High polish chromium plate with a chartruse jute macome sling. Come on, give the guy a break.

Triggertate

"The Guy" told me he didn't mind being asked about details for the rifle. So why don't you give a guy a break and mind your own business.

Hmmm... mind my own business on a public forum about a rifle that may be raffled world wide. Don't think that's gonna happen but I will quit commenting on your questions.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
Will it be a beaded finish or a gloss finish? Rust blue or hot blue?

Personally, I hope its a high gloss, hot blue. But that's entirely up to Duane.

We got six checks today:

dphillips (this one has the proper number of zeros)
Unknown screen name from Ridgeland, SC
TC1
jjs (and it's a big one!)
customstox (another really good one)
fla3006 (another one with right number of zeros)

Every donation large or small is very much appreciated and will allow us build the nicest rifle possible. We'll have a large number of people buying raffle tickets, and well we should; however, it takes a big man with a big heart to give early so that the Scholarship Fund can get an even bigger payoff in the end.

We'll have a lot of fun with a raffle, but right now we owe all these early donors a big hand for making it all possible.

quote:

We got six checks today:

dphillips (this one has the proper number of zeros)
Unknown screen name from Ridgeland, SC
TC1
jjs (and it's a big one!)
customstox (another really good one)
fla3006 (another one with right number of zeros)

WAY TO GO GUYS!!!!!!

After reading this, I think what is happening here is just incredible, I should have been so lucky as to get such a wonderful person to call my wife.

May 7, 2006
To my Wife;

Sweetheart, I have loved you from the first time I saw you, and from that moment there could be no one else for me. And yet, you and I were so different. I was an inhibited, predictable perfectionist. You were a passionate, compassionate crusader with this rebellious, mischievous streak. No one could predict what you would do or say next. In short, you were irresistible.

We got married and began to figure out how to get along as husband and wife. Given our youth, this would have been challenging enough, but we had to learn to be parents at the same time. The responsibility of being a father terrified me, but I received some wonderful advice in a Bible class at just the right time. The teacher said that the most important thing a father could do for his children was to love their mother. Now this I could do. Loving you was the easiest thing I could think of. So, I loved you and Julie, prayed, and slowly began to catch on. I still don’t know how you put up with me. Over the years, you chipped away at my “shell†and I kept you “groundedâ€. You balanced and completed me. Together we raised our wonderful daughter, Julie. You get 90% of the credit for that. Julie learned to be a woman, a wife, and a mother, from watching you. All she learned from me was how to fish and to check the oil in her car. But she did know that her Mother and Father were in love and loved her, and that the three of us were a family.

In time, Julie grew into a beautiful, intelligent young woman and married a wonderful man, Eric. We were so proud of her and so in awe of the adult she had become in spite of our dubious parenting skills. And finally, Julie and Eric gave us the greatest gift of all, a grandson. Aiden Michael Anderson soon became the center of our universe. I know he will miss his "Nona", but I will do my very best to fill in. I will read to him as you did, but I can’t do the voices and sound effects as well as you. He will not forget you. And I am betting that he will "get up and dance".

Many of those here today know you as a teacher. That is appropriate as it was your passion and your life’s work. You were born to teach. I am so very proud of you and what you have done for so many kids. I, more than most, know how much you cared and how hard you worked to help “your babies†succeed. You never gave up on them, and I know the tears and the emotional toll that commitment took on you. The notes and letters from your students, thanking you for having faith in them and for teaching them to never give up, always awed me. You often told me that teenagers couldn’t be fooled, that they could spot a “phony†a mile away. There was never any doubt that you were the “real thingâ€. You were kind and caring to everyone you met, whether an administrator or cafeteria worker, teacher or bus driver. Your work was harder and infinitely more important than mine, and you often worked day and night. I know you did it for the students, because it could not have been for the money.

Sheryl, we can’t see you or hear your voice, but you are still around us. I can see you in Aiden’s smile and hear you in Julie’s voice. There is a part of you in the lives of each of your students (past and present), in the elementary kids that your student-mentors have tutored and in the children that your B.E.S.T.T. students will some day teach. That is your legacy. As long as there are dedicated teachers and programs for students to mentor younger children and be encouraged to become teachers themselves, your legacy will never end.

Well, Sweetheart I have to close for now. I have always said that you are the single best person I have ever known. You were my confidant, my lover, my counselor, my best friend, and my biggest fan. You made me so much better than I was, and I love you more than life itself. You left such a huge void in my heart and in my life; I am not sure how to go on without you. The pain I feel right now is so very great, but I know I will heal in time. I will be here to look after Julie, Eric and Aiden as long as God allows. All of us here who loved you will have to lean on God and each other to bear our loss. I am sustained only by the promise of joining you again some day. Goodbye for now, my love.

Glen

(Read at Sheryl's Memorial Service)
Glen Searcy (Friendswood, TX )

Probably the best thing ever posted on AR....

That, my friends.......says it all.

Yep..probably the best post ever. I count myself blessed to love my wife like Glen loves his!

We received two checks today. A nice contribution from 54JNOLL and El Caballero's contribution towards the banded sling swivel.

El Caballero's biggest contribution is in setting up the Charity Classified Sale thread. Now those wishing to make a contribution to our project can do so while doing a little closet cleaning.

Charity Classified Thread

Thanks for doing this for us, Wes, you've been a big help from the start.

I agree. I wish I'd have gotten to the '06 brass a bit quicker.

just read this thread...great going guys!

Gentlemen, please see the post by a new member, "Gunriter" in this forum.

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9411043/m/721108574

I believe Mark Stratton will be at NRA. Can anyone hook up with this gentleman???????

I'm sure I can get the writer to stop and see me and we can talk about the events of the day.

A legitimate concern about caliber designation....why don't we leave the caliber designation blank? If the rifle ends up in Europe of some other problem area, we can address that by simply etching what ever the "winner" would like 284x 57, 7mm Spanish, 7mmx 257...well, you get the idea! Rigby in US has no 275 Rigby headsamp ammo, ditto Superior..I have about five rounds from (20 yrs ago) stamped 275 Rigby....this won't help much...any ideas?

If their web pages are accurate, Quality Cartridge has .275 Rigby brass.

http://www.qual-cart.com/headstamp.htm

If we buy a hundred or two that ought to suffice for world travelling. In jurisdictions where it is not an issue you could shoot up all the 7 X 57 you want.

What is the possibility of adding to the pot (items to the winning raffle)the following?

(DISCLAIMER - I know the lawyers are working the raffle idea, but for purely argument sake, I use the term "raffle" for this discussion.)

We purchase, or have Quality Cartridge donate, some brass head stamped .275 Rigby?

Someone load up a bunch of rounds and add that to the raffle?

Also, what is the possibility of contacting RCBS or Huntingtons or MidwayUSA and seeing if they would donate a Rock Chucker Starter reloading set? A set of dies to reload for this round?

Contact Barnes, Speer, Nosler et al. and see if they would donate bullets for this raffle?

This way the winner, whomever it may be, will be all set to reload for this particular rifle?

Just a thought.

Quality Cartridges web site indicates that they sell loaded ammunition, with premium bullets, for the correctly headstamped brass they sell. I haven't been able to get them on the telephone (they are in Maryland I think) so I don't know about current availability, minimum purchase requirements, if any, etc. Has anyone ever purchased anything from them?

I haven't. I maped them on Yahoo and they are about an hour from my home in Fairfax County, VA.

If we need a face-to-face meeting with them, I will be more than happy to pay them a visit on behalf of the project.

Wink,
Primarily out of curiosity, which countries will not allow a 7X57 to be used? I have never heard this to be an issue anywhere. I have heard that if you had ammo, the headstamp had to match the rifle caliber designation but that was mostly in Africa.

In France the 7 X 57 is classified as a military caliber (as is 30-06, 8 X 57, 303 British, etc) because it was adopted as a service cartridge. With authorization it is possible to buy a rifle and the ammunition for the caliber, under the same restrictions as for handguns and handgun ammunition. But you cannot hunt with it. Nor can you import it into France without a special import permit. By some quirk, the .275 Rigby is not considered as a service cartridge (the official listing of controlled calibers seems to have been based on slightly different caliber diameter assumption) and thereby is allowed. You would need to have .275 Rigby headstamped brass to hunt with it of course. I think Italy has similar restrictions, but I'm not sure about other countries designations and regulations. I have soft copies of the Ministerial decrees for those who are interested (and think their French is sufficient) which I can e-mail. For those interested send me a PM.

I still haven't been able to get past the answering machine at Quality Cartridge, but, extrapolating from the web site, there is probably a 300 pieces minimum order for a total bill of probably around $90 for unfired, unprimed brass ($30 per 100 pieces).

Wink:

Do you have any information on how the restrictions in France (and Italy as you mentioned) may be felt throughout the entire EU? Basically, do you see a shift of the EU adopting these restrictions?

Wink:

In regards to head stamped brass, if we wanted to add brass and bullets to the raffle, and if we can't get a donation from Quality Cartridge (if we ask and get the blessing from Forrest and the other folks in charge of this project), I'll throw in a donation for $100 towards brass.

Just a thought and offer to the group to decide on as a whole.

A piece of advice:

I would think long and hard about including ammo with the rifle. Especially reloaded ammo.

I'm beginning to think that if this chambering is really as big a deal as we're making it out to be, then maybe we should just build a 270 Win.

Suitable for 90% of game animals. Ammo everywhere. Low recoil factory loads available. Legal everywhere. Brass grows on trees.

Most importantly, it's my favorite round.

I have no objections to any caliber we choose, but having it in .270 will probably make it a lot more attractive to a lot more people.

Why not label it as a "7mm Mauser". Everyone knows it is a 7x57 but is not labeled as such?

I think the 7x57 has wider appeal than a .270 does. Not trying to argue about ballistics here. But I think Mark Stratton said it best, the 7x57 seems to be one of if not the most popular rounds for custom rifles. Let's put aside our personal preferences and build the rifle with the widest appeal so as to raise the most money possible for the fund.

We have a barrel on order, what ever cartridge we choose it needs to use a 7mm (.284) tube.

quote:

Originally posted by Mark_Stratton:
We have a barrel on order, what ever cartridge we choose it needs to use a 7mm (.284) tube.

If European gun laws dictate what chamber this rifle gets, and 7x57 is out and there is a 7m/m barrel on the way. What about 7-08, it is a non-military round, low recoil, etc..

Personaly, 7x57 is just fine with me.

Hog Killer

I would like my rifle to be a 7x57 by any name.
Butch
www.shadetreeea.com

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
I would like my rifle to be a 7x57 by any name.
Butch
www.shadetreeea.com

You must be planning to buy a lot of tickets.

How about a .280 Remington?

And since we do live in a fairly litigious society, why not offer a voucher or certificate for ammunition to go along with the rifle. What I am thinking of works something like a giftcard at a sporting goods store. That way, the burden of liability would fall on whoever sold the ammunition to the winner. Just a thought I had.

Hogkiller, so far it is not European laws, just France. I would suspect that the whole thing is not a big deal. We may lose Wink buying a ticket but I would hazard a guess that you would lose a lot more with .275 Rigby on the barrel.

But as Forrest said, a .270 would be a fine round in it and as others suggested, so would a .280. In the mid 90's, the .280 Remington was the most popular custom rifle chambering for several years. It is a great round also.

I'll buy raffle tickets whatever the chambering; I can always leave the rifle with family in the USA. Heck, half my rifles are in the USA anyway so it won't change much for me. I just pointed out that 7 X 57 being engraved on the barrel does create some constraints in at least one jurisdiction. But I go with Duane Weibe's take on this: build the rifle, if someone prefers to have .275 Rigby engraved on the barrel rather than 7 X 57, let the happy new owner make that decision. By the way, whether or not their particular European country allows or doesn't allow their residents a 7 X 57 is not the only issue for Euro residents. Almost all of them travel through France and some hunt in France. Most would prefer (I think), even when not obligated for their own country, the .275 Rigby designation.

I think we should stick with the 7x57.

Does the barrel have to have a caliber designation?

If not then if someone is going through a country where the 7x57 isn't allowed they can just carry 275 Rigby headstamped brass.

If it is then why not just have 275 Rigby on the barrel but make it very clear in the advertising that the two are interchangable.

Personally I think this isn't a big deal, I mean who wants to go to France anyway?

I think we should just build it as planned and chamber it for 7X57 but not inscribe the barrel. We can state in the literature that the barrel will be inscribed with the caliber designation at the “owners†discretion.

Nothing against the .280 or the 7mm-08 but I think the 7X57 is just much classier and is more in keeping with the overall design of the rifle and the action.

I think wink and 54JNoll have the idea that works for all.

quote:

I think we should just build it as planned and chamber it for 7X57 but not inscribe the barrel. We can state in the literature that the barrel will be inscribed with the caliber designation at the “owners†discretion.

I second that?

Forrest, time for an executive decision?