A 378 Weatherby Mag Custom Brevex - Marquart & Leonard Mews

Hello All,

Over the years I have posted about the Brevex Custom Rifles in my collection. I now have 14 Brevex rifles but somehow this wonderful rifle got missed, so I share the info now. I purchased this on Gunbroker exactly 8 years ago on Feb. 14, 2016. It was my 7th Brevex, and one of my favorites. This one is special because although I collect Brevex rifles, I also collect rifles stocked by Leonard Mews. According to Roy Weatherby, as written in his autobiography, "... Lenny (Leonard Mews) was my first and best stock maker ..." Leonard Mews is also credited with designing the distinctive Weatherby stock as it exists today. (although Roy writes that he dressed it up a bit) Leonard's classic checkering design is evident on this rifle and the precision wood to metal fit is amazing. I tell people one way to recognize Lenard's work is to use a magnifying glass and look for a single flaw in the checkering. If you find one, its not a Mews stock.

Overall wear shows this compact Big Bore must have been hunted hard. The floorplate shows a decal with range information for scope and iron sights with data out to 600 yards. Not unrealistic for the powerful 378 Wby Mag cartridge.

as always your comments are welcome

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The 14 Brevex rifles collected to date ...

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That's a cool rifle! I bet that sucker is a handful! The checkering looks great for being hunted and used all those years.

Wow!!!!!

i met Leonard Mews when i was a teenager sometime around 1980?... he was elderly, stone deaf and living with his sister? in Hortonville Wi... an employee of my brother knew him and invited us to come along on his next visit... my brother took along a Weatherby Mark V custom that needed a stock repair... sadly, it was obvious he was not up to it at that point... we had a nice visit but communication was slow due to his hearing loss, too much shooting without protection he said... he had some great stories as i recall... but i wish i would have known then what i know now, and had more patience than a teenager...

Leonard was a fellow gun club member here in Appleton Wisconsin. He was a good friend. His hearing loss was due to his having had the Spanish flue as a young boy. He personally stocked my 7 mag for me. I collect his work and have a dozen of his custom stocked rifles. search the words ... buckstix leonard mews ... on GOOGLE IMAGE to see some of my posts about Leonard and my rifles .... then click "See more anyway" at the bottom of the page to see more

You have some cool rifles Buckstix! I love seeing your posts about them.

Ron

I always hope to find more to add to my collection.

Fascinating thread here. So Mr. Mews is the man behind the initial design of that distinctive Weatherby stock? Even though Roy dressed it up a bit? That's interesting because as a kid, I loved rifles but never paid much attention to the stocks. First time in my young life at 10 or 12 years of age, I was blown away by the stock on a Weatherby rifle. I had never even heard of Weatherby at the time but fell in love with those stocks because they looked so cool, and unlike any other stock I had ever laid eyes on.

That’s a really cool rifle.

Looks like an awfully short barrel for such a cartridge. What's the length?

Ah, I see it now in first link; 21".

Wow!

I got a recoil headache just looking at those bad azz boys!

Wunnerful.
21"-barreled .378 WbyMag reminds me of my first adventure with the .378 WbyMag.

Having played with a Japanese-made .460 WbyMag MarkV Deluxe with 26" barrel, including the integral brake,
I thought something a little shorter and less shiny was in order.

I had a BRNO ZKK 602 .375 H&H bobbed to 22" and re-chambered with that long-throated .378 WbyMag reamer, per CIP.

I chronographed some Weatherby factory loads, yellow box with tiger totem animal, though I have collected elephant-logo, yellow-box ammo since then.
Bullet looked like 300-gr Hornady FMJRN, G1 BC = 0.275.
I thought it was supposed to do 3000 fps in a 26" barrel, though lately the advertising is for 2925 fps.
I think I had the older stuff that was hotter.
Primers cratered severely and bolt had sticky lift at 85*F.

Six shots averaged 2851 fps at 5-yard chrono from my 22" barrel.
Add 17 fps to correct to MV = 2868 fps.

If it lost 30 fps per inch of shortening, a 26-incher might have been doing 2988 fps.

Maybe in a 21" barrel that ammo would be about 2838 fps.
Not bad for something so short and loud.

I subsequently bought a 22" Wby MarkV barrel, a .378 WbyMag take-off barrel,
to use as a switch barrel on a .30/.378 WbyMag.
I asked the guy I bought it from why he was getting rid of it so cheap.
He cupped his good right ear with his hand and said " What?"

Thanks so much for the reply.

I'm continually searching for classic rifles to add to my family. As I find them I post them here.