Looking at the pictures on the post about the remington with broken bolt handle, and the also at the rifles being built by the mass production companies any more, I could just puke !
I was looking at an old Husky the other day. It was (I think) a pre war rifle , manlicher stock beautifull hand checkering, real steel & real wood. I went back today hoping I might be able to buy it, but it was packed up to go to a gunshow and I won't get another chance at it till next weekend if it is not sold.
Man i don't care how acurate these 700s and plastic magazine tikkas are. its just freaking junk to me.
It seems just mabye ruger is comming around, a new steel floor plate , and a better trigger.
Still ain't half the rifle the Husky or even my old JC higgins FN is, but at least I could,nt find any pot metal , or plastic on the blue steel wood stocked hawkeye I saw.
forgive my rant please but i dearly love a quality rifle ...tj3006

Aint it the truth

A few years ago I bought a Winchester Model 70 Classic Super Express in .375 H&H. It seemed to be all steel and wood, which is what I wanted. It turned out the grip cap was plastic. It broke on my first African safari and I replaced it with a steel grip cap. But what irked me most is that Winchester has steel grip caps on other rifles. Why would they put a plastic grip cap on an otherwise good factory rifle conceived with an eye towards tradition? I hear that on the later Express line models they went to the steel grip cap so somebody there must have been listening.

this has gone on for some time- remember "rolled" or "pressed" checkering, along with high gloss finishing back in the 60's? ugh.

just a guess, but it seems Ruger was/is the major influence in retaining a classic American style for off the rack rifles.

if synthetics keep a gun in the popularly priced range, I suppose it's a good idea of sorts, but then some aftermarket synthetic stocks cost more than a new Savage rifle.

what constitutes a handsome firearm has changed radically in the last 25 years.

I'm with you! Blued steel, and walnut. Thank you!

Thomas,
I do understand your point of view and I do appreciate a well turned out rifle where the only thing not wood or metal is the recoil pad. I still hope to find a FN Supreme or other fine Mauser based sporter for my own.

I also have a Tikka Whitetail hunter (Synth/Blue) that works very well for me. It is not the kind of rifle that you admire fondly while waiting for a buck to show up, but it is a very good solid shooter. If I accidently drag the stock against a barb wire fence, it is not going to ruin my day. The stock fits me very well and I shoot it very well.

The thing that ticks me off a bit is when you look at a wood stocked rifle where the maker has made some effort to produce a fine quality gun, and you start to find plastic and pot metal parts. If a company is going to make a utilitarian shooter I have no problem with that, but don't confuse the issue by graft cheap parts onto a fine rifle. Utilitarian rifles fill a need and I know hunters that I would not want to entrust with a fine rifle. Their guns look like they have been dragged down ten miles of bad road!

As long as manufacturers don't confuse the issue I don't have a problem with plastic and pot metal on appropriate parts. If I pay tikka prices I don't mind plastic and pot metal where appropriate and functional. If I pay Sako prices then I want wood and steel!

If I was King, all rifles would be made from Steel and Wood...
No synthetic stocks, plastic magazines, plastic grip caps, plastic forend tips, only wood and steel!!!

And, that goes for target rifles too, where synthetic stocks rule today.

Don

If you enjoy a tikka or another modern rifle, thats fine with me. But I really don't mind a scratched up wooden stock, they have soul to me.
I am thinking of buying a kayack or conoe.
(can't spell ya know. a boat you paddle down a river) I might end up with a synthetic stainless ruger hawkeye in .308 just cause a rifle for hunting from such a boat is likly to get wet and stay wet, but the only way I could learn to love such a rifle is to develop a sussessfull history with it...tj3006

5 = Steel and Walnut
1 = Synthetic bean field rifle

quote:

I might end up with a synthetic stainless ruger hawkeye in .308 just cause a rifle for hunting from such a boat is likly (sic) to get wet and stay wet, but the only way I could learn to love such a rifle is to develop a sussessfull (sic) history with it...tj3006

You certainly changed your mind in a big hurry.

It still amazes me to hear folks talk about being afraid to take a nice rifle out in the woods for fear or putting a scratch on it. Especially when those same folks take their $40,000 SUVs and their $7000 4 wheelers out and beat the hell out of them driving on terrible roads when they go hunting and fishing. 10 years after you buy that SUV its worth a few thousand bucks and you want to just get rid of it any way you can. 10 years after you put a scratch in that custom rifle its just getting broken in an worn in and getting comfortable.

I think that the Custom Shops produce plenty of wood and blued steel rifles. You have to be willing to pay for the extra costs of materials and manhours required to produce the rifle of your choice.
Poor folks live in mobile homes and shoot economy model rifles. Ain't it lovely to have a choice?

22WRF,
A lot of us like to have both. I have both fine double shotguns and a Remington 870 synth pumpgun that I use as a backup and for when I might have to crawl through brush or mud to sneak up on turkey or for a rainy snowy day in a waterfowl marsh.

The same goes for rifles. I enjoy sitting in a tree stand or deer blind looking at a fine rifle while I wait for a deer. There are just situations that I prefer not to have to worry about scarring up a fine rifle.

BTW I drive a 10yr. old Ford Ranger pickup that is probably worth more than my collection of centerfire rifles but not that much more.

quote:

Originally posted by Thomas Jones:

I am thinking of buying a kayack or conoe.
(can't spell ya know. a boat you paddle down a river) I might end up with a synthetic stainless ruger hawkeye in .308 just cause a rifle for hunting from such a boat is likly to get wet and stay wet, but the only way I could learn to love such a rifle is to develop a sussessfull history with it...tj3006

I think the real reason is if you broke your canoe paddle, you could use the ruger stock!

Like others state “Life is too short to hunt with an ugly gunâ€

Roland

I had an aquaintence complain to me one day he liked his Win Legendary Frontiersman commemorative, but he wished it didn't have a plastic stock. Seems fancy wood went right over his head. Still, the finish may have been close to plastic goop.
And no one had better (sic) me.

Always....

Few of my projects. Some are done, some havent started. All are wood & steel.

I only have 2 synthetic stocked rifles, a heavy bbl pd gun, and a 22 lr that I won at an NRA banquet. All the rest of mine are wood/blued steel. I think plastic stocks are ugly.

I AM planning on buying a Stevens (Savage) 200 in .223. This is to be a S. AZ. coyote gun. I'm going into it knowing it's a damn ugly gun, but for just shooting coyotes in some of the roughest, nastiest, thorn infested country I've ever seen, it'll do nicely. The plus side is I KNOW it's gonna get beat to hell, but it's sooo damn ugly, I won't care! At least it'll shoot straight...

I think a camo paint job will help, but yup, it's ugly alright!

Just found this website...GOOD STUFF all.
This is a topic i could dig deep into.
People talk about the need for sunthetic and stainless steel. Truth is unless you LIVE in harsh conditions...ie. ALASKA, you do Not need a SS and Syn gun. If you on the other hand go to places like that to hunt for a few weeks per year, you are just fine with a good rust blued gun and walnut stock.
AND a point i only rarely see anyone mention when they are talking aout or plugging a ss/syn gun is this.........
MOST HAVE CROME MOLY (rusts faster than SS) TRIGGER COMPONENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What good is your barrel when the trigger is rusted and will not go off or worste yet goes off when you do not want it to?

Thats why I have been buying rifles no newer than 1955

Hell , A plastic rifle and wife with plastic tits!

hoora!

for the tits that is.
nice guns to boot i am sure.

Done well, by someone with judgment and taste, a rifle will not offend my sensibilities whether it's made of stainless or blued carbon steel, or whether it has a walnut and ebony or synthetic stock.

IMHO, a rifle can even incorporate aluminum alloy and plastic parts, as long as the rifle is put together by someone with a good brain and eye, who has made the right parts from these materials (and who had a good reason for doing so), and who has made sure they are well turned out.

Trouble is, most factory rifles aren't very well made these days, no matter what they're made of.

quote:

Originally posted by TJ:
...i dearly love a quality rifle....

Me too. That is why I prefer those extremely accurate Stainless and Synthetic Remingtons rather than anything else in Rusting Blue and Termite Food.

Sure is nice that we can all have just what "we" want. It wasn't all that long ago that we didn't have all the excellent variety that we have today to choose from.

You mean like these: Remingtons

BTW, Stainless does indeed rust as well albeit at a much slower rate than blued steel. jorge

quote:

Does any body use steel and wood anymore ?

Well....there are some places that "it's what they think they need.....or can afford".....as for me it's blued steel and wood......and at last count, way more than one man should have!

quote:

Originally posted by Thomas Jones:
Looking at the pictures on the post about the remington with broken bolt handle, and the also at the rifles being built by the mass production companies any more, I could just puke !
I was looking at an old Husky the other day. It was (I think) a pre war rifle , manlicher stock beautifull hand checkering, real steel & real wood. I went back today hoping I might be able to buy it, but it was packed up to go to a gunshow and I won't get another chance at it till next weekend if it is not sold.
Man i don't care how acurate these 700s and plastic magazine tikkas are. its just freaking junk to me.
It seems just mabye ruger is comming around, a new steel floor plate , and a better trigger.
Still ain't half the rifle the Husky or even my old JC higgins FN is, but at least I could,nt find any pot metal , or plastic on the blue steel wood stocked hawkeye I saw.
forgive my rant please but i dearly love a quality rifle ...tj3006

I use older steel actions. My "truck guns" a 300 WSM & 338 Win have SS barrels & laminate stocks. My Rigby is traditional all the way! My 9.3 is a mixture with walnut stock and SS barrel. My 257 AI is blue and walnut, with a jewelled bolt. My 308 is going to be syn stock with a CM barrel.

I prefer the warmth and feel of wood. I'm using syn on the 308 to keep the weight down.