Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Custom pre 64 Winchester 70 Mannlicher

All of my customs are utility type hunting and varmint rifles, MCM stocks, SS barrels and such.

Have always like the Mannlicher stocks with nice walnut, blued actions and barrels.

Question is. Anyone have a recommendation for a smith that does this type of stock and barrel work and one that would do it with a Pre 64 Winchester 70 action?

Turnbull if you have the $ and want the best.

Roger Biesen would do a fine job, and does it all.

http://www.biesen.com/

Lon Paul at lonpaulcustomguns.com also does great work
here are two he did for me. The top one is my 30-06 and done on an FN and the bottom one a 9.3x62 on an Enfield

Roger Green as well. I have a fine non-mannlicher rifle of his built on a Grisel action and am in the thinking stage of a mannlicher 35 Whelen built on one of the 1909 Argentine's I have stashed.

458- Is that the same FN that went to Turkey after Ibex? If so, it looks a bit prettier now than it did in the photos with the article.

PS- That article is one of my favorites.

Thanks for sharing. Even more motivated to get this project done now.
Just need to decide on a cartridge. 358 Norma?

That'd be a great choice.

I would like to see how it turns out. I am a fan of those old M 70's and I use them. I don't have one with a mannlicher stock however.

Sometimes its easier to find one already done. Also, to me at least, the euro. look with maybe a butterknife handle and their style goes with a full stock.

These rifles were for sale at the local shop.



The second from the left is a .358 Win. It's well made! I brought it home. No waiting. I have added a nice leather carrying strap to it.

Here is one without the white line spacers that mine has on the grip cap and butt plate.


The thing is that the screw slots line up vertical now. If the spacers are gone then they may not line up.

Maybe I will just leave it alone and have another coffee. The scope is not exotic enough? I have a 2.5-8 Conquest, 1.75-6 Leu, 3-9 Conquest and a 4x Zeiss Diatal for extras along with larger scopes. The Diatal has only fine crosshairs. This rifle is just a safe queen and will only see the range. I think the Zeiss has the best 'euro' look for it.

Spoke with four smiths today about the project. While all had the their pros and cons the job will go the Roger Biesen.

35 Whelen
Pre 64 70 action
Williams bottom metal
20 inch barrel, front sight,
Straight classic type butt with Decel pad and grip cap steel nose cap, checkering
Conetrol mounts and rings

You will not be sorry...

Can't wait to see it when finished...

Mine will be a Whelen.

Here are some Conetrol's on a custom 270 of mine built on a pre-war M70. I like the fluting and they are machined to exactly the length of the bridge and ring, something you may want to consider.

Great looking rifle Tony.

Visited his shop and held some of the rifles he's done. A very good choice - both in GS and cartridge. Classic!

Here's an Al & Roger Biesen .300WM that they cooked up for me. And it shoots as good as it looks.

Been 11 months have you received an update? Got to be getting near the top of the stack. That said, I called Roger the other day to get a quick guote and to order a butt plate and grip cap... he talked A LOT... was not not me distracting him... the man can ramble... we were on the phone for 40+minutes. I was only looking for 5 minutes of his time... very nice guy and does beautiful work... I love full length forearms and can not wait to see this one.