Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The Perfect Big Game Rifle

I would take a really nice 1952'ish M70 action and Blackburn bottom metal, and have them electroless nickel plated with a very low satin sheen. Wonder how many campfire members just fainted?

Add a McMillan compact EDGE stock, grey in colour with black webbing. Then have a Krieger 23" stainless tube in whatever contour would make her balance on the front guard screw (something very slightly heavier than M70 fwt contour?).

On top I would want a Leupold matte 6X36 with L.R. reticle in low Conetrol rings, you would need to have the bolt bent down slightly to have it clear the ocular.

Caliber? If the smith could make a 280AI feed as smoothly as a straight 280, then the AI and shoot 150TSX's at 3000 fps. If not, a straight 280 would be perfect, with 140TSX's at the same 3000 fps.

I'd like to see what a stainless rifle would look like with this process done to the stock (McMillan).

Hydro-dip Link

I would start with a new M70 FN Stainless action. I would have it blueprinted and re barreled by G.A. Precision using a stainless Benchmark or Schneider barrel in 7 WSM with 1-9 twist with shortened or trimmed shank with a 24" overall.

Stock would be an installed Bansner and painted with a Bansner paint job.

I would go with Swarvoski's new 12.7 ounce Z3 scope with 1" dia. tube 3-10x42 with the ML reticle. I would probably use Warne two piece mounts with their vertical split rings.

For me it is a 30-06 Beretta Mato Synthetic with a 23.6" barrel and a Burris Signature Select 3X-10X-40mm scope with Ballistic Plex reticle in Talley QR bases and rings. It's heavy but it shoots well. A 165 grain Hornady Spire Point Interlock in front of 59 grains of H4350 for a muzzle velocity of 2900 fps for pronghorn, sheep, goats and deer, all game up to about 400 lbs. If the game is over 400#, like elk, caribou, bear and most of the larger african plains game, then the bullet is a 165 grain Swift A-Frame with 58.5 grains of H4350 for a muzzle velocity of 2900 fps.

I guess my rifle of choice would be pretty much what I have- A Ruger Hawkeye with a good trigger, bedded well, slick action with dependability top priority. On top sits either a fixed power or low power range variable, Leupold or Nikon. I don't want to carry some multi thousand dollar masterpiece in the elk hills.
The caliber will be the 30/06 with a good 165 grain bullet for most uses and a 200 grain Partition for any heavy lifting. In my mind, perfection encompasses practicality as much as anything else.

Geeezzz,Royce: I was hoping to indulge some delusional fanatsy and you guys come around with all this really practical stuff that works

I get enough "reality" in real life.....

I recently handled a Holland and Holland double rifle with two pairs of barrels, one in .270 Win and one in 375 H&H. I would send it back to H&H and have a set of shotgun barrels made for it (since money would be no object.)

If money matters at all or having the gun in your hands that will do it all I suggest this drilling. I have one like it. I would buy a gun like this now.




Sauer drilling

Savage: You and Utah have expensive taste!

Rick: Sounds like a good recipe to me.....I would run just standard blue, though.If you put one of those impervious finishes on it,the rifle would never look beat up!

Its not expensive at all for what it does. Many spend more for some plastic handled 'custom'!

Here is another. I would hold a gun like this close. You have to own one to admit it. It would be so good in New Hampshire also.



You want claw mounts like these.

Another drilling. Buy it, it's Christmas!

It's sporty buying one when listed as 16 gauge of rifle barrel. No [bleep] but what the heck is it chambered for?


Plus various other issues, that's the way I would go....

Another:

Can you get a McMillan stock for that?

You said you wanted to stretch the imagination a bit. In reality, if I had the $65,000 that the gun is worth, and the $40,000 that the new shotgun barrels would cost, I would be taking some trips instead.

Utah: Like I said,indulge your fantasy. Money is no object!But I do agree...I'd rather spend the money hunting!

Savage: Don't you hate it during deer season when grouse just seem to be everywhere? Mor ethan once I'd have traded a 30/06 in NH and Maine for a shotgun or drilling

Bob, you're probably right. But it really hurts, watching rust grow on a nice blued rifle while on a sheep hunt!

I really should order up a McMillan Edge and start accumulating the pieces for that rifle. I could just find a Montana 7WSM, but I don't like the stock style quite as much and no Montana action will ever feel like a good pre-64 M70!

An aside, I have a newfound respect for Talley LW mounts. I just got back from a caribou hunt on horses, and somehow ended up without a scabbard. The rifle was slung across my back for a lot of miles through the aspens on horse trails. The beating that rifle/Leupold 6X42 scope (and my back) took had to be seen to be appreciated. When I got to a convenient spot later, I tried it at what happened to be 275 yards, and the POI did not change even the slightest bit.

In fact except for a couple of new scuffs on the barrel from bouncing off trees, the rifle still looks new and it has been used a lot. It occurs to me that when we're showing pics of our pet hunting rifles the next time, and someone makes the comment that the rifle doesn't look like it actually gets used much, they don't realize just how tough a good fiberglass stock and stainless steel really are! Beat em to hell, it still looks new.

Rem 700 in a 8mm mag. From 150,s to 250,s all around gun.

On the rifleholic thought process...

I can quit any time, just because I keep at least one in every room, a few in back closets, handguns in desk drawers, just because shooting gives me a temperary euohoria replacd by a deep physical need if I don't shoot frequently, does not mean I have a problem.

And I am very tired of being told I am in DeNile. I have never been to Egypt. Well my wife has and she brought me back this really nice 8mm......

Randy

Based on where I go and how and what I hunt, I'd have to say I think I'm pretty close if not there.
The rifle is based on a commerical mauser made in 1942, I'm told. It has been lightend a good bit. Has an after market trigger and lightend Remington steel FP and TG. An M70, two position safety.
A Pac-Nor #1 contour barrel w/ a .600 muzzle, 24 inches long. Some of the shoulder has been removed. 1-10 twist, chambered for the 30'06 rd. MPI Kevlar stock, with a 1/2 inch rubber recoil pad. Three flush mounted sling swivels ala CW style.
Leupold VX3, 6X42 w/ Heavy Duplex. Steel Leupold QR mounts and rings, 8X40 base screws.
The finish is some sort of super rust resistant, flat back, baked on paint. The stock is a medium grey with a textured, easy to grip surface.
Weighs right at 7 lbs. 4 ozs. empty. Can go down further w/o much difficulty. Changing the mounts over to Talley LtWt's would save maybe 6 ozs. (?). Shortening the 24 inch barrel a few inches would save more and going to a closed cell foam recoil pad a few more yet.
For now, it seem just about there. a few years in the mountains and some hundreds more rds. and I should know. If not, I will change what needs it. But it should be pretty close. That's because I have a .308 on an M70 action and a tang safety Ruger .280 that are pretty close to this as well. This is just a bit more here and bit less there to reach that point where nothing more is needed or desired.
This is a hunting rifle. One designed to put up with lots of abuse. In another time, I can see myself going for a first class bluing job and drop dead beautiful walnut, or even a Mesquite, stock. Yeah, I know those that have such things and hunt as hard as I do in as nasty places as I do. But they don't mind refinishing their guns every few years. I won't do that and I won't put up with a rifle with the kinds of compromises is ruggedness that a really light rifle must have with a wood stock. E