Clean Break
Member
I grew up an upland bird gunner hunting chuckar, Hungarian Partridge, grouse, pheasant & quail. Around college age I was climbing regularly in the Cascade Mountains and wanting to try centerfire rifle hunting. My dad came home from Warshal's Sporting Goods in Seattle in the early 1980s with two good condition, used rifles for us to try it out:
-- a walnut stocked .30-06 Remington 700 BDL and Western Field 3 X 9 scope with see-through mounts for him
and a
--Remington Model 788 in .308 for me. The clubby nature of the dark-brown hide all grain stained stock didn't appeal to me and my fledgling woodworking skills. Soon, I reshaped the fore end, stripped and refinished the stock and things brightened up. I killed deer with it but within a few years had moved on to other Remington bolt rifles of choice for deer and elk.
As children came, I wanted to introduce them carefully to shooting and hunting. When my boys were 5 & 7 I bought a Ruko Armscorps (made in the Philipines) bolt action .22 lr. and put a 2.5x fixed Bushnell scope atop. My thinking was that this would be a great learning tool and make transitioning to using the larger, longer and heavier bolt-action 788 some day, natural.
The "Buffalo Gun":
I sawzalled the barrel down some, crowned it, shortened and re-shaped the plain hardwood stock, asked which animal George would want carved into it and had each boy write his name in pencil on it. I carved/Dremeled out the animal and each of their names into the stock and refinished it.
The single stack 10 rd. magazine and bolt action works great and has been easy for little hands to manipulate and hit small targets with, offhand too. The bolt with it's twin extractors doesn't jam. The overall concept worked out extremely well ... and now my daughter considers it her gun - and she is a very petite shooter, though 13. For nearly 20 years it has also been my gun to shoot.... accurate and reliable and many a pest has died due to it... but did I mention I altered it to fit a SEVEN YEAR OLD! (So I recently bought an adult sized Ruger 7722 for me).
Ellie shoots 22 lr - YouTube
The Rhino Rifle
So as the boys grew and took Hunter Safety, I knew a first deer season was approaching. Emboldened by the success I'd had on the .22 Buffalo Gun, I trimmed the Remington 788's stock down some, added a Pachymar Decelerator Recoil pad, asked which animals we should consider adding and the "Rhino Rifle" was born. It sports an African themed side with a rhinoceros and gazelle and a North American side featuring a cougar and a grizzly bear.
Each of the boys went on to kill whitetail and mule deer with it... They're grown now.
I guess my point is... I'm proud of my work. The idea and execution came together in highly personalized functionality, that doesn't hurt the eyes. These guns fit smaller frames. The kids have shot them well and I look forward to training up some grandkids some day on them too.
CB
-- a walnut stocked .30-06 Remington 700 BDL and Western Field 3 X 9 scope with see-through mounts for him
and a
--Remington Model 788 in .308 for me. The clubby nature of the dark-brown hide all grain stained stock didn't appeal to me and my fledgling woodworking skills. Soon, I reshaped the fore end, stripped and refinished the stock and things brightened up. I killed deer with it but within a few years had moved on to other Remington bolt rifles of choice for deer and elk.
As children came, I wanted to introduce them carefully to shooting and hunting. When my boys were 5 & 7 I bought a Ruko Armscorps (made in the Philipines) bolt action .22 lr. and put a 2.5x fixed Bushnell scope atop. My thinking was that this would be a great learning tool and make transitioning to using the larger, longer and heavier bolt-action 788 some day, natural.
The "Buffalo Gun":
I sawzalled the barrel down some, crowned it, shortened and re-shaped the plain hardwood stock, asked which animal George would want carved into it and had each boy write his name in pencil on it. I carved/Dremeled out the animal and each of their names into the stock and refinished it.
The single stack 10 rd. magazine and bolt action works great and has been easy for little hands to manipulate and hit small targets with, offhand too. The bolt with it's twin extractors doesn't jam. The overall concept worked out extremely well ... and now my daughter considers it her gun - and she is a very petite shooter, though 13. For nearly 20 years it has also been my gun to shoot.... accurate and reliable and many a pest has died due to it... but did I mention I altered it to fit a SEVEN YEAR OLD! (So I recently bought an adult sized Ruger 7722 for me).
Ellie shoots 22 lr - YouTube
The Rhino Rifle
So as the boys grew and took Hunter Safety, I knew a first deer season was approaching. Emboldened by the success I'd had on the .22 Buffalo Gun, I trimmed the Remington 788's stock down some, added a Pachymar Decelerator Recoil pad, asked which animals we should consider adding and the "Rhino Rifle" was born. It sports an African themed side with a rhinoceros and gazelle and a North American side featuring a cougar and a grizzly bear.
Each of the boys went on to kill whitetail and mule deer with it... They're grown now.
I guess my point is... I'm proud of my work. The idea and execution came together in highly personalized functionality, that doesn't hurt the eyes. These guns fit smaller frames. The kids have shot them well and I look forward to training up some grandkids some day on them too.
CB
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