Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Finn Aagard article on budget backup rifle.

I remember reading it years ago. It was about a rifle he built, a 98 Mauser barreled up to 458 Win, and bedded into a synthetic stock. Anyone have the article, or know where I could find it?

Thanks,
Ted

Yukoner, the article I read was in Finn Aagaard's "Selected Works." I don't remember all the details. Phil Shoemaker also did an article on a .458 Mauser that he built into a working rifle, and that rifle was mentioned in one of Finn's articles as well. I believe Shoemaker named the rifle "old ugly." The Shoemaker article was in a copy of either Rifle or Handloader, a few years back.

Yukoner-
Finn Aagaard wrote an article titled "A Professional's Rifle" that appeared in the September 1983 issue of American Rifleman. He described his assembly of a .30-06 on a Mauser 98 action with a Douglas barrel in a Garret fiberglass stock. A major segment of the article was given to describing his selection of a Weaver K-3 scope.

A follow-up article, "A Professional's Rifle, Thirteen Years Later", was published in American Rifleman in April 1996.

I cannot recall that he had a .458 in a synthetic stock. I think his 458s were a rebarreled Westley Richards and a Winchester Model 70. He described both briefly in his article "The .458 Winchester Magnum" in the March 1984 American Rifleman, and in "Update -.458 Winchester Magnum" in Handloader No. 174 April-May 1995.

300 Savage is correct about Shoemaker's building a 458 that seems to match your memory of a 458 on a 98 action in a synthetic stock. "Alaska Guide Builds a Modern Backup Rifle" was Phil's initial description of this rifle in Rifle No. 101 of Sept-Oct 1985. He used an Interarms Mark X Mauser barreled action in a Brown Precision fiberglass stock. His follow-up article on the rifle, "Beauty and the Beast", is in Rifle No.208, Jul-Aug 2003. Aagaard wrote some casual descriptions of Shoemaker's 458 in one or two articles about Alaskan hunting.

Your conflation of the two rifles is understandable. Both were described in publications about 30 years ago. Both were made by professional guides using 98 actions in synthetic stocks with scopes of low power and fixed magnification.

--Bob

I enjoyed Phil's article on that rifle. It weren't much to look at, but I am sure it works just like he intended it to. Function is more than form, in many cases.

He seems pretty proud of that rifle. I've seen lots of pictures of it over the years. I remember reading the articles about it years ago. It seems well thought out for it's intended purpose of keeping brown fur off him and his clients.


Terry

He evidently thought fairly high of that 98 Mauser he built and used in his HANDLOADER article on the 9.3x62. In the end he cut it's bbl back to 20" and said he'd use it with 300gr bullets for bear protection if he got back to Alaska for some fishing. Wonder what ever became of it.
That article planted the 98 Mauser/9.3x62/20"bbl seed in my head. I've even duplicated his 270gr Speer load from that article.

Well, a man ought to be proud of his work. If he isn't, he ought to work harder.

Also seems for too many there's always enough time to redo it rather than doing it right the first time.

+1

No doubt. When a rifle like that is needed, it's needed bad.

Terry

Exactly, and it better work.

One thing that drives me nuts is guns that don't feed properly. As far as I'm concerned, if it doesn't feed without a hiccup, it's junk!

Amazes me how many rifles I see afield that do not.

Ted