Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Larry Amrine custom 7x57

Absolutely beautiful piece of functional art work!

The engraving is tastefully done and lines are classic - wood is beautiful. Not taking this one out hunting would be like having a beautiful wife and never doing ANYTHING with her - just looking at her (guess some might be content with that).

I am a fan of this kind of rifle - it has its place in the hunting fields - I don’t abuse any of my rifles - I do use the heck out if them though and they get scratches/scuffs from time to time - it tells a story……and old fella once told me you “can’t live in fear”!

Just a my opinion of course!

PennDog

My Goens mannlicher 6.5x55 on a pre-64 M70.



My Wisner 7x57 small ring (Swede).

How in the world are those rifles made that light?

Agree completely.

I was surprised at the Goens rifle but it wears a 20" barrel. Weight above is w/o scope but fully sighted.



Wisner did the Mauser 33/40 cuts on the Swede. His sights and quarter rib included. Scope not.

The late master stockmaker Dale W. Goens had several techniques he used in creating his famous mountain rifle design. He first would select English walnut stock blanks based upon not only grain structure and figure, but wood density per cubic foot weight. He would shape a very slender stock profile, then route the barrel channel and the butt of the stock under the recoil pad to reduce weight.

The action would be a small ring Mauser, usually a G33/40 to ensure the lightest receiver possible. The magazine well was drilled with perforations (Called Swiss Cheesing) and the bottom metal would be custom shaped and contoured. Usually, a Douglas featherweight barrel of 22" length would be used for additional weight savings. My Goens mountain rifle has a Timney sportsman trigger made of Aluminum alloy and was probably the lightest available at the time.

Needless to say, a few ounces here and there, they start to add up in the final product. There is a great article by James Olt on these mountain rifle features in the 1976 Gun Digest, 30th Anniversary Addition, if you have access to it. If someone would post pictures for me, I can display with photos these features here on the forum.

A little late to the party...

Amazing rifle! I'm a sucker for 7x57's but it just seems "unfinished" to me. I have always felt that if you are going to install a barrel band sling mount, you should install iron sights. The portion of barrel beyond the band just looks naked. Seems half way between a European and American aesthetic. I wouldn't kick it out of my gun safe if it wandered in but I would have irons installed...random musing that no asked for, but isn't that the essence of the 'fire

Scott

This! It’s gorgeous.