In THE LAST BOOK (or at least that's where I recall the story is from) Jack O'Connor mentioned receiving a gift rifle, out of the blue, from a well-known custom gunmaker. I also recall it was was 7x57, but both he and Eleanor agreed it was too heavy for either of them to like hunting with it, so they sold it.
Dunno is this is that rifle (might have to try to find that part of the book again) but do know, and not just from that story, that gun writers sometimes receive gift rifles that they would never order, whether in style, weight or other details.
I think I read something about this in an old thread that Tom Turpin (I think) contributed to. It might have been a thread about JOC and the .280.
