Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters For 458Win - re: Ole Ugly

I think I have read all the published articles about this rifle, but I've never seen an explanation for what appears to be a ring about 1/3 the way up the barrel. Is that for a stock attachment mount? Or perhaps part of a barrel recoil lug? Curiosity has got the best of me so thought I would ask here.

It has a dovetail slot for iron sight

Possibly? Doesn't seem near meaty enough to support a sight - looks to be no more than 1/4" wide? Don't know how to post pictures, so stole the below address from Interweb:

https://www.fieldandstream.com/sites/fieldandstream.com/files/styles/655_1x_/public/images/2016/12/big6.jpg?itok=e3yzVG_9&fc=50,50

Potashminer-
I suspect your guess about the recoil lug is correct. In the description of the construction of the rifle published in Rifle magazine #101 (Sept-Oct 1985), there is a note that Shoemaker had a gunsmith cut the barrel to 21 inches, crown it, and then add a barrel-mounted recoil lug and a front sight. The fiberglass stock was set up with "a through-bolt behind each recoil lug".

The photo of the rifle on the cover of the July 2003 issue of Rifle magazine shows the barrel band pretty clearly.
---Bob
.

..

That thing IS a tool ! All compliments ! ! !


Jerry

I believe it has changed colors over the years.

Why a front sight? I guess he has a receiver sight for it as well. powdr

I’d like to start a collection to have Phil’s gun refinished! If for no other reason than it won’t be as offensive in future campfire pics!

Bettin' Phil likes it just as it is.

Weaver rings. Just sayin'

Yeah, Weaver STEEL rings. Any wonder ?

Jerry

Those look like "everyday" Weaver rings, albeit old ones based on the knobs. If so, they are steel tops but aluminum bottoms, correct? I believe the same rings are still on Finn Aagaard's .375, another well known rifle.

Just to avoid any confusion, I think they are great rings and I think it is cool to find them on such iconic rifles.

When I assembled Ole Ugly I was living in a cabin my wife and I had built with no electricity so I built everything with hand tools. I didn't know anything about the recoil of the 458, except that it ruined a lot of stocks, so I did everything I could think of to make sure it never happened . I added crossbolts to the Brown Pred stock, bedded it with Devcon liquid steel mixed with steel shavings from the floor of a machine shop, and since the first few MK X . 458 bbl actions did not have extra recoil lugs I sawed out a piece of 1/4" steel plate to be somewhat like the recoil lug on a Rem 700 and drilled a hole in it and slid it over the barrel, which I had wrapped with Emory paper, twisted it around until it was tapered like the barrel, drilled a hole through it that just barely touched the barrel, and pinned it in place.

I knew the Weaver scope rings were tough as we used them to mount a scope on an M-2 .50 cal while I was in Vietnam, so used them.

40 years and a hell lot of miles, bears, moose and caribou later, the rifle is still going strong ! I still have hopes of taking it after Cape buffalo

458Win,

Thanks for the additional information. Does the rifle wear a Wisner style two-position safety?

Yes, I prefer the simplicity of the two position safety.

No offense, but that only reveals a lack of knowledge...

How's that? He knew they were weavers......

I hear you. The only time you are truly "at risk" when unloading is the brief time from flipping the safety off to opening the bolt. After that, one never needs to close the bolt to unload, even on a push feed blind magazine rifle, let alone a controlled feed. If you can't point the thing in a safe direction for that brief time, maybe golf is your sport. If the rifle does happen to go bang when you flip the safety off, you have rifle issues that need fixing. (Of course you know all this. I am putting it out there for people that do not, because I think I learned it on a forum.)

I have seen pictures of at least two different incredibly ornate, incredibly expensive David Miller Mauser rifles. Both had Wisner style safeties. Model 70 type safeties for Mauser rifles are not cheap, but I'm pretty sure money wasn't the issue on those two rifles!

Somewhere I read where a smart guy wrote that the only reason for the middle position on a three position safety was to make field stripping the bolt easy. That made sense. So my dumb question to you is how do you field strip the bolt on that rifle? I would think that would be a pretty handy attribute for a professional's Alaskan working rifle?

Also, I'm building a 9.3 x 62 from an old J.C. Higgins Model 50 FN Belgian Mauser action. I'm trying to decide on a safety. I know I want a side swing of one type or another. So, your answer is more than just academic to me.

Thanks so much,
Gun Doc

None taken, but did you happen to read the part a few posts later where I clarified that I really like Weaver rings and think it was cool they are found on both Mr.Shoemaker's .458 and Finn Agaard's .375? Two very iconic and famous rifles that have seen no telling how many miles and how many animals both having the same rings on them for no telling how many years.

Then why question the use of Weavers? I’m not following, but perhaps I’ve missed something...