Idaho Sharpshooter
07-31-2015, 11:42 PM
Finally, there is some light at the end of this eleven year tunnel.
Way back when, I bought one of the Steve Earle Wesson #1 Long Range actions. Went thru nine years of "analysis to paralysis..." not being able to decide what to build.
Paying $1500 for the action, and $500 for some gorgeous walnut blanks, it had to be something really special.
I was talking with Butch Searcy two years ago, and he said the .450-400 Nitro Express 3 1/4 would be perfect. In a strong single shot (it looks for all the world like an Alexander Henry) I would readily exceed the double rifle's 2100 +/- fps 400gr bullet load.
In October of 2013 I contact McGowan Barrels for a special contour barrel. I wanted a tapered octagon barrel, with a non-tapered full length rib. They said they would do it.
Six months later I get the barrel, but it just has a quarter (length) rib. Send it back, and wait. November of last year (2014) I get the second barrel. NO rib. Send it back, along with a drawing of what I wanted. Bear in mind, in McGowan's defense, they had never had an order for something like this. Finally, late April, I get the "Third times' the Charm..." barrel. It is absolutely perfect.
Steve Earle recommends a wood specialist you have probably heard of, Dave Crossno. It cost me less than $300 to have him 95% pantagraph the wood, and in less than three weeks.
Meanwhile, I had been looking for a gunsmith to do the metal and stock work. On the AR forum I mention it, and get response from a gentleman in Wyoming. He had done the same thing the year before. The gunsmith who walked him thru it had the reamer, and had done two barreling jobs on one of these actions.
Roger Green is the gunsmith, from Brewster, WA. When you go to his website, it opens with a picture of him at the White House presenting a Winchester Model 21 he had converted to left hand for Bush II. I immediately think, there is no way I can afford this grade of work. Contact him anyway, and he offers me a price to do the metal work I can live with. He finished it day before yesterday, interrupted by a two week Elephant and Cape Buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe (him not me, I been there, done that, and got the T-shirt to prove it). Fed-Ex will deliver the barreled action to my front door on Tuesday.
A good friend gunsmith, who builds double barrel rifles to make a living has agreed to do the wood work for me, and thinks I could have it back and be shooting it by September 1st (of this year!).
I am so pumped I am about to pop!
Yes, I'll post pictures when I get it back.
Rich
Way back when, I bought one of the Steve Earle Wesson #1 Long Range actions. Went thru nine years of "analysis to paralysis..." not being able to decide what to build.
Paying $1500 for the action, and $500 for some gorgeous walnut blanks, it had to be something really special.
I was talking with Butch Searcy two years ago, and he said the .450-400 Nitro Express 3 1/4 would be perfect. In a strong single shot (it looks for all the world like an Alexander Henry) I would readily exceed the double rifle's 2100 +/- fps 400gr bullet load.
In October of 2013 I contact McGowan Barrels for a special contour barrel. I wanted a tapered octagon barrel, with a non-tapered full length rib. They said they would do it.
Six months later I get the barrel, but it just has a quarter (length) rib. Send it back, and wait. November of last year (2014) I get the second barrel. NO rib. Send it back, along with a drawing of what I wanted. Bear in mind, in McGowan's defense, they had never had an order for something like this. Finally, late April, I get the "Third times' the Charm..." barrel. It is absolutely perfect.
Steve Earle recommends a wood specialist you have probably heard of, Dave Crossno. It cost me less than $300 to have him 95% pantagraph the wood, and in less than three weeks.
Meanwhile, I had been looking for a gunsmith to do the metal and stock work. On the AR forum I mention it, and get response from a gentleman in Wyoming. He had done the same thing the year before. The gunsmith who walked him thru it had the reamer, and had done two barreling jobs on one of these actions.
Roger Green is the gunsmith, from Brewster, WA. When you go to his website, it opens with a picture of him at the White House presenting a Winchester Model 21 he had converted to left hand for Bush II. I immediately think, there is no way I can afford this grade of work. Contact him anyway, and he offers me a price to do the metal work I can live with. He finished it day before yesterday, interrupted by a two week Elephant and Cape Buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe (him not me, I been there, done that, and got the T-shirt to prove it). Fed-Ex will deliver the barreled action to my front door on Tuesday.
A good friend gunsmith, who builds double barrel rifles to make a living has agreed to do the wood work for me, and thinks I could have it back and be shooting it by September 1st (of this year!).
I am so pumped I am about to pop!
Yes, I'll post pictures when I get it back.
Rich