One of our fellow posters used the term "Rusting Blue and Termite Food" to describe wood and blued rifles, implicating that they might not hold up to hard field use.



Here's a picture of the three rifles I use the most. Top to bottom they are a 270, 300 Win Mag and 338 Win Mag. The 270 and 300 have seen a lot of use from hot and wet to cold and dry, including quite a bit of time in a scabbard (horses are tough on rifles). The 338 has seen some use travelling around the States and has spent almost two months on safari (safaris generally aren't too hard on a rifle).







It's not the sharpest picture but you can see that the rifles don't look too worse for the wear. I add a coat of stock finish once or twice a year depending upon use, and the finish just gets better with time. I think the 270 and 300 look better now than when new. Eventually the 338 might look that good.



I don't have much interest in "safe queens". I like using rifles, no matter how pretty they are.

Forest,
I have a customer from Alaska and he wanted me to dress up his two rifles that he had been using for years in the AK bush. He wanted a new finish and the skip line eliminated on one and the other refinished and the checkering redone on the other, new recoil pads on both. I was very surprised when I got them, particularly from what I hear from anyone who has set as much as a toe in Alaska. His guns were not stainless and they weren't rusted and the stocks werent warped and they had been kept in good condition and the culprit was proper care. Seems you have learned that same lesson. It doesnt take long and you get to fondle your firearms a bit longer in the process.

Forrest:



Not too shabby a set of rifles. Glad to hear they are earning their keep.



Are those all Wiebe rifles?

Forrest

Very nice rifles

Please, tell us more about the rifles and post a larger picture. I will fetch my droll rag

Cheers
/ JOHAN

Forrest,

I second JOHAN's request for more or closer picture(s).

What with the background and content that is one of the best pictures I have seen of fine rifles.

Thanks Forrest,
I'm one of the few gunmakers who has kept, and hunted his own guns over a long period of time. I've a flintlock fowler built in 1984, a percussion rifle built in 1991, a custom Fox shotgun finished in 1993 and my sweetheart sidelever Ruger #3 done in 1991. Each has been hunted hard and taken game, nine head with the sidelever, three blacktail with the percusion rifle and I shot the Fox exclusively for seven years at everything, clays and game (seven species of upland game in five states and a 19 lb. Montana gobbler).
Each could stand a refinish, but I cherish them for what each has taught me about how well a custom gun will perform, how a stock finish will survive and how rust bluing will last under field conditions.
The weakest link is always the nitre blued scews, but they sure look sweet when fresh.
Thanks for the complementary comments!

I'd like to know about who built the rifles and your experiences hunting them. You could PM me with info for a possible magazine story. The photo isn't exactly detailed, but I can tell they were stocked by a pro, the lines and conformation look good, and the stock layout is excellent.

Forrest B: Beautiful rifles, to me, they are just, well, "quintessential!" Can you elaborate (or maybe you Chic) on what that product "stock finish" is? thanks, jorge

I hate to tell you but it is obvious that your rifles are right on the verge of self destruction. As a service I will take them off your hands and spare you the trouble of sweeping up a pile of sawdust and rust.

Always cracks me up when I read the rationalization of some for plastic rifles. "I'd be afraid a nice rifle will get worn and ugly..." So the answer is to start ugly to begin with? That's like saying I want to marry an ugly woman so I won't be disappointed when she gets old.

Jeff

Nice rifles Forest! Fine stockwork is attractive for sure, and when it is well done, hard to take your eyes off of. Poor stockwork however, is just awful, and in my mind worse than synthetic in the astetics department.



Metalwork is my favorite and I enjoy looking at good examples of it more than anything else. I also appreciate what a fine gunsmith can do to metal that adds to functional utility.



Chuck

SDH,
On the contrary, the custom gunmakers, that I know, hunt with and use their own custom rifles. I know of none that do not. I don't know how you understand that their using their own rifles is a rarity.

Forest, those rifles of yours are lovely, and they quite obviously do the job very well. I love the red recoil pads!

There's a place for fiberglass stocks, and there's a place for fine wood. It doesn't have to be all or nothing at all, and I use and enjoy both.

That "termite food" comment always pisses me off, and cheapens the medium, the art, and the craftsmen who produce it.

D'Arcy told me a story about one of his clients who ordered a pair of Classic Grade rifles a number of years ago with fine walnut stocks. This man literally hunted the world with those rifles, and evidently had the circumstances and means to do little else BUT hunt. Around the first of every year, he'd send the rifles back to Echols for a good, detailed cleaning, etc. When the rifles can back he started his hunting regimen all over again, and this went on for years. D'Arcy believes that those two rifles are the most heavily used rifles he's ever built, and have taken by far the most big game of any guns he's ever turned out. They did the job, and when it comes to hunting experience, the client who owned them would just maybe let the "termite food" naysayer polish his boots.......

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