Over the last year, I've posted a few pics of a pair of rifles Duane Wiebe is building. To make things a bit easier, I've assembled some in a photo album you can view at:
Wiebe Pair
You may have to enter the password AR

Enjoy!

Oh yesss. Made my day... I hope you'll continue to update us...

I hope you will get that stock pattern to jeffeosso...

Wait! Is that a Dremel in the background!!? Probably for buffing the edges of the chisels

Forrest,





Chic and myself have often talked about the marveled gun room that you must have. One of your particular rifles and stories that I will always remember was that G33/40 in a Mannlicher stock that if I remember correctly you took delivery on a Monday, took four shots to sight in and the 5th shoot took a awesome Texas Whitetail. I saved that picture as it was one of the neatest photos I have ever seen.



-Mike

Forrest,
Incredible work and gorgeous stocks. I am going to miss the show this year and seeing those just makes it worse. There is a small number of guys at the show who are just at another level as far as perfecting their craft and Duane is definitely one of them. Thanks for posting those.

Here are two pictures from the group.







Thank you for sharing those pictures.

Forrest,
Beautiful!!!! Are thesse going on your next Africa trip?
Bill

Forrest
How do you feel about adoption?

If I were using any logic at all, this project would have never gotten off the ground. I don't NEED either rifle as I already have pet rifles that cover all the ground that this 300 H&H and 375 H&H could be used for.

I was sitting at the ACGG dinner in Reno a couple of years ago, minding my own business. One of the auction items was a 30 caliber full octagon barrel, made by Ralf Martini. It came up for bid and was going for a song, so I joined in the bidding and ended up with the barrel. It was such a bargain, that I couldn't pass it up. Well, it has turned out that that barrel was the most expensive gun part I have ever purchased.

Sitting at dinner between Duane and the engraver Sam Welch didn't help, and the wine surely didn't help. By the time dinner was over, we had dreamed up the idea for a 300 H&H and I had placed an order with Ralf for a matching barrel in .375. I had gotten such a great deal on the .308 barrel, why not put some of the "savings" towards another barrel and make a matched pair? Have about 5 glasses of wine and this will start making some sense to you too.

Between Duane, Ralf, Sam and some other "experts" the idea jelled for a matched pair of working-rifles in 300 H&H and 375 H&H; sensibly stocked but with all the necessary accoutrements. Duane said square bridges, Sam said full coverage engraving, Lee LeBas said claw mounts. Gosh, it's great to have such helpful friends; but at least they were paying for the wine now. The next morning at the show, I found two nice matching blanks on Steve Heilman's table and got these for a great price. According to my "Reno accounting" I was now making money on this project.

I had a couple of 1935 Chilean mausers that I acquired through some convoluted trading. My selective memory told me I had almost nothing invested in the actions. It was looking like I was getting these rifles almost for FREE!

I sent my FREE actions to Duane and he opened them up to long-magnum dimensions, welded on new bolt handles, square-bridged them, added Blackburn bottom metal and triggers, and Wisner three-position safeties. He inletted the square-bridge to accept a custom claw mount mechanism he designed. My free actions weren't looking so free anymore.

Some "minor" details like re-cutting the magazine boxes to allow for better feeding and a slimmer fore-end profile, and buying lots of new "one-off" cutting pieces so Duane could make the claw mounts added "minor" amounts to the bargain price. What the hell, right? I did get such a deal on that 308 barrel.

Later another great deal fell into my lap when I got 1,000 pieces of virgin Winchester brass in 300 H&H for less than $100. Dang, somebody is looking out for me. My good deal is getting better all the time. Pretty soon Ralf and Duane will be sending me money, I thought.

Just wait, it gets better. I got such a deal on some Swarovski scopes, I had better buy an extra one for the 300 and have Duane it set up in claw mount rings, just in case. If I ever lost a scope years down the road, I thought, what would it cost to have someone else make a new set of rings for Duane's custom mounts? I'd be saving myself money to have it done now. If I remember correctly, more wine was involved in this decision.

Well now the final billing has come in and I'm forced to do an accurate accounting of what I've been spending to have all my bargain components assembled into functional rifles. Thank God it�s been spread over a couple of years.

As I look at the bills though, I figure each of the craftsmen involved are grossing about $50/hour. That's gross. Try putting together a full machine shop manned by experienced craftsmen and rent it out for $50/hour. See how rich you get.

This project really has been a lot of fun for me and I've learned a lot more than I ever knew about various facets of rifle building. My auto mechanic and A/C guys charge me about $90/hour and you won't find me calling them every week to get a progress report or posting pictures of their work on the internet so we can all stand in awe of their talents.

Guys, we are truly lucky that some people (with real talent) love making, what we love admiring, so much that they are willing to do it almost for FREE. Call your friendly gunsmith today and get him started on a project before everyone figures out what a great deal this is.

Now where did I put Don Klein's phone number? I just got a great deal on a two-piece blank and I know where I can get a Hagn action on the cheap.

For those of you that are not accountants, THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT.

Yes, I say a little prayer thanking God for my gunsmith now and again. Truly they charge peanuts for what they do. You are lucky you weren't there last year instead of the year before, there were a matched, consecutively (spelling?) numbered pair of Argentine actions totally gone over by Thos. Burgess that somebody had for sale, 1500 a piece. talk about an incredible foundation for a matched pair huh?

My logic on the current one was that I already had the action so it couldn't be that expensive right? And then by throwing in a site that I had for another project yet to be finished I saved money there too.

I think from now on I will setup an auto-transfer from my bank to the gunsmiths so that the money comes out before I see it and he just calls me from time to time to say,"hey, how about we build ----, no money needed."

Red

RENO ACCOUNTING! That's a good one...

I feel your accounting is correct but you are using a different "value" not calculated in U.S. Dollars...