As some of you may recall, I was posting progress photos of a LH Mauser being barreled in .280 Remington. The photobucket/secure photo transition put those threads out of their misery, so I thought I would post a few "mostly done" photos of how it turned out (even though the lighting is uneven and my photography skills limited, you get the idea.)

Beautiful rifle. Who did the stock work and who did the metal work? Very, very nice!

Very nice. I hope to do the same one day.

I lie the rifle and the beautiful wood!

Awesome, but I hate to tell you everything is backwards!!!!!!!!! Very fine..

I did the stock, with D'Arcy Echols looking over my shoulder (he was most generous with his time.)
I came up with the barrel contour, and sent the pattern to Brux.
I reshaped the Blackburn bottom metal and polished all the metal.

Mark Penrod surface ground the action, chambered the barrel, added the McFarland bolt handle, and installed the Gentry safety.
Gary Griffiths did the engraving.
Doug at Glenrock Blue did their dip service on my polished metal.
Skip Baldwin jewelled the bolt.

wow congrats on a top shelf build, you should be very proud of the work that went into that one...now to bloody it!

Gorgeous!

Holy smokes - what a beautiful rifle!

Absolutely beautiful!

Nice

Outstanding, thanks for posting.

Sweet!!

How close are you to being able to shoot the rifle?

Outstanding work by the way.....

That is a gorgeous rifle Utah, now you can quit your day job and build rifles for us loony's.

Utah, are you going to hunt with it? powdr

I certainly hope to hunt with it--I wouldn't have built it otherwise. I probably won't take it out in a driving rain, though.

A beauty I'm envious. What kind of wood and where is it from? Everything is about perfect on that rifle.

WOW!

What scope are you going to use on the rifle?

That is a legit custom rifle! Beautiful!

Have you shot it? Did you use a pattern for the stock? Love the shape and the wood is top shelf!

Beautiful!! Very well done.

It is English walnut that I sourced from Shane Thompson in Soda Springs, Idaho. He is close enough that I could go pick it out in person. It is a left sided blank in that the showier side is on the left which does not have the cheekpiece. So you really get to see the wood grain unimpeded on the LH side. To my eye, the layout of the stock is just about perfect. The figure through the butt drives down toward the toe, but then the arc goes right through the grip and is then straight up through the forend.

Tejano--Do you remember on my earlier thread that you did not like how the shapes of the shadowline and the cheekpiece related to one another on my pattern stock? It was a fair and honest criticism; one was more square/blocky than the other. I think it came out better.

This stock is truly a one-off. I made the pattern so that it fit me just so (with cast and toe out, and the grip radius just right for my hand.) But the pattern has been irreparably altered to accommodate another project, so I could not easily build this same stock again, even if I wanted to.

Utah,

Who did the checkering and what was the design rationale behind the post'64 M70 Curly Qs in the middle of those point patterns?

Also ,where is the front sling swivel stud?

Probably the biggest disappointment of the project is that the checkerer thought I would like it if the checkering pattern I sent was overruled and I got the geegaws in the checkering. But there is no way to take them out and so I am learning to like them. The checkering on the forend in particular is deeper than I would have wanted as well.

The front swivel stud is in my parts box. I'll put it in one of these days.

Wow man that is an outstanding package right there just stunning!

Just a gorgeous deal all the way around can’t wait to see kill pics when it’s bloodied!

That turned out fantastic. Interesting part about the checkering. It seems like there is always something that comes up on projects.

Beautiful rifle. Cannot wait to see it shoot. Awesome work Utah.

Wow, beautiful rifle! Hats off to you Utah, very well done. I like the details in the checkering btw. The wood is gorgeous.

Incredible.

It's very nice.

Who did the bases?

Awesome rifle and a fine caliber chosen. May I ask what left hand Mauser action was used?

It is an extensively re-worked Zastava. About the only parts that will be original will be the bolt body, the receiver, and the ejector assembly.