Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Custom or semi-custom rifle purchase.

What will you be using the rifle for? Does weight matter? Are you a walnut stock guy, or synthetic?

I'd probably call Melvin Forbes, but that's because a full on M20/24 hasn't happened and I've coveted them since the 80's. Plenty of other good options/styles....but I think I'd prefer to do my own contracting for the overall gun, sub-contracted to a specialist in each aspect.

My long and expensive search for a rifle that pleased me in about every way ended recently with a Remington model 700 xcr ii 270 in a micky classic edge ' timney trigger and a vx3 scope.
When I originally bought the stock rifle I was not thrilled but after the upgrades It quickly has become my favorite.

If you are serious, find a couple of gunsmiths with good reputations and sit down with them. A little conversation up front is cheap and you may find alternatives that you hadn't previously considered.

Sako-
Have you handled a Cooper or a Patriot/Liberty?
If you have and can live with the stock ergos, then I reckon they're a plausible route.

But if you want to choose a perfect-for-you weight, barrel contour, length, stock style, LOP, color etc., you can build a rifle off of an OEM action for less than the price of a new Cooper - and it'll have a mucho better stock (McMillan for example) and be uniquely yours - exactly to your specs.

I'm 78 and I cannot hunt like a youngster. Hiking the mountains is out. I dumped my last magnum some three years ago. I still have some twenty or so rifles. Most all have a standard '06 or .30-30 case head, except the five center fire .22s and a .357 short rifle.

About thirty years ago, I purchased a matched pair of Browning, small ring Mauser actions, with pencil barrels in .243 and .308. Both are superbly accurate and the .308 is amazingly so. My big gun is a 9.3x 62. Truth be told the ..243 and .308 with modern bullets would do everything I will ever do from here on.

My Kawasaki Mule lets me hunt. I can get to or close to food plots, water holes, or game trails. Texas lets me hunt from the vehicle, but I often build brush hides to watch from. The Warn, cable, ropes, and pulleys help retrieve stuff without a great deal of effort. If I bite off more than I can chew, sons-in-law come in handy. Can't find one of them, go to town and look. There is usually someone that will assist for a little fresh meat.

I don't need stainless. If it is wet, I will wait for another day. Other than operating equipment at harvest time if needed, I don't have a job. Getting old is no fun, but it has a few advantages.

Besides that, I let most of the Bucks walk. I'm waiting for muy grande, or a fat barren doe. The does eat better and we do have too many.

Best,

Jack

Yeah, I knew the stainless comment would get the geezers all riled up

Thing is, a stainless rifle works anywhere whether it be Mississippi or Montana. Chrome moly is a pain in the arse where I live, been there and done that. Yeah, I know there's this thing called oil but it's a crutch at best. I have never seen a chrome moly rifle in mississippi more than a year out of the store that wasn't peppered with rust spots. I don't care if you store them in a 55 gallon drum of oil, they're still going to rust down here. You don't have to hunt them in the rain, all you've got to do is walk outside and watch them sweat.

At one time the model T was state of the art, technology advances and there's better stuff today. If I'm paying good money to have the ideal rifle built then it's going to be made out of ideal stuff. A stainless M70 built by a good gunsmith is a better rifle than any pre-64 ever made, I've got six of them so obviously I believe in them.

If we all could hunt only Mississippi, you'd have a point.

Read the part about stainless working in Mississippi or Montana.

I'm definitely a stainless/synthetic guy, I love good looking walnut but hate scratching it up. My BACO Featherweight in 7x57 is one sweet rifle. I've held the Nosler Patriot and like it, haven't had a Cooper in my hands, not many gun shops around here carry them. I deer hunt in Bedford County Pa not far from Cove Creek, I will stop by there and check out the Cooper. This rifle will be used mostly for deer and elk out west and an occasional trip to Africa for plains game. Thanks for all your help.

Cove Creek has great pricing on nice rifles. Good place to shop.

I've owned, hunted with, a discarded 20 + SS Classics ....270 FW to 375 H&H. PITA. Pin the bolt handle, swap out that POS MIM extractor, recut crooked action threads, etc etc. It never ends.They are nice actions .......once you throw a grand at them....

The M70 reputation was made by the pre 64...not the Classic.

Hunted SS and CM Alaska to Maine, AZ to New Brunswick...got a little rust on both.No biggie.....I like rust. Adds character.

I read this stuff....wonder HTH I ever managed to kill anything. hehe

I agree with what Bobin says...

Like I said. Too easy Bob:



If the op is worried about rust, have it cerakoted like I did with my 338 win mag. This one has a stainless Gre Tan barrel, and Brown Pounder stock, cerakote is midnight blue. All up weight is 7 3/4 pounds and it holds 4 in the magazine:

bsa: I will stick with this old geezer model......

I'd go Melvin with no hesitation. 6.5 x 55 or 250 Savage.

Just guessin' if you are 78, a lighter rifle would be better. My belief is that either will kill deer well.

If not new Melvin, used Melvin.

On the last 'custom' rifle that I got, the M70 action 300 Win mag sporter with the nice stock I shot it with the 155 gr Berger VLD bullets I loaded over Varget.

It put two shots from it's cold barrel right on at 200 yds into a 1.5" group but most important it stayed sighted in!

And I got immediate delivery from the dealer.

It's scoped with a 3-9 Conquest now.

Read the part about it not making a difference unless you're forced to hunt in MS.

Have a few stainless barrels, but on wood stocks. An all stainless plastic rifle? Owned one for about 4 days, 257 Wea. I looked at it one morning and I knew how a guy feels when he looks at his kids at supper and realizes one is BLACK, and he and his wife are white! It was sold that day.. Some of these rifles have were killing deer for my grandfather! These are not safe queens!