After posting a picture of my rifle on the ebony-forend thread, I had several people ask for additional pictures and information. Be patient, as the pictures take a while to load.



The rifle was built for me by Duane Wiebe, who is a pleasure to work with on a project, and engraved by Charles Lee. I am lucky enough to live 15 minutes from Duane's shop, and 30 minutes from Charles', so I was able to watch each step of the rifle coming together. I have also had the pleasure of becoming friends with both of these gentlemen as a result of this project. The stock is Bastogne Walnut, checkered at 24 LPI at my request. The rifle with scope weights just over seven pounds, which is ideal to me.



The barreled action is an Armour International, which is identical to the Legacy, only made in Belgium. The action came with the 22" barrel in 7x64. I was originally going to rebarrel to .280 Remington, but decided to stay with the original barrel after shooting it. The rifle will shoot five of the seven loads I have tried into sub M.O.A. groups, and the two best loads so far into sub .75 M.O.A. groups, with bullets from 116 grains to 173 grain. Further more, all seven loads shoot within 2 inches of the same point of impact at 100 yards. As I intend to shoot this rifle a lot, I expect that in a few years, it will get the new barrel. As you can see, Duane recontoured the receiver and machined in integral bases to take Warne rings. He also changed the bolt handle.



The buttstock and checkpiece are Duane's typical (if anything Duane does is "typical")style, and the length, drop, cast, etc. are made to my dimensions. The rifle comes up like a fine shotgun; point and shoot.



The action and furniture were engraved by Charles Lee. Charles was an engraver for Purdy until he moved here to the States. His specialty is fine scroll, all of which he does with a push type graver.



Finally, the forend tip is an ebony schnabel. I know it is not original, but I had not seen it done before I had this rifle built. As you can see, the result is rather pleasing.

Congratulation,
Nice rifle.

Loudnboomer:

That is a gorgeous rifle. May I ask from whom you obtained the wood. I'd love to find a piece just like it.

Thanks,

Jordan

Thanks for posting this Dave! The rifle looks even better when you see the details. I *REALLY* like the lines of the rifle (slim foreend, very open pistol grip, elegance) and the Schnabel foreend is nothing less than stunning!

Question (if you or someone else can find the time): I have never had a stock tailormade made for me. What goes into the process of determining the right drop and cast-off (I believe it is called)?? LOP I'm familiar with, but the other dimensions one mostly worries about when building shotguns... For shotguns, I believe one uses a "try-gun" (is this the correct term - a gun with adjustable LOP, drop and cast-off, anyway), and thus establish what fits/makes hits happen. What does one do to determine these dimensions for a rifle? E.g. the height of the sights (scope) may not be fixed at the outset of the project...

Super that you left the rifle in 7x64 - a little used cartridge in the US, but the ".30-06" of Central Europe.

- mike

[ 02-14-2003, 18:26: Message edited by: mho ]

Absolutely gorgeous.
Doug

What a beautiful work!

Beautiful rifle. I visited with Duane at the guild show and his work is among the best.
The Sako at the top of this picture has similar characteristics (Bastogne stock, ebony schnabble forend tip).

[ 02-17-2003, 05:36: Message edited by: fla3006 ]

For bastogne, try:

www.mako.com/bastogne/rimrock.htm

Jordan:

I got the stock blank from Steve Heilman in Grass Valley, California. Steve can be reached at (530) 272-8758. Steve usually has quite a bit of nice wood in stock. I f I were looking for a great piece of wood, it would be worth the six-hour round trip from Alturas to check out his blanks. Steve is also a very accomplished gunsmith in his own right.

Mike:

The easiest way to get the correct measurements is to find a rifle that fits you already, and then copy its dimensions. One of the reasons that I left the rifle in 7x64 is that I would love to hunt in Europe one of these days, and I figured that this would be the perfect rifle. Since I handload, the rarity here in the U.S. is no big deal.

Does the engraver, Mr. Lee, have a web site? Looks like nice work, but kind of hard to see on my screen. Beautiful rifle.

Gatogordo:

Charles does not have a web site that I am aware of, but you can reach him at the following address:

Charles Lee
c/o Commanche Hills Hunting Preserve
2951 Curran Road
Ione, CA 95640
(209) 763-5192

loud-n-boomer:

What opinions do you and Mr. Weibe have about this particular Mauser action you chose to build this rifle on?

Loud-n-boomer, that is absolutely gorgeous. Duane is an absolute master. Thanks for sharing that. A good friend of mine did a few forend tips like that. They initially are just an angle, whether it be 34 dgerees or whatever. When the forearm is shaped that straight line becomes a very pleasing curve. The engraving is fantastic. Thank you for sharing that.

Loud-N-Boomer

That is an absolutely beautiful rifle. Thanks for sharing the pictures with us.

Jim B.

uwave:

I am pleased with the rifle and action, and I know that Duane thinks enough of it that he is building a rifle on one for another customer.

In my opinion, the Legacy isn't any better than other Mauser actions; the advantages of the Legacy action are that the front and rear bridges can be formed into integral mounts for Warne rings, and it comes with a Model 70 style safety and good bottom metal. The only changes that were made to the action on my rifle were to recontour the receiver bridges for Warne mounts, installing a new bolt handle, and some minor polishing.

Beautiful rifle. In particular I like the comment that it will be shot a lot!

Just one word; PURDY!!

Woww

Very nice rifle. I like the light English style of engarving. I have no feelings for over worked engarvings with alot of gold etc.

I think it would be a shame to rebarrel the rifle to 280 rem. The 7X64 is a very classic cartridge that will do everything that the 280 can. RWS and Norma offers several loads for this caliber. Finding 7X64 ammo in Europe is not a trouble. It can be found almost any where. I think it's easier to find 7X64 ammo in Africa too, since it has been farily popular there.

I hope you will take out this rifle and use it with care. Congratulations!!

/ JOHAN

l-n-b,
What a lovely blend of art and function! Congratulations. Please let us know what your christen your baby. Ku-dude

Beautiful gun. Please also post pictures of the trophies you take with it.

Good hunting!

Man, that rifle is killer! I love the end cap. Very nice, very pleasing to look at. ~~~Suluuq

Loudnboomer

There should be a law against putting pictures of gorgeous things like that on the net - I got all gooey in the fork!!

Beautiful and congratulations.

GG

I'm a stainless/synthetic guy myself but that gun is sooooo good lookin' it shoots right passed the functionality spectrum and dives right into the Kewl Zone!!!! Really, really nice rifle! I love that ebony forend. Thanks for the pic.

Great pictures of a fantastic rifle. You should be very proud of it.

Oops, what happened to the pictures on this thread? Or am I the only one not able to see these anymore?? Dave probably got sick and tired of every man and his dog (myself included ) wanting to steal his idea for a pretty rifle...

- mike