Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters No Ordinary Rifle, by Harry Selby

Has any one read the article "No Ordinary Rifle" by Harry Selby in the March, 2012 issue of the American Rifleman? With all of the Remington 700 bashing that goes on, some may find it interesting. The rifle is a Remington 721 in 30-06 Springfield. The scope it wore was a Redfield 4X. The ammo was Winchester 180gr Silvertips. This equipment was used on all manner of game to include lion and leopard. No high velocity magnum, no monometal bullets with plastic tips, no high power variable scope with a huge objective and turrets or dots. How did Mr. Selby ever manage?

He's a hunter. No doubt.

That and the good old .30-06 is up to most hunting tasks.

Smart move on his part. Silvertips aren't bad to "way overpenetrate".

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/harry-selby-remington-721-rifle/


A grand old rifle and a grand story told by a grand old hunter.

Great read!

+1, thanks for the link.

It was a great read. Thanks for the link.

Here is the picture in your link.

Is that a 721?

I don't recall me saying or the article saying that it was a 721.

It looks like Harry Selby holding one of his .22 rifles.

What is your point?

I read it and liked the article. Practical guy with a practical, working rifle that served him well.

DF

No that is not a 721, that is a picture of him holding a .22 rifle that he was given as a child. That photo is explained in an article he did on Bell's 7x57.

Thank you for the link as well.
A great story of an American rifle on safari, my 722 longs for such action!

I read the article just yesterday. Just confirms my decision to take my mauser 30-06 to South Africa in June. From Eland on down, should take care of it all.
Les

99,

Do you honestly think that little rifle could possibly be a Remington 721 or are you just trying to bait HHB?

Not sure of your motives here. You're sounding more and more like a troll. Hard to believe you're dumb enough to really think that .22 is a high powered rifle. The only alternative to being off the charts dumb, is being a troll. Neither is good.

DF

DF: Took you awhile to figure that out...but yeah...hes a troll...

I try to give posters the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes, even a blind hog finds an acorn.

It really pizzes me off when a poster tries to talk down to a forum member that I happen to like, by arrogantly acting dumb, which is an ostentatious display of bad manners. Without low class, some of these guys would have no class at all...

DF

One thing I noticed was the successful use of the old 180 grain silvertip, a bullet that is often critisized here. I have found them very effective and still have a few boxes. I took them on a cow elk hunt this year (because I couldn't get the noslers to shoot well) and felt I would have have to have a perfect shot with them. Didn't fire a shot, all I saw were five bulls on a cow hunt. Last time I used them was 1978 on a moose, shot three, recovered two on off side hide, third went through. Don't know why I began to doubt them but I switched to noslers which were also very effective.

I have an old yellow Super X box of 338 Win Mag Silvertips....might have to shoot something with one myself!

I agree, a 30-06 with a 180gr bullet at 2700fps just plain works.

rbell,

One thing I've noticed about Silvertips is that the construction varied considerably over the years. The older models, made back when the ST was the "premium" bullet of Winchester ammo, seemed to have heavier jackets than later bullets.

One of the few true failures of any expanding bullet I've experienced was a 150-grain Silvertip from a .30-06, shot into the shoulder of a forkhorn mule deer buck at abouut 200 yards. The bullet broke the shoulder but didn't penetrate the rib cage, and I had to chase the buck down and shoot him again. The jacket of the first bullet was found lying against the ribs.

That was in the late 1980's, about the time I started sectioning bullets to see what the jackets looked like. The jacket of most Silvertips was quite thin by then, and got even worse during the short era of the so-called Silvertip Supreme, Winchester's so-called premoum bullet they introduced before the Failsafe. The Silvertip Supreme was pretty much a varmint bullet.

I dunno if the 180 Silvertips used by Selby are the same as those made today. If for some reason I might use them on game bigger than deer, I'd section one to see what it looked like first.

Thanks for the link. I very much enjoyed because it brought back fun memories. My first rifle was a Rem.721. I bought it for $75 in the summer of 1959. I bought a 4x Weaver scope and Weaver mounts. That fall my Dad and I went to Colorado deer hunting and I killed two four point bucks and a doe. I had my 16th birthday on that trip in a small but cozy log cabin. We were hunting a small ranch and the rancher's wife baked me a cake in a cast iron skillet, best cake I ever ate. While I didn't use the 180gr bullets, I did use the 150gr Silver Tips.

Thanks for sharing that memory, SuperT.

+1

Super T has us, the readers, there with him in Colorado, experiencing his adventure. That's a sign of a gifted writer, being able to tell a story while engaging the readers.

DF

I shot my first gun deer at age 15 (1983 or so)with a 180 gr. Silvertip out of my Featherweight .308 with a 4x Redfield on it. the round came out of one of the 2 yellow boxes that came with the gun (39 rounds of .308, 1 of .358(?)) I was at my Dad's hunt club, in a blind, when two dinks came out, and to my untrained eye, they were shooters. At 50 yds out I put one right behind the shoulder, and the deer made it about 25 yards into some thick stuff but was easy to follow due to the heavy blood trail. I signalled my dad, and he came to help me with the deer, and I didn't understand the mixed pride for shooting a deer and disappointment with the lack of size then, but do now. Looking back at the damage and the blood trail, I can't help but think it was a thinner jacket on that bullet.

He's the insufferable prick who started the thread about a deceased Forum Member who obviously was not here to defend himself. This jerk needs a Drano enema.

Thanks for the link. I always wondered if I made a mistake using a 721 for a custom rifle. Guess not.



ddj

"How did Mr. Selby ever manage?"

Mr. Selby knew how to maintain his triggers, those who have trouble with the Reminton/Walker trigger don't; that's the bottom line.

Ouch...!

That ought to clean him out...

DF

i just love how some of these threads have one nice, normal comment followed by some caustic bile, then nice normal comment, more caustic bile.

you can't get entertainment like this anywhere else.

hillbillybear,

Thank you much for the link to the Selby/721 story. Haven't enjoyed a story that much in waaay too long a time.

Whenever we have a CRF vs. push feed topic here, a gazillion experts come out of the woodwork to explain how a Remington push feed cannot possibly be good enough to hunt in Africa. They obviously know a lot more than Harry Selby. What does he know? Probably never read a Capstick book. Instead, he just hunted with one for 50 years or so.

Funny this came up.

Last Friday I had a 1951 Remington 721/ 270 with a Denver Redfield 4x follow me home for $280.00.

I thought "why in the hecks am i buying this thing?"
Besides having a great rep for accuracy. I liked its simplicity and classic design.
The action seems very strong and smooth.
Came with irons of which I plan on playing with.

Ordered 250 130 Ballistic Tips to get it going.

My smith says the triggers are good and he likes them.

Talking about the construction of the Silver Tips. It has been a long time ago, and I may not be remembering correctly, but I think (notice I think) that there were two types of Silvertips in the early 60s.

One was made to be used in the .300 H&H, and the other was made to be used in lower velocity cartridges. Supposedly, and again IIRC, the ones for the .300 H&H were of heavier construction.

IIRC, the Silvertips for the .300 H&H had dual cannalures, like those on the bullets shown. The ones for the .30-06, .308, and other cartridges had a single cannalure.

Astute observation sir. These guys didn't often have the choice of what weapon they used when building their careers and just used what was available. Mr Selbys .416 was a rush replacement for a broken double and it then went on to became famous. No doubt anything that didn't work also didn't last long.

I can remember about two decades ago reading Mr Boddington stating the .300 H&H with a 180 were highly suitable for lion. (Legislation requiring a .375H&H+ aside), No doubt that suitability remains unchanged as demonstrated by Mr Selby, his .30-06 and fast opening projectles.

1234567, great memory! I believe you are exactly right. I haven't thought about that in years. I used to buy surplus 06 stuff and pull the bullets replacing the military stuff with 150ST.(or anything I could buy on the cheap). That's when I could get the Military ammo for pennies a round.

Indy,
That is exactly why I started this thread. The general bashing of Remington 700's with reguard to push feed, dinky extractors, bolt handles, triggers etc. and suitability for general hunting, let alone African hunting has become a favorite past time on the internet. And here we have a story of Harry Selby using the precursor to the 700, a 721 in the common 30-06 chamberng and finding it satisfactory in every way. I guess he didn't know that he needed a custom built, bedded, tuned trigger, tweeked extractor, custom bottom metal, controlled round feed rifle in a wildcat magnum chambering to hunt general plains game along with lions and lepoards. Of course Harry Selby isn't an internet expert. Neither was Finn Aagaard. While Finn stated that he preferred mauser rifles, he had no problem if someone prefered a push feed rifle like a Remington, Weatherby, Savage or Browning.

ar..,

I prefer Mausers too. That said, I've three 721s and a 722. They have all worked fine for me as two of them did for my dad and my uncle. Half a century with out a problem. Wish I could find a car,or any thing else, as good as the 721/722.

O

The action is worth more than you paid for the gun and scope...

DF

People do crap on about CRF. The biggest advantage with a Mauser action for me is the built in loose tolerances that allow the weapon to function in dirty/wet conditions. That's why I have Mausers. The CRF is a good feature but not the one that keeps it operating.

There are custom Mauser '98's with uber tight tolerances ! They offer no advantage over a PF.

And of course there is Warren Page who hunted the world and shot piles of dangerous game with a 375 Weatherby magnum built on a Remington 721 action....and Ross Seyfried (who held a PH license in Tanzania)and who hunted Africa with(among other things) a 416 Remington Magnum on a Remington 700 action.....proving in both cases that any action works well if it works the way it's supposed to....

Thanks for a good read.

Great article, well written. Part of why my 2nd rifle was, and still is, my '06 Mauser. Don't like Remmies at all. Only have three.

I've got a M721 in .280 that I have had for 20+ years. I've never seen another one. Anyway, I restocked it as the original owner cut the stock down to about a 11 1/2" pull. It is a very accurate rifle and has taken a lot of deer.

Yup, great article, thanks for starting this thread. Same thoughts here, don't know how Selby managed to use the 721 for so long (on some Dangerous game no less!) without breaking a bolt handle, extractor, etc. Basic maintenance goes a long way!

That's right Bob!

now I just gotta get out there and use it.....grin

Dober


(hope alls well in your camp SU!)

I've been saying this all along. It's all you need.

Too bad troll doesn't have two R's. Lickspittle has two L's...

Dan 4:16

I need to read this book because I consider that the near perfect rifle.

Fantastic article! Love reading this stuff. There will probably always be debate about what is "best" but what is needed is to define "best at what"? I certainly have my preferences but will hunt with what is in my hands. What this really proves is that a good 30-06 in the hands of a good hunter is all that is needed for almost anything.

Thanks for sharing!

And it pretty much duplicates the Point of Aim as a .375 H & H with 270g factory loads. The old classic PHs loved that 2 gun combo.

I love my 721 and 722, but both have way to much drop at the comb for me to comfortably shoot using as scope. They are both butter smooth. I have both in later 700 stocks now. The bolt cut out for the bolt handle looks a little odd, but I can shoot without getting beat to death. They are made to shoot with open sights.

Yes. ^

I bought one some years ago . I never understood why it ended up like it did . Barrel was sideways for lack of better words .
Sight screw holes we’re at 3 O’clock and lettering was at 12 O’clock . Was chambered in 280 , barrel set back ?
Anyway bought it for 150.00 , never shot it in that configuration . Took it to John Brown , a local smith , and told him he could leave the stock as is , rough , but I wanted it to shoot .
We decided on a Shilen select match grade in 30-06 . He chambered , trued action and barrel , lapped lugs , did his magic on the trigger , bedded it , and I got exactly what I wanted .
175 grain Berger’s over H4350 , IMR 4350 , and incredibly accurate with either .
Not much to look at , but shoots lights out .
Have shot a lot of deer with it and a couple neck shot turkeys .
Kenneth

That link appears to have gone stale.

Here's an updated link: No Ordinary Rifle by Harry Selby - American Rifleman

Here's a link that works for me:

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2012/1/31/no-ordinary-rifle/

Harry Selby was a famous African pro hunter and a pretty smart guy. I'll bet he told more than 1 client to just bring 5 boxes of 30-06 and I have the rifle for plains game hunts. I'd almost bet he got by on left over ammo in it his whole time with it. Mb

I will soon be acquiring a 721 in 300 H&H from an estate. I think I'm gonna like it.

Saw a really nice 722 in 300 Savage at a LGS just the other day. Even had a period correct Lyman All American 4x in hinged mounts for iron sight access. $500, the only reason it didn't come home with me is because I'm a lefty.

Cuda flipped it for a grand, more if a B.