Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats .30 Gibbs Project 2020

I still use a bunch of them even though I've had a number of them repaired/rebuilt. Maybe I'm hard headed.

A hard headed gun guy??? Rare combination but I suppose it is possible.

Good review there
I need to get on my 30 Gibbs one day I have the dies and reamer

Great write-up MedRiver! I've never been a fan of iron sights on a scoped rifle, and your finished rifle looks great.

I had my .30-06 rechambered to .30 Gibbs by Les Bauska in Kalespell in the late '70s. He didn't have a Gibbs reamer, so he used an Ackley reamer and pushed it deeper to the Gibbs dimension.

That was my favorite elk rifle, shooting 180 grain Partitions for over 20 years. I was just starting to try 180 grain Barnes TSX bullets in it in the late '90s when a fireforming mishap pretty much ended that rifle's career. A gunsmith in Billings set back the barrel and cleaned up the chamber, but he couldn't completely fix the extractor, that rifle has been sitting in the back of my safe for 20 years.

I had admired the .300 Weatherby since I first started big game hunting in the mid '60s, so with the end of my .30 Gibbs I finally bought a .300 Wby which is now my favorite elk rifle.

Great read. When I was a kid, I had all the Gibbs info. from the shop. Finally gave it to a friend. Cool rifle and great story.

Thanks guys. Glad you enjoyed the write up. Didn't catch up to an elk yet this year but has been a joy to pack and is quickly becoming one of my favorites. My son doesn't seem to mind packing extra weight so he is packing my .300 Win mag these days.


Can you give some insight on the "mishap"??? Hoping to avoid one of those

That is pretty dang awesome. Congrats on a successful hunt.

Well, this project finally came full circle last week when I was able to fill a couple elk tags with the Gibbs on a shoulder hunt. The shots were just over 300 yards steep uphill and the wind was whipping a little (lot) harder than I thought where the elk were. I didn't hold enough for wind and both were hit farther back than I would have liked but the 180 grain Accubonds did their job and both cows went down within 50 yards of being hit. One made it to the timber so we gave her a little time before hiking up to recover.





It was just me and my buddy on the hill for the shooting part. The ranch manager brought his boy and mine up for the recovery which is when the pics were taken for all the internet wardens wondering why there are underage boys holding rifles with dead elk and no orange vests



Should have them all cut up in the next couple days.

Sure glad I had this rifle as they died much quicker then if I had been shooting my .30-06 or my .300 Win with the same bullet.

Congrats on the elk!

Ttt

Interesting you should bump this Bob...I am actually set to get this back in the next day or two after an unscheduled trip to the (rifle) doctor...

Seems that if you are a dumbass, get in a hurry, and forget you swapped the powder in your Chargemaster you can get a 180 Nosler Ballistic tip going 3,236 fps from a 22" barrel. Unfortunately, it will also lock up the bolt tight enough that the barrel has to be removed to get it out and the bolt will be damaged to the point where it is cheaper to replace the bolt rather than re-machine/repair the original. Don't be a dumbass.

Hoping to be hunting with it again this year.