Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Most Off-The-Wall Custom You've Dreamed Up?

^^ Some gunsmiths just must roll their eyes sometimes. ^^

I have been asked to build some which were a little different and often wondered why but, in the end, it was their money!
Ibuilt long action BLR's in 416 Taylor and 358 Norma mag. A Browning BBR in 416 Taylor was unusual just because not many people built rifles on the BBR. One which was definitely different was a 22 BR built on a Mossberg 800 action. A 275 Rigby on a Norwegian Krag was fairly unusual as well.
I had an apprentice who collected Italian Carcano rifles because, as he said, "No one else wants them so they are still cheap." As a learning project, he re-barreled one to 35 Remington. It shot very well and was a good big game rifle, for a Carcano. GD

Once dreamed up a New Ultra Light Arms Model 20 chambered for the B-29 wildcat--the 7.5x55 Schmidt-Rubin necked down to .29 caliber. Never had it built, but wrote an article for HANDLOADER on it anyway.

Quite a few people firmly believed it existed, to the point where they wrote to the fictitious addresses listed in the article, and call the Wolfe Publishing office to ask questions. Even a couple years after the article appeared Redding Reloading got a phone call from some guy asking if they had any B-29 dies on hand....

Just caught up with this Thread and now, several Post upon which I want to comment! Starting here! Big Congats for your perception and wisdom. The JC Higgins, Sears, Model 50 was one of the great sleepers on the American gun market of about the seventies forward! Great FN Belgian action mated to High Standard chrome lined barrel, decent walnut stock. Collecting over half a century, I can remember these languishing for sale as lesser guns 'moving'. Some few early JC editions with strange trigger pinned to bottom metal. Once past that stage, returning to normal mauser. So your guns origins were super and economic. The rifle you picture is also great! Tasteful and 7x57 by whatever name, a world class cartridge.. And yet available most places in world where ammo of any sort available! I appreciate your wisdom and taste!
Best & Keep Safe!
John

Me too, Me too! You have excellent taste, I'd just up-it to 9.3x62. In that preferred chambering, have such a Husqvarna Model 640 FN in half stock now. Full stock would be fabulous. I do I have such FN Mannlicher.. Just that in '06 rather than 'the' chambering. Oh yes, and a prewar conventional FN commercial acton Husqvarna sporter in your 9.3x57... Oh it all gets so confusing! But that's what over a half-century of collection can do!
Guess, I'm pretty lucky in any case!
Best & Stay Safe!
John

Gentlemen… Your dads and granddads were doing the same sort of things in the fifties! Just usually on much less grandious scale than I read here. Of course, that also noting something the category of “dream rifles”. Likely same scope of dreams, just less relative disposable income then as well as lesser custom parts resources!

I was a teen in the fifties. A few rifles and ogling a lot of nice customs arising from the ashes of milsurps! Bubba ruled too at other end of custom spectrum! Skip ahead to the eighties and many of those decent milsurps, a drug on the market! The Bubba editions, often yet sturdy truck guns with ‘good bones’ sufficient for redemption! Ohters inherently, not bad. It was in that era I was buying those typically ‘hovering around hundred buck’ specials. Still have more than a few. My point here particularly, just to keep an eye out for some of these ‘Bubba supreme’ rifles as great basis for your “dream customs”. Another yet largely ‘sleeper’ are the FN based mauser rifles marketed Stateside under the Husqvarna brand. Great FN postwar rifles yet at pretty reasonable prices. Super ‘custom-fodder if FN works for you. There are a lot of great, ignored milsurps yet out there… Just requires looking and suggesting Internet gun sales not the source. Overpriced and now as “bundled”, not a buyer’s game!

For me personally, never had a custom gun built. Wanted to, but always balancing cost of just one compared to perhaps two or three good rifles ‘in the wild’ for the same cost! >>> So many guns, so little time!

Well… Sufficient old granddaddy advice to the young whippersnappers!
I do enjoy this Thread!!!

Best & Keep Safe!
John

Not sure how off the wall this one rates but converted a Ruger 77/357 to .256 Winchester for no real reason.....haven’t taken anything with it but have hunted turkeys with it.

PennDog

Hey John ..... Thanks for the kind words. My original intent was just to buy a Rigby Highlander, but soon realized that I could get a nicer rifle built here in Canada for less.

It really is the gunmaker (and others, some here) who should get the credit for this rifle and it's final form. This was the 1st time I've ever had a rifle like this built and was a bit lost on how it should all come together. Without the advice I received, I probably would have botched it on my own.

A friend in Bend OR is building a .35 Remington on a 1903 Greek Mannlicher Schoenauer. I hope he gets bored with it when he's done.

Today I handled a Remington M788 with a Savage M340 Deluxe stock on it. That had to be a labor of love to make it fit properly

Most off the wall was a 444 Marlin shortened and necked to .35 cal to meet, at the time, the centerfire rules in IN. Even paid Ken Howell to draw it up. Rules changed before I went forward. Plan was to rebore/rechamber a Ruger #1.

I once considered having a rifle chambered for a .358 Rem Ultra-Mag, basically a 300 Ultra necked-up to .358 for the "Perfect Elk Rifle". I'm pretty sure I'm glad now that I didn't do it.

Zastavia Mini Mauser stalking rifle was the weirdest thing I ever came up with.

Not off the wall to me! My goofball build is a Marlin 1894 chambered in .256 Win Mag. When I read all the animals that Alfred Goerg took with his Ruger Hawkeye .256 WM, I’ve been fascinated by it ever since. How’s it shoot? Other than turkey, have you taken it after anything else?

Coltfan

A Marlin 1894 in 22 Hornet.

My recent quest was to neck down the 470 Nitro Express to 338 caliber and improve the case body & shoulder AND go with a rebated rim case head in mag boltface for Remington 700 and Winchester 70 rifles, for single shot use only , ended up with 142 gr of h20 capacity, also doing it in 30 caliber

more info here

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1629418157233834&id=676994269142899

Of course I had already done that with a 500 NE by necking it down to 30 & 338 cal and shortening appropriately in order to function in detachable 3.850" magazines, capacity is somewhat north of what the 300 Rum & 338 Edge have but without the hassle of deep seating bullets

Ruger Mini something (.223. .6.8, or 7.62x39) with a mannlicher stock on a 18" barrel.

I still have in my safe a Winchester M70 Ranger .223 and a Blackburn short action bottom metal to turn into a custom .224 Weatherby to match my 70 classic action .300

19 calhoon necked to a 17. just because we could

I Remember that article well!