I think I'm falling in love with the Custom Continental Hunter Winchester has listed on their website under the custom shop. Would love one in a .280. Only thing stopping me is the 5K MSRP. I could have Biesen make me a hell of a rifle for that price. Stop me before I do something crazy.

Best way is to tell your wife (if you have one, girlfriend if you don't) that you are going to spend $5000 on a new rifle. don't worry, she will hide the checkbook or withdraw all of the money from the bank account before you know it.

That IS nice. But it needs a set of NECG sights.

Do the Biesen! It will be exactly what you want, have longer term value, and you'll be happier with it out of the box.

I have a Custom Shop LH 375H&H African Express.
The wood is beautiful ang the gun shoots great.

I bought it new for 2/3 of the MSRP.

For MSRP I would look at a Custom gun from one of the "name" guys.

My two cents.

Jim

I have one Biesen already. I suspect actual price will be in the high fours from my dealer. No - I wouldn't pay MSRP for it. I do like the looks though.

Just looked at the web site.
did not see a .280 But I did see an even cooler .284 win. the featherweight was available in both !...tj3006

Those guns are way way overpriced. Look at a Kimber Super America before you spend on a Win. They go for about $1500 and I would bet are better made and designed than the Winchester.

This of course is common sense. I see some oddball cartridges mentioned so perhaps the advice is not wanted.

Kimber makes a fine rifle and they shoot damned well, too. Save the $3500 for a hunt this coming season.

The early Kimber rifles were crap and I am not much more impressed with the new ones. It would be interesting to see if we could find somone to state why the Kimbers are better made and better designed than to just state that they would "bet" on it. The Kimber does use the Winchester 3 position safety - nice design on their part, and a claro stock??? Shades of the old Kimber.

I like that M70 also, but speaking of Biesen and the .280, check this out on his web site.
http://www.biesen.com/page20.html
You even get to choose the checkering pattern.

quote:

The early Kimber rifles were crap

"It would be interesting to see if we could find somone to state why the Kimbers are better made and better designed than to just state that they would "bet" on it."

You go first.

Kimbers do have some pretty wood.

Every year at the SHOT Show I pick one up and admire its looks.

I'm not impressed with their function though.

-Spencer

Enough about the Kimbers. My purpose here was to get reactions to Winchester's new offerings. You boys are welcome to begin a new thread and argue until you are blue in the face. Let's stick to the customs here, which the Kimbers most definitely are not, regardless of your opinion on their quality.

I spent less than 1/2 that on my .280/M70 & I would match it against the Win.Customshop any day.

I like it, would like it better without the that kind of finish. I don't understand the price though when comparing it to what they price their other custom shop offereings at. It really does need some iron sites, it looks unfinished without them.

Have you looked at the M-70 Centennial hunter? MSRP of $1250. Only comes in a .30-06 ,but it looks nice in the picture.

The Continental Hunter does look nice but I just don't see a $5K gun in it.

Terry

http://www.winchesterguns.com/prodinfo/catalog/detail.a...type_id=996&cat=013C

Is a custom? It's called a custom but the LOP is 14". If I wanted a LOP of 13.5" would it be available for example?

This factory "custom" cost $900. If you saw that wood in person you could not take your eyes off of it. Put it up against other regular wood and it stands out. It's not a Forrest B rifle in any way or close to one but it shoots and looks good.

99. as to the Kimbers I have owned several and find that their wood is oustanding, fit and finish is above average but the actions on the ones I have owned were rough as hell and took alot of work to smooth out. Mine have all shot very good right out of the box and the triggers were very nice.
Now to compare a Kimber to a SG winchester, I give the nod to the SG. All things being somewhat the same, the SG action is smooth as silk compared to the kimber. On to accuracy, the nod would have to go to kimber for out of the box guns. just my warped opinion

As to this new Custom Continental Hunter, winchester added one to many zero's to the price

Jimmy, How's your SG coming along? I saw the rings, what's next?

Terry

I saw an M70 Custom Featherweight 30-06 (IIRC) at the Gander Mountain in Fredricksburg, Viginia a week ago for ~$1700. The wood was nice, but not great. I was disappointed in the safety - it needed as much timing as the standard ones do (hard to engage). It felt to me as if they'd mated a standard FWT action to a sightly-upgraded stock.

I was in the market for a high-end '06, but this one wasn't it...

Jaywalker

I believe for that kind of cash. You could buy a have one built. IMO and I could be wrong but for even money you could have the machinicals trued, tuned and slicked with a match grade tube and still have 3 grand or so to put into the lumber. It would be your way not the way Winchester thinks it should be. Very, very nice rifle, I think you can do better with some shopping, and that IMO is most of the fun.

I didn't know that USRAC made a gun worth $5000. I suppose if you take thea action off that $5000 rifle and send it to someone good for a build, it might then be worth $5000.

Yeah D99, my thoughts as well, although I suppose a dangerous game rifle such as the African Express might be worth 5K. The Continental Hunter seems a bit pricey. I'd probably order one if it was priced in the 3K range. However, as others here have stated 5K buys a nice guild rifle.