Terry, I think they get long quickly after 19". I've seen some as long as 21" that still looked nice. The main thing is getting the compound curve correct in the forearm. A straight taper from the front guard screw to the foreend tip will cause a rifle to look clubby even with an 18" bbl.
I'd like to build a full stocked 9.3X62 and would like to use a 20-21" bbl.
______________________________ "Truth is the daughter of time." Francis Bacon
Posts: 5053 | Location: Muletown | Registered: 07 September 2001
Terry, I think they get long quickly after 19". I've seen some as long as 21" that still looked nice. The main thing is getting the compound curve correct in the forearm. A straight taper from the front guard screw to the foreend tip will cause a rifle to look clubby even with an 18" bbl.
I'm more of a 19" or less kind of person. Done correctly a 20 looks ok. I built two on M600s that looked great.
As usual just my $.02 Paul K
Posts: 12881 | Location: Mexico, MO | Registered: 02 April 2001
It all depends on shape. I've owned several original Mannlicher-Schoenauer and Brno full stock rifles with 23.5" barrels. They look perfectly proportioned.
The original Mauser "African" models had 26" barrels, but the stocks stopped at the 23.5" mark.
KurtC: It all depends on shape. I've owned several original Mannlicher-Schoenauer and Brno full stock rifles with 23.5" barrels. They look perfectly proportioned.
The full stock 22F with 23.5" barrel is as beautiful rifle as there is, prettier than those with 20.5" barrels IMO.
NRA Life Member, Band of Bubbas Charter Member, PGCA, DRSS. Shoot & hunt with vintage classics.
Posts: 9487 | Location: Texas Hill Country | Registered: 11 January 2002
How a rifle looks is up to you. When I look at photo's of my own 20.5" barreled 22f the rifle looks too long. I think its the long action or maybe just the way the photo's come out.
For what i's worth....I think he eye picks up the relationship between barrel length and butt length. i.e. A 20" barel with a 12 1/2 length of pull would look pretty weird, but at 14 1/2, things look proper again
Posts: 2221 | Location: Tacoma, WA | Registered: 31 October 2003
The rifles that you have made stand out as the finest rifle art that I have ever seen. I have saved pictures of Forrest B's rifles made by you.
The 22f of mine pictured above have had the butt stock cut to shorten the LOP. It was over 15" to the front trigger and too long for me. At present it measures 13" to the rear trigger and 14" to the front trigger. As you know its the front trigger that fires the rifle.
on a bolt gun i think 22" is about max. on a single shot like the #1's i think 24" is right. ruger putting the short tube on the RSI #1 is silly. it makes the rifle look like a cypress knee.
I think ruger should revamp the idea of the RSI a 9.3 in a 23" #1 would be great. so would a 257 bob or a 338-06. I would love to have an RSI #1 in 338-06 with a 23" barrel. WOOF!
Posts: 3986 | Location: in the tall grass "milling" around. | Registered: 09 December 2006
Mannlicher-Schoenauer full length rifle stocks still look good at 23", But you need to remember that most of those stocks are severely lightened on the inside. On the other hand, I think the SAKO Mannlicher stocked rifles of the 80s and 90s looked sick at any length.
Posts: 996 | Location: Texas | Registered: 14 October 2004
I have a CZ550 Medium FS in 9.3x62 with a 20.5" barrel and i think it looks great! Points like a well balanced rifle should.
" If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand which feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countryman " Samuel Adams, 1772
Posts: 1117 | Location: Helena, MT, USA | Registered: 01 April 2001
Originally posted by Con: Regarding Mannlicher stocks ... in the States, does Remington make available its Mannlicher stocks as components out of the Custom Shop? Cheers... Con
if you dig laminate stocks. i think the remington, and the Sako are the GD butt ugliest mannlichers i have ever seen. what was sako thinking w/ that barrel band trash?
Posts: 3986 | Location: in the tall grass "milling" around. | Registered: 09 December 2006
I think he eye picks up the relationship between barrel length and butt length. i.e. A 20" barel with a 12 1/2 length of pull would look pretty weird, but at 14 1/2, things look proper again
Your absolutely correct as usual. It's all about portion.
Posts: 8352 | Location: Jennings Louisiana, Arkansas by way of Alabama by way of South Carloina by way of County Antrim Irland by way of Lanarkshire Scotland. | Registered: 02 November 2001
Not the best photo, but this is a Brno 22f in 7x64 with a 23.5" barrel.
Con, As I recall, Remington would sell the MS stock as a replacement, but the retail price on it was nearly the cost of the entire rifle. There has always been an unconfirmed rumor that the stocks were made by Boyd's.
Hey, thanks for all the photos! I'm doing a MS stock on a Mauser 7x57, and I need all the info I can get, since I have zip artistic originality! What a PITA doing the shadow line around the cheek rest... Mine has a 20" barrel, and a schnabel nose out of horn, and the sanding is 90% done. Will post photos after done, if I can. Last time I tried, I got a message that I was not authorized for photos. That last VZ 24 looks weird with no front sight ramp.
I'm more of a 19" or less kind of person. Done correctly a 20 looks ok. I built two on M600s that looked great.
