen for a medium. If I ever do myself a single shot(action in the planning stage as it has been for 10 years!), it would be either a 30/40 or a 303 British.
I have a 35 Whelen on a Mauser which I like pretty well.
I have a 7mm-08 on a Mauser which is, functionally, just like a 7x57 but it lacks the soul of the old cartridge.
I'm a real fan of the 6.5x55 and it's my favorite long range target cartridge but I think I'd rather have the 7 for hunting.
Bottom line- 7x57. Regards, Bill.

Probably a 9.3X62

The 300 Win. Mag does it for me. Else, the .270 Winchester is pretty close second. For DG in Africa, I am leaning towards the .416 Rem Mag. and for a heavy-duty PG, pair with a .338 Win. Mag.

I guess where I am going with this is that while the .300 Win. Mag would do 99% of it all, having more cartridges/rifles is a blessing for the other 1% and just for fun.

Make sure you build it in some weird metric caliber using an obscure cartridge. That way it will hold it's value for the other collectors. No sense building a practical hunting rifle! TIC
Zeke

If I was commissioning someone else to build a rifle for me, it obviously would be the cartridge that I shoot the most. 20 years ago, that would have been 22 Long Rifle. Today, 17 HMR. Why would I put a bunch of money into making a show piece that I wouldn't shoot much because of heavy recoil, fear of burning out the tube, or beating the snot out of a chunk of wood that Duane Wiebe or Jerry Fisher had swore at for 100 hours.

Strange logic, but I'm a mighty strange kinda guy !

22lr

Custom BRNO #1 or Mauser 350B..

OR

222 Rem on smal Hagn action.



Full rust blue, exebition grade stock, fully fitted. Custom scope rings.

Ruger M11 stainless the best sty stock I could buy after market trigger. In what ever caliber you chose.

A rifle to be use well last for your life time and grand children's life times replace barrel as needed.

Put me down for a 300 H&H!

7x64 :-)