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

I have a lot of rifles that I don't use much or are still sitting NIB, some were impulse buys and some are magnums are are no longer fun to shoot (getting older). I'm thinking of selling a bunch or rifles and buying a nice rifle like a Cooper, Nosler Patriot/Liberty, LAW or some other high end rifle in a 308, 280 AI or 30-06 and be done with it. If it were you doing the buying, what rifle would you buy and why? Thanks.

Borden Timberline action (long action) or Alpine (short)
Lilja #2 barrel (or similar size, about 0.625-06.35 inch muzzle at 23 in finish), i.e. Hart #3, Rock #3, P-N #1, etc.
Timney or Shilen trigger
Echols Shrike stock, edge fill
I would probably put either a Nightforce or a Leupold 6x36 on it

You'll have to find someone to do the metal work. I know a short list of smiths I would choose from, but that list isn't complete.

You'll have to find someone to do the stock work. Echols stocks aren't drop in. I know the guy I would pick, but my lips are sealed. He's backed up enough as it is!

I know...not a rifle. But there isn't a 100% good factory rifle made today. The only way to get absolutely what you want is a semi-custom.

I'd get a pre 64 FW in 270 or 30/06, drop it in a McMillan or Brown Precision, and kill everything I aimed it at.

depending on how much $ you are raising with your sales, have a 6.5 saum built on a custom action and be done with it

Without a doubt, if it was to be a beautiful rifle a Sako deluxe, if a nice rifle, a standard Sako. Of course it would be pre-Garcia in either case and it would shoot with the best of them and still hold it's value.

Custom rifle, I would stay with the Sako action, again a Garcia or earlier, and put a Lilja barrel on it and a nice xxx American walnut stock, built by Dennis Olson.

Either way, no disappointment and not a long wait if you went custom...

Putting a new barrel on a Sako is one way to ALMOST make one shoot worth a hoot.

If you go the 270 Pre-64 Winchester FWT in a McMillan, it might end up looking like the one in the middle of this trio.






donsm70

Thanks guys, I have a BACO Featherweight in 7x57 which I plan on using on white-tails in New York and Pa., I was looking for an out west longer range rifle, sorry for not mentioning that.

My "western" rifle is a Kimber Montana in .300 WSM. Shoots 150 and 180 gr Barnes TTSX into little bitty groups and is a joy to carry.

donsm70

PS. The bottom rifle in the picture is a Colt/Nula hybrid in 7x57.

Why not a NULA? If you are looking at something that is no fuss, can shoot with the best of any rifle offerings and is more custom than not. Any of the chamberings you mention.

The NULA will cost nore!

donsm70

I bought my first Sako, a finnbear, a couple of weeks ago on a whim. Went into to buy model 70 they had advertised and saw the sako that just came in on consignment. Price was right and after reading shrapnel write about them on here I thought I would try it out.

Enjoying it almost to the point of wondering how I ever hunted with Brownings and Remington's before. Usually as soon as I get a rifle I dream up a million things to change on it. With this one the only change I'll make is to up a nicer piece of wood on it eventually

I have had better luck and more fun by finding a really fine custom that's for sale used.

The few I have ordered did not come out quite as good as I expected.

Perhaps my ordering specifications could have been more detailed?

Now I have two customs that are really shooting well. The latest is on a pre-64 M70 action.

Here is the latest. It's a 300 Win mag which is not my favorite cartridge but it's shooting well. It has a nice custom stock and no problems along with a low price. It has a 3-9 Conquest on it now.

I would have one put together, that's what I did. I used s Borden alpine, Bartlein #2 contour barrel, Jewell trigger, & McMillan hunters edge stock. I had a top gunsmith screw it together & the results were predictably great.

The problem with a lot of the suggestions made above is that they aren't stainless. Any more to me non-stainless firearms are toys that stay in the safe. Any serious hunting rifle is stainless. I don't need any more safe queens.

That's too easy Bob....

I know how to make it more complex....

I can to Bob. But it's actually pretty simple. The action, stock, barrel, smith of your choice and a 7mm Mashburn reamer.

LES: Nice! With the Chicken no less..easy scope to get behind.

Alas the Mashburn is only for those unafraid of a reloading press and making their own brass.

Ouch! If you looked in my safe, you would only find one stainless rifle and that would be a pre-64 Model 70 in 220 Swift. None are left in there and not shot or hunted...

Yeah the notion that a pre 64 M70 is not a "serious" hunting rifle is amusing. The rifle has BTDT on more continents, in the hands of more pros and PH's, on more dangerous animals than any amount of SS,screwed together,pimped out and cheesed up Campfire blueprints you could shake a stick at.

No offense intended to anyone.

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!

It is obvious that a stainless/plastic gun is not used because it looks good, so if looks don't count, who cares about rust spots or scratched stocks?

99,beautiful rifle !

Who says a stainless/plastic rifle can't look good!
I disagree........................................

Nice scope...

I mean who on here owns just one rifle? That's pretty boring......

So you have a SS to beat the hell out of on those wicked brutal trips into the deer blinds and save the CM for gawking at the range, right? Hardly....

I had a Goens blue/walnut custom that got so wet from freezing rain that it formed a layer of ice over the entire rifle...hunted a few days like that. I'd toss it in the truck till it thawed, then wipe it down at night. It did fine.

OTOH I have watched SS rifles in Alaska bloom rust day after day doing nothing more than sitting in a rifle rack. My 375 H&H pre 64 M70 in Brown stock and CM Krieger did better in daily drenching on salt water and rain,because I cleaned it at night.

Of course they will rust if you don't treat them, and SS rifles do better...but blued steel will handle more abuse than you'd think if you give them some TLC.

An old Sako or Browning Safari in 30-06.

The new stuff w/ all the synthetic stocks doesn't get me going at all, though a Kimber 84 Classic Select in 7-08 would be pretty nice.

That having been said:

There's a nice NULA tuned CLR in the classified in .270. I'm getting an itch ..... buy it so I don't get myself into trouble

I shoot rifles LH ... fortunately!

A guys's gotta have a dream.

CLR or early Forbes 24b sent to Melvin for a tune up and /or rebarrel. I did the CLR with great results. Just sent him the Forbes for a 280ackley in #2 Douglas.

Do you have a picture of either of those Brownings? I thought all the Brownings for short rounds were Sakos, but I found some listed as small-rings, including a .220 and a .250. I'm wondering if they're Huskys.

http://customshopinc.com/product-category/rifles/browning/

Before clicking that link be sure to don your drool bucket.