Regarding Beautiful Hunting Rifles

[Mustangs Rule]

After several years of use, I’ve gotten weary of my Kimber Hunter 280 AI. To me it has no eye or hand appeal. Molded plastic stock including the trigger guard. No bottom metal, just a half plastic magazine with no floor plate.



At the range the other day, a young man had two rifles. One was the cheapest imaginable new bolt action and the other was an expensive tricked out AR clone with a scope that looked capable of exploring the heavens.



He had no rifle of beauty, to hunt with. Poor fellow!



A rifle can be much more than a mere tool like a wrench. How important is it to have a wood stock? How important is hand cut checkering? Remington, Ruger and new Winchesters went with stamped then machine cut checkering.



Lacking the hands-on human workmanship in both wood and metal details, can a rifle really be beautiful? What about the artistic receiver stamping like the one on a Husqvarna which says, Made in Sweden?



A wood stock cannot be molded. It takes a lot of work to fit it in an action with details, like a double stepped barrel on a Safari grade Browning or the barrel swells on old Winchesters to carry African style dangerous game leaf sights.


Anybody else value such things?

 

[kiwi hunter]

Don't stop there, you're doing well, carry on pls

 

[Mallardsx2]

No.

There is too much stuff in life going on to sit around worrying about how pretty my gun is.

I use a beat-up Remington 760 30-06 that has a BB gun scope base on it... lol
A gun is just a tool. I use it to kill things and I don't care what it looks like as long as I can hit a pie plate a few hundred yards away.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Not to much of a fan of ornate but I do like good wood and fine hand cut checkering. Having tried to checker and shape wood stocks I came to appreciate the craftsman ship of fine stock making.

 

[OleRedbeard]

After several years of use, I’ve gotten weary of my Kimber Hunter 280 AI. To me it has no eye or hand appeal. Molded plastic stock including the trigger guard. No bottom metal, just a half plastic magazine with no floor plate.



At the range the other day, a young man had two rifles. One was the cheapest imaginable new bolt action and the other was an expensive tricked out AR clone with a scope that looked capable of exploring the heavens.



He had no rifle of beauty, to hunt with. Poor fellow!



A rifle can be much more than a mere tool like a wrench. How important is it to have a wood stock? How important is hand cut checkering? Remington, Ruger and new Winchesters went with stamped then machine cut checkering.



Lacking the hands-on human workmanship in both wood and metal details, can a rifle really be beautiful? What about the artistic receiver stamping like the one on a Husqvarna which says, Made in Sweden?



A wood stock cannot be molded. It takes a lot of work to fit it in an action with details, like a double stepped barrel on a Safari grade Browning or the barrel swells on old Winchesters to carry African style dangerous game leaf sights.


Anybody else value such things?

Something to be valued in a good piece of workmanship. In all its flaws and beauty. I have a couple I carry pretty often. One is a older Winchester in .270 made back in the 70s. Belonged to my dad.. He bought it in Eugene Oregon while logging. Its killed everything from there to Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Virginia, Tennessee and several other states I probably don't remember. Its scratched up scarred up and beat up but It still shoots minute of critter. My dad put his Marlboros out on the side of the stock. Still have that to remember him by.
Other is a 60s era Ruger .308 Mannlicher. Its just a beautiful rifle to carry and look at.

 

[noharleyyet]

McMillan Hunter fiberglas; molded walnut swirls, checkering, and palm swell...aesthetics and utility.
700 .257 Wby

https://flic.kr/p/2n82cjj

 

[noharleyyet]

Love real wood also; Kimber 8400 .300 Win Mag

https://flic.kr/p/2jtp4Zq

 

[BrentD]

Why have an ugly rifle? No excuse for it.

If you like to hunt but are depressed at the end of hunting seasons, take up gun hunting. Spend the off season in search of the Booner Rifle. Whatever that is for you, it's out there somewhere (or build it yourself).

"molded walnut swirls"???? That's a thing?

 

[Mustangs Rule]

Don't stop there, you're doing well, carry on pls

The butt plates made of Water buffalo horn on Belgium Browning's.

The notch forged into the top of the sporting rifle receivers to accept military stripper clips to quickly load rifles like a Winchester 54 and Savage 21’s

The anti-glare wavy stippling forged into the top of receivers.

The palm swells on Sako rifles.


Switching to N frame S and W revolvers, the hand carved hand checkered, Coke Bottle Palm Swell grips. I have a pair on my 41 mag. Seen them go for $600 on the internet.

Sako and Husqvarna work of art aperture sights. One piece Redfield bridge mounts with an adjustable flip up peep sight.


The midnight blue finish on model 54 Winchesters was too expensive to ever do again.


The original brass rotary feed magazine on Savage 99’s with cartridge counter

The interchangeable 3-barrel set for Savage 99’s, 300 Savage, 250-3000 Savage and the 410 shotgun.

The fore stock to under barrel lug screw which allowed barrel harmonics to be set. Doing that has my 1952 pre 64 model 70 in .270 shoot almost one-hole groups.

How quiet yet positive model 70 factory honed safeties once were.

The self-cleaning open mauser style triggers on so many old bolt rifles.

Triggers that were all forged steel not hard plated cheap white metal casting.

More expensive and foolproof mauser safeties that blocked the firing pins not just the triggers

 

[noharleyyet]

Why have an ugly rifle? No excuse for it.

If you like to hunt but are depressed at the end of hunting seasons, take up gun hunting. Spend the off season in search of the Booner Rifle. Whatever that is for you, it's out there somewhere (or build it yourself).

"molded walnut swirls"???? That's a thing?

Quit holding your nose and show us some underlevers....

 

[BrentD]

Quit holding your nose and show us some underlevers....

Ha! You guys have seen pretty much all of them multiple times. I'd think you would be building your own, rather than be bored with mine.

But here is one more pic.



Okay, one more that you've already seen.

 

[Brad]

This shouldn't be an "either, or" question. Both have their place.

On a backpack hunt, I don't want a wood-stocked rifle. Sitting in a deer stand whiling away the hours, a rifle with a nice piece of wood is a pleasure to have in one's lap.

Beauty is as beauty does, and there is something beautiful about a rifle that is about pure function. Also, the lines of a rifle are important to me. I've seen plenty of wood stocked rifle I found unappealing because of their lines, whereas I've seen (and have) any number of fiberglass stocked rifles that have beautiful lines. The reverse is also true.

 

[BrentD]

If one searches the internet, one can probably find that I have many times said that bolt action rifles are ugly. I try not to say that anymore, but it's still sorta true. That said, I once decided to have a handsome one, so I bought this rifle... (not my pics, but it was my rifle, for a little while...).








until it blew up.

 

[TheTone]

Paging Tom terrific…

I’ve got real doubts I’ll ever buy another wood gun. I like the ones I have but the dings and scratches bother me more on them than my synthetic guns. Plus I see enough benefits for a good synthetic stock to make them my choice anymore

 

[ludville1]

This shouldn't be an "either, or" question. Both have their place.

On a backpack hunt, I don't want a wood-stocked rifle. Sitting in a deer stand whiling away the hours, a rifle with a nice piece of wood is a pleasure to have in one's lap.

Beauty is as beauty does, and there is something beautiful about a rifle that is about pure function. Also, the lines of a rifle are important to me. I've seen plenty of wood stocked rifle I found unappealing because of their lines, whereas I've seen (and have) any number of fiberglass stocked rifles that have beautiful lines. The reverse is also true.

^^^This!

 

[Dan O]

If one searches the internet, one can probably find that I have many times said that bolt action rifles are ugly. I try not to say that anymore, but it's still sorta true. That said, I once decided to have a handsome one, so I bought this rifle... (not my pics, but it was my rifle, for a little while...).View attachment 245094View attachment 245095



View attachment 245093

View attachment 245096


until it blew up.

Was that the one "Springfield with serial # under 200,000" ?

 

[ludville1]

This is my USA made Weatherby Mark V Sporter in .300 Wby. mag that I bought new in the 1990's. Still in excellent condition, and has been hunted quite a bit over the years. Then again, my rifles have it pretty easy...relatively short walks to little hunting shacks here in Michigan. Has had different scopes on it over the years, currently has a Leupold VX-5HD 3-15x 56 Firedot on it.

 

[noharleyyet]

https://flic.kr/p/2nTFPtY

 

[ludville1]

https://flic.kr/p/2nTFPtY

Best looking Ruger #1 that I have ever seen! Nice!

 

[Don Fischer]

For me a rifle must be good looking just to get me to look at it. Must have or have avaliable wood stock and need blue or black barrel, wouldn't own a stainless rifle, not that is ugly. We may decide at some point the rifle is not as good looking as we though but in reality the rifle has faile us in some other way, probably in shooting. One of my all time favorite rifleswas my old Rem 660, son has it now. hard to see any beauty in it, the stock was a fence post. But I really got along well with that rifle, was a great shooter and easy to carry. Was young and broke when I got it but it grew on me! hand cut checkering and fit are things that matter mostly to rich users, they provide little proformance. Wonder what a Boss shot gun would cost without all the hand work. probably about the cost of one of the under reated Turkish guns. The turkish guns don't have the handwork but do the same job! The expensive guns last longer because people have this thing about taking care of something they pay more for!