Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Great Article by Phil Shoemaker

Be sure to checkout Phil Shoemaker's article "Details That Matter" in the July issue of Rifle (p. 88), its a great one.


I especially like the photo of the "well used" .458 rifle. If that old gun could talk there would be some grand hunting tales told

Perhaps Mr. Shoemaker could share a few of them with us as well as relate the specs of the rifle.

HBB

was it Ol' Ugly? actually just happened to re-read the Rifle article from a couple years ago on that rifle 2 nights ago.......also reread his Handloader article on his "510" Gibbs

your a hell of a writer Mr. Shoemaker

I hate to call another man's rifle ugly (well except maybe for one of SteelHead's )...but that's a good description of this one

HBB

+1

I'd like to see more articles on fit and handling.

- TJM

It was Ol' Ugly. Phil did an article on the rifle a few years ago.

the title of the article he wrote about the rifle i do believe was Ol' Ugly....will look when im home at lunch

Wasn't that a Heym he was comparing to Ol Ugly?

Wouldn't you just like to see him uglify it? You know, to make it more practical?

Bend back the bolt a bit or weld on a new one. Shorten the stock of course, and then take some of the shiny off. (grins)

- TJM

I never thought of my rifle as ugly - but EVERYONE else did and weren't shy about mentioning it so I decided "if you can't beat them join them" and named it Ole Ugly.
It's true beauty though is evident once you pick it up and put it into action.
It has taught me a lot about rifles and is still a work-in-progress as last winter I filed a thumb slot (like on the military M-98's) in the side of it's Mk X action. I suppose it may be a little easier to load now - but to be truthful I never found it slow during the past twenty four years. You also can see I must have hit it with a can of spruce green rustoleum between the time the first photo was taken and I photographed it next to the Hein. Now that is a pretty rifle. It worked nice too.

Phil - greatly enjoy your work. You are the King of Practicality and functional equipment. Thanks for all the material over the years - and keep it up.

I get a real chuckle from some of your actions. Like taking a file to the Heym to make it carry better or Rustoleum on Ole Ugly.

Priceless.

Might also add that Wolfe has some of the best writers/storytellers in the business. Really enjoy JB, Shoemaker, Scovill, Spomer, Pierce. Each of you guys has your style, tells a good story, and conveys info well. I can't relate alot to Venturino's article but enjoy the history lessons.

Keep up the good work!

thanks for the kudos although not everyone ( as my wife will tell you) appreciates my practical, pragmatic approach to things.
the front square bridge I rounded off was on my Bauska action 505 Gibbs - not the 404 Hein. My son also had a gunsmith do the same thing to his CZ 416 Rigby.

bwinters:

Less expensive than buying a swirly McMillan. I can appreciate the approach very much, though I haven't worked up the nerve to do it to one of my rifles.

Finn Aagard often took a similar approach. Another man for practicalities. I seemed remember at least one rifle where he shortened the barrel with a hacksaw, trued the muzzle with a hand file, modified the stock with Bondo, or some such, to make it fit better and then spray painted the whole thing. Wish I'd kept the article. A Mauser of some sort, IIRC.

- TJM

I enjoyed the article too. I'm reminded of a rifle I saw recently, a vintage Winchester lever gun (1886?). A bored cowboy with cabin fever had spent the winter using a file to turn the barrel into a kind of half octagon.

Paul

The Old Ugly article is in Rifle Magazine from July-August 2003 and called "Beauty and the Beast".

Sorry for the mis-quote..........
I was going from memory this AM.

I found that article and started another thread on it a while back. The article was "Home Remedies," Rifle #167 (Nov.-Dec. 1995).

The rifle was an 8x57 Mauser 98 with "barrel chopped to 20 inches, metal painted with Rust-Oleum, stock treated with Varathane, a duct tape muzzle cover and an inner tube scope cover."

The article also described creative uses of Shoe Goo, duct tape, stove bolts, Bondo and clothespins.

It also has a description of his case lube method, in which he lubed the cases with Vaseline and wiped them off a paper towel dampened with unleaded gasoline (!). That section ends with this comment:

"I never polish my brass. I want my old cases to look old, so that I am not tempted to over-stress them by using any but mild loads."

John:

That's it! (Missed the other thread.) And that sounds even better than I remembered it.

The unleaded gasoline, though. Not for me. I reload in the garage and my bench is quite close to the pilot light in my gas water heater.

- TJM

I just finished reading that article and really enjoyed it. I was told that I drove the bolt wrong when using the "finger socket" approach as opposed to the palm approach. Glad to see that I work a bolt correctly.

Sakoluvr:

I've been holding my breath over that. Two beloved, well-respected gun writers working for the same publisher with two different methods of working a bolt on a dangerous game rifle.

If any of the Africa Forum regulars notice...

- TJM

That article must have been Red Green's inspiration. Or maybe Red was Finn's.

Gdv