A few days ago I received some wonderful feedback from a client who used his Buehler English Express rifle in the caliber .404 Jeffery in South Africa. This was his second trip and like on the first trip he was most pleased with the performance of his rifle. This is what it is all about for me. My rifles are built for hunting and shooting. And my hope is that they will eventually turn into treasured family heirlooms and be associated with great memories.
My client with his daughter and a 13 foot 2″ crocodile. The picture above is of his beautiful eland.
This rifle was featured on my blog before, on 5/10/2018
The pictures are a testament to the performance of the .404 Jeffery. It continues to be my favorite big game caliber. The design of the cartridge is well suited for smooth feeding, the .400 grain bullets carry a punch, and the recoil is manageable for most people.
This was a straight forward project. My client inherited this pre 64 Winchester 70, cal. .458 Win. Mag., from his father. Once the father shot a giant Alaskan brown bear with this rifle. I had the pleasure of re-stocking it with a beautiful piece of Turkish walnut. The factory trigger guard and floor plate got replaced with a Sunny Hill magazine box. Talley bases, rings and a scope were added. The 1″ recoil pad I leather covered with pig skin. Other then that we left it in it’s factory condition. Currently the rifle is put to the test in Africa. Unfortunately the dad never had the chance to visit the dark continent, but I’m pretty sure he would be well pleased. The rifle is very accurate but the .458 Win. Mag. has a hefty kick to it.
Living in a Democrat controlled State is not easy for a gunmaker. Oregon has had fantastic gun laws. The hunting, fishing and shooting culture flourished in this State and is deeply ingrained in the rural communities. Despite the left leaning politics of the State, a streak of libertarianism used to prevail. But here comes the modern Left that has taken over the Democrat party. In every session of the legislators new anti gun bills have been introduced by Democrat politicians. In Oregon the Democrats have by now the super majority. That means they control the house, the senate and the governorship. Over the years many left leaning and agenda driven judges have been appointed. There are a few freedom loving Republican politicians at work and they do what they can, but their leadership is ineffective, unorganized and it lacks vision and imagination.
A few months ago the Democrats introduced SB554. This bill makes the concealed carrying of handguns by licensed and law abiding citizens very difficult and expensive. Included in the bill also are incriminating storage mandates for guns at home and during transport. Worst of all, if a firearms has been stolen, the gun owner is liable for the loss and will be fined. The goal of the bill is to infringe on the use of guns for self defense under the pretense to reduce crime. The ultimate goal of course is to incrementally disarm the public. Keep in mind, this bill was introduced and passed by the same politicians that allow the riots in Portland to go on daily and turn their backs to millions of dollars of property damages incurred. Reducing crime certainly is not on their radar. It is being estimated that up to 2.5 million crimes annually are prevented by the use of firearms by law-abiding citizens. Of course this will never make the News outlets.
So why do I write this? Yes, I do know that mixing business with politics is stupid. But can you really blame me, if my livelihood is being threatened by the enemies of freedom on a daily base? Of course I never should post words like this on my blog. But can you really fault me for caring about my beloved country, for trying to bring awareness to my brothers and sisters? And for how I fear for my children’s future? Lately I often ponder how much longer a simple blog about craftsmanship and traditional hunting guns will be tolerated by our overlords! Let me show you this:
As you can see, the counties in Oregon are primarily red (conservative). Yet the population centers in Portland, Salem, Eugene and Bend control the State. Bill SB554 was introduced in a committee consisting of a majority of Democrats. We the citizens of the Sate could weigh in on the bill per oral and written testimony for or against the bill. I did both and testified against the bill. The ratio of the citizenry opposing the bill was about 4:1. There where hundreds of testimonies given. Therefore, in a representative Republic as we supposedly have, this bill should have been dead in the water at this point and should never have made it out of the committee. Not so, the Democrats passed it in committee and rammed it through the house and the senate. Currently it is on the governors desk for signing, which Kate Brown will do so gladly.
It begs the questions: Do we still have representative government? Are the majority of counties still represented? If you live rural, do you count at all?
I did what I could. What troubles me however is that most of my friends and colleagues didn’t lift a finger. There should not have been hundreds but thousands of testimonies. We will certainly lose the Republic if we don’t engage and instead watch Netflix and read silly posts on Facebook. You may disagree with me, and that is fine. We do so politely and without malice and perhaps we can engage sometime into an interesting discussion. I would like to close with a quote from our State Senator Dennis Linthicum:
“We must stand against the absurdities that are demanded daily. We must stand for the self-evident truth that we witness, the common-sense we utilize, and our own just pursuits and economic enterprises regardless of the crushing weight of the statist bureaucrats. To pursue justice without regard for the individual is statism and statism requires, “a certain kind of universe: a universe of non-fact, non-thing, non-identity,” which is a self-annihilating lust for power known as, Utopianism.”
A while back I posted a little article about the machining procedure of a .450-400 barrel with integral features and an octagon profile. The rifle finally has been delivered to my client. Lisa Tomlin performed the engravings and Turnbull Restorations did the beautiful color case hardening. It took a while to complete this, and I hope my client is well pleased with the outcome.
I’m pretty happy with everything and the gun performed well on the range too. The Hagn action is really a wonderful and strong base for a custom rifle. I created a forearm metal for this rifle to give it a little more weight, and mainly for looks. I’ve always loved the Boss style forearms on O/U shotguns and desired for a while to incorporate it into a falling block rifle.
The picture was taken by Brian Dierks. I have a .505 Gibbs single shot rifle in the works and I will feature it in a future post.
The American far-left is getting serious. Push back people, or we will loose the Republic!
How much time do you spend watching Netflix or on Facebook each day? If we each spend instead 15 minutes a day on educating ourselves and on contacting our representatives, we can stop this madness. And we need to support pro-gun groups. It is fairly easy to testify for or against State sponsored bills online. Please look into it.
“The Left is coming, the Left is coming!”
HR1: For the people act: This bill needs to be stopped! Please look into it. It will ensure a one-party system. It’s not for the people, it’s for the far left!
HR5: Equality act of 2021: This bill needs to be stopped! Look into it!~ This bill is the biggest infringement on religious freedom in America ever!
HR8: Make no mistake, this is ONLY about setting up a process which can be later used for registration of guns and gun owners. Look into it!
HR1446: Unelected government bureaucrats would be allowed to delay a firearms purchase beyond the current 3 days to anyone they wish and for any reason. Look into it!
The goal of the left is not to make us safer. The goal is to disarm us. Why? Because they know their policies will face heavy opposition, once implemented. And why the opposition? Because their policies will ultimately only benefit the ultra rich and powerful.
The disarming will be implemented little by little. One bill after another. But we can stop it. Make yourself heard! Don’t be intimidated or we will loose the first amendment too.
We all need a hobby, and this is mine. When I don’t work on guns I like to build guitars. I’ve absolutely no time for it, but I steal an hour here and there, and it takes me a long time. But all of a sudden it is done. I’ve some very nice wood scraps and this is one way to utilize them. The neck was done from two old maple rifle stocks and has an ebony fret board. For the body I took my wife’s butcher block (I don’t think she is missing it), and the top is made of English walnut. Nothing new under the sun, Fender and Gibson elements combined, and with coil split. What does it sound like? Think of “Black magic woman”.
This rifle is what I refer to as my model “Buehler English Express”. It is built around a GMA standard magnum action with drop box magazine, 24″ barrel, with quarter rib and banded front sight ramp. The caliber is .375 H&H. Express sights and the barrel swivel band are my standard features on this model. On the large big game rifles I always install a recoil lug on the barrel to help the stock with the recoil absorption. Most English and German makers don’t do that, and over a period of time problems can develop. Speaking of recoil lugs, the GMA actions have the action recoil lug placed further forward. This is an improvement over other Mauser actions, as it allows for more wood in the stock between the magazine box and the action recoil lug.
The rifle features my quick detachable scope mount. The levers release the scope with a quarter turn. My client provided the beautiful piece of California – English walnut. The checkering is cut in the flat-top style.
The engravings and the checkering of the bolt where performed by Tim George. I thought the floor plate turned out really classy.
Check out my website for more information. www.customsportingarms.com
Here are a few anti-gun bills that have been introduced:
H.R. 130–Forced firearms storage laws, making it ILLEGAL to keep a firearm in your bedside table or ANYWHERE other than where the Government allows.
H.R. 121 – Funding for Gun Confiscators, which would hire 200 new ATF agents as a taskforce, for the sole purpose of enforcing federal gun control on the American People.
H.R. 125 – Arbitrary waiting periods, forcing Americans who’re looking to purchase a firearm to protect themselves to WAIT, making it impossible to buy firearms, ammo or magazines.
H.R. 127 – the GUN CONTROL MEGA BILL which would:
>>> Mandate Civil Liability Insurance for All Gun Owners >>> Create a National Firearms License >>> Require a Mental Health Exam for All Gun Owners >>> Ban all Magazines That Hold Over 10 Rounds of Ammunition >>> Establish a Federal Ammunition Registry >>> Ban All .50 Caliber Ammunition >>> Construct a National Firearms Registry
H.R.127 is the dream bill for the globalist left that is pushing this stuff on us. With bills like this the anti-freedom, anti-gun lobby hopes to achieve one of two goals: 1. They hope wishy washy Republican lawmakers will compromise and strike a deal, giving up a portion of rights, in order to maintain some. Or the 2. goal: To pass it with enough votes as it stands.
Call and write to your congress representatives and let them know that you don’t stand for this. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc, all prove that gun registration will lead to confiscation. And support the pro-gun organizations. The NRA currently has huge internal problems and we have never been more vulnerable. It is up to us to stand up!
Forgive me if I’m stepping one more time onto my soap box. I’m very concerned about the direction we are going us a country, and I have no doubt it will greatly affect us as gun owners and sportsmen. No matter if you are a Democrat or Republican, it is time for us to get involved into politics. If we have surely many disagreements between us, we can hopefully agree that as honest men we must ensure fair elections. And I hope we can agree that the Republic and the Constitution that has given us such a high standard of living is worth preserving. A bird needs two wings to fly and honest people need to get involved and start listening to each other again. When I was a kid in Europe we had the impression that America was the land of unlimited opportunities for those that work hard and have visions. In the last 24 years I’ve witnessed the change where we went from an attitude of “Yes, you can do that, go for it!” to the attitude “Sorry buddy, you can’t do this, because I don’t like it, and you don’t have the right permit.” Let’s not forget, but we hold these truths to be self evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
The global elite is trying to implement the “Great Reset” across the world, and it seems to me we are in step with their plans. Please do your own research on it The Great Reset | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
We have seen this movie before and it is called communism. It is high time to be active within our parties, to volunteer, to re-connect with our churches and to support financially the organizations that help preserve freedom and liberty for all. At my naturalization ceremony I swore an oath of allegiance to the constitution of the United States, and I believe that it is my duty to speak up. And that is what we do as free men.
Okay, let’s move on.
This rifle was built around a 1909 Argentina Mauser 98 action and is in the caliber .30-06. My client had bought it from a dealer and it came from an estate in un-finished condition. Steve Heilmann had done the metal work on the rifle and Steve had it bedded in a well executed pattern stock of his own design. I had the privilege of making the actual stock off the pattern and of finishing the rifle after stocking. I made no changes on the metal work, except a final polishing, and we had Bruce Farman do the checkering on the bolt handle.
Steve is an excellent craftsman and my customer very much liked the pattern stock. We made just a few minor changes to it. I tried my best to honor Steve’s design and to execute his vision fully.
The rifle has a Jerry Fisher round bottom metal and Steve also had made the scope bases and the custom trigger. It also is a very accurate shooting rifle. I hope that Steve approves the end result. But more important, we both have a very happy client.
January 2021 is almost over and while we all have looked forward to leaving 2020 behind, we are facing new challenges going forward. These days I often look back to the 90’s when I immigrated from Switzerland to the United States. Wow, has this country ever changed since! I leave it at that. Gun owners in New Zealand, Canada and other countries have seen heavy attacks on their rights. We must assume that we are going to face unprecedented assaults on our second amendment and our liberties as well. Therefore I urge you that you as a gun owner keep yourself informed and engaged. If we don’t get involved at this point, gun ownership will be soon a thing of the past. There are many organizations worthwhile supporting. Here are a few:
I don’t think gun shops have been doing a good job in educating gun buyers about the never ending and deceitful attacks on our rights by zealous politicians.
Alright, I get off my soap box and move on to happier things. I’ve had the privilege to built and finish a few very diverse rifles this past year. I will start off in this post with this unusual rifle. Well, for North America anyway.
This rifle has been in the works for a long time. The engraving held it up considerably but at the end it was worth it. I posted pictures of this rifle in progress before in a previous blog post. It is a Bavarian styled rifle in the caliber .300 H&H. The foundation was a 1909 Argentine action that my client had provided. A new bottom metal, trigger, bolt handle and shroud where added.
I modified the action for the long cartridge and incorporated the features that my client requested, but still tried to make it my own. In doing so I stayed away from the more aggressive and typically hooked Bavarian grip and gave the stock less of a hogs back. This with the shooter’s comfort in mind. The rifle has a detachable swing mount and a Leica scope.
Lisa Tomlin performed the engravings. I thought she did a wonderful job. I can’t take credit for any of the design, that was between her and our client.
The .300 H&H has been a popular cartridge in my shop. Thus far the accuracy has been outstanding with every rifle, this one no exception. I’m a fan.
