Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats What extras makes a gun custom?

"Full custom- custom action, custom stock upgrade, barrel upgrade, smith work.", it is still all parts, just more expensive ones.



So is a Rem action that is true, bolt lapped and after market trigger a custom action? Or do you need to have someone else make a clone of the same thing for it to be a custom action?

My point was you were splitting hairs with your list and the rifle i posted did not make it into the coveted full custom class as it has a factory receiver.

Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.

That's funny as hell.

Not sure that adding a few extras makes anything custom. You're getting closer once you start replacing and reengineering stuff. Rebarrel and restock gets you most of the way there.

The rifles I use most are somewhere between parts guns and semi-custom.


Okie John

Only if you read it with a French accent.

My idea of a custom rifle.

Action is a Dumoulin Mauser, IIRC a Black Walnut stock I picked out from the gunsmith's inventory, 22" Shilen, Talley's and 6x Leupold.

The gunsmith did all the work except for the checkering.







JRGunmaker. what years did you work at Dakota Arms?

Very nice rifle

I think we are forgetting the intangibles here; all the thought and dreaming which is really the beginning of a rifle build project.

That is a big part of it. So is gathering up all of the experiences that lead you to think a factory rifle isn't good enough.


Okie John

Dec1, 92 to May5, 97

Any rifle dropped in an $800+ fiberglass stock = custom.

I've never understood someone building a "custom" that can be bought at Walmart. I've never built a gun that I could just buy. Usually it's because I want a different barrel contour, twist rate, or cartridge than what factories kick out.

So, it is a good chance you worked on this one then.

Dakota M 76 7mm Dakota. I ordered it in Oct-Nov 1994 and received it Feb 1995.

That's a beautiful rifle right there..

I let the other guys think and dream big on their custom jobs and then when they take it in the azz when they sell it, I come in and swoop them up for pennies on the dollar....

It's not that a factory rifle is inadequate but rather that some of us want to and enjoy making.up a rifle.

Maybe a difference in wording could be a Custom rifle, or a Customized rifle?

One being a complete non-production type rifle and one being an altered production type rifle?

at the gun shows a Mauser 98 in 8MM with a turned down bolt handle, a Ramline stock and Tasco 3-9 scope are frequently priced $800+......and they are usually on the same table for the next year or so....

I install new parts:
Barrel
bolt
stock
trigger
safety
pillars
recoil lug
recoil pad
sling studs
glass bedding
scope, bases, and rings


...............but keep the old receiver..... after drilling and tapping holes in it, and opening up the feed lips.

I've got a lot of rifles which would be considered "custom", I guess. I don't have any purely factory rifles but some are more modified than others. All of the target rifles, save one, are custom. In the end, I don't think it really matters.
I have the rifles I have because I like fooling around with rifles. Many times, the building is more enjoyable than the use. One rifle, I built for a specific match. It is a 40X receiver but I made the bolt, I made the sleeve, I made the stock, I fitted the barrel; so that's pretty custom. I built it in hopes of winning the match and that it did so, was just icing on the cake. The match lasted two days but building the rifle for it added another month to the experience.
One of my hunting rifles is a tang safety Ruger 77 in 7x57. I bought it to use. The stock on this particular vintage of 77 is a little on the fat side so I reshaped it to make it more like the earlier models. I slimmed it down and re-checkered it to match the factory pattern. I replaced the pad with a decellerator. So, it was now custom-ish. It shot well but the factory barrel was just a little homely inside and I couldn't stand it so I rebarreled it with a stainless Benchmark. Since the chamber was cut with a reamer made to my specs, it was now even more custom. The factory stock was now attractive and the rifle balanced well but, it seemed like, every time I picked it up, I put a dent in it. I bought a stock from Wildcat stocks and put it on. The stock was a little fat again (being based on the factory stock, but there wasn't much I could do about that. The barrel was now a little heavy and the rifle too muzzle heavy, so I turned it down to get the balance back. I don't know if this is a custom rifle or not but it is certainly different from what you would buy.
A lot of my rifles are like this. Built or modified almost on a whim. A Model 52 Winchester with the factory barrel which was set back, re-contoured, and rechambered and put into a stock I made from a piece of myrtle wood I had. Sort of custom. I did it just because I wanted to shoot silhouette with a model 52.
So, in a real sense, these are custom rifle; just because they are nothing like the factory configuration and they were purpose built. They are not works of art (though they won't make you puke, usually), like Martin Hagn's single shots, but they are sort of unique.
As far as the custom action angle is concerned, BS. All of the so-called custom actions are production items. They are not nearly as custom as the Mauser which was re-worked by Mr. Anderson. I have one rifle which I built on a RPA action. Although some might call that a custom action, it is not nearly as "custom" as my much-modified P14 single shot or Ruger 77 single shot or Mauser actions on hunting rifles. I bought it, mounted the trigger, and put the barrel on. A slightly gifted [bleep] could have done it (some will claim that is exactly what happened). I have a model 54 Winchester which I modified to use Model 70 bottom metal. I weld on a new bolt handle, which I made. I installed a Mauser 98 bolt stop and filled in the notch in the bolt. This action is, in my opinion, a lot more custom than a Stiller I just took out of the box.
In the end, custom is whatever one perceives it to be. It is more a question of semantics than adherence to any hard and fast rule. GD

I consider my Ruger#3 a total custom rifle.
The barrel blank was built half round/ half octagon, the banded front sight is a Brno , the sling swivel is I integral with the octagon portion and the quarter rib Is milled right into the barrel.
Would was special ordered From Treebone Carving. And checkered by Denis Davidson .a Kepplinger trigger was installed previous to this, Wolf springs have been added as well as the trigger guard modified.
The rifle is chambered in .303 British.
Conversely, every one of my match rifles I have are all highly molded but I don't consider them " custom", just modified .
Sort of like a NASCAR or 1/4 mile gasser compared to a street rod I guess.
Cat