SMLE sporter

Well, this one is late. As some may know, Gerry Cox made me an old English sporter out of an SMLE, the kind most fine English makers offered in the early 20th century. He did this out of kindness, friendship, and the challenge, in return for a minor favor. I am not only touched-- it is a useful rifle; the biggest rifle cartridge I have at the moment, in an action that, unaltered, may have, as Dave Petzal said, killed more big game species than any other. (Bonus lit point: Geoffrey Household's English agronomist used an SMLE and a "16 bore from Eibar" in Dance of the Dwarfs). Here is a typical page from an early 20th century catalog:

Gerry obtained a functional but not pretty specimen with a Fajen 50's style stock, took my measurements, and proceeded to work magic. Several people who know something have complimented him on the nice wood in the stock, not knowing he had to patch and blend more than one spot, invisibly. And though he didn't fake grain, he did stain it to the perfect color (colour?) And then he checkered it, doing rather better than some custom gunmakers I know.

Before:

His understanding of fitting was such that when I raise it up swiftly my eye comes to rest on the bead in the center of two concentric rings, the peep and the sight hood-- that is, it fits perfectly.

I'm keeping this one.

And then I remembered that the hand -embroidered gun slip from Uzbekistan that textile scholar- falconer Eric Wilcox had given me years ago was made for an Enfield (obvious from the hole for the bolt handle). Full size military rifles were right for length but too bulky; Jungle carbines so short you folded over a couple of inches. But my new sporter, like Goldilocks' porridge, was just right-- the slip covers it entirely.

I like to imagine the slip was a gift to some player of the Great Game who was also a sportsman, like Shipton. Or a naturalist- hunter, like Salim Ali. His friend Meinertzhagen like to call him a "treasonous little Wog", a fact recorded by Ali in his autobiography with great good humor. History at the moment is kinder to him that the Colonel.

Gerry was here this week with his wife and companion Caroline. The wind was up and we didn't go to the range; in fact, we talked so much, and the talk was so good, that we never took pics; I am hoping that somehow they did. Gerry?

Rigby Returns

The real thing, made in London on the old patents, the old ways. I have owned one once, a ".275". So did Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell, who shot many elephants with that "tiny", actually moderate,  caliber. And Jim Corbett (man -eating tigers), and Eleanor O'Connor (mostly edible horned things).

They have a stock of older Rigby products, like these:

( Jonathan mutters something about it's being worth a duel to own them).

All the old records...

 Jonathan harvests elk every year with the . 275 I used to shoot, and always remembers to provision us.

The sidelock are distinctive.

Father Bakewell preferred his .416 ""Rifle for Heavy Game." (This is a virtually identical one, not his), After a severe mauling by a sloth bear that was menacing "his" villagers, he was given one. His bear is the only one in Rowland Ward's top ten guided by "self".

Not everyone is pleeased.

Silk Purse?

Unfair-- of all the 20th century military bolt action rifles I like the SMLE best, and there is nothing wrong with the .303 British round either-- like the 7 mm Mauser and the 6.5 Mannlicher Schoenauer, it punches above its weight,  and has taken virtually every big game animal on the planet. But nobody ever called it beautiful.

The great English gunmakers actually did make beautiful rifles on the action. Now Gerry Cox has built one that makes me envious.

Bonus Photo

... from John Brandt's Horned Giants: Father Anderson Bakewell, S.J., my Explorers Club mentor, with .416 Rigby "Rifle for Heavy Game" and bison from Alaska's Delta River herd, the northernmost "plains"herd today, though not in the Pleistocene...

Mannlicher Schoenauer 1903 6.5 X 54

Thanks to readers, especially Malcolm in Montana, I have just gotten one- a unique one at that, and at a good price. Tools and loads are coming in from him and Steve in Washington, and another rifle was offered by the Atomic Nerds. Sometimes I love the Internet...

For non- rifle nerds (or as John Barsness calls them, "Rifle Loonies"); the little carbine is not only light and smooth and low- recoiling, a perfect gun for a slightly compromised old hunter; it is uniquely deadly, "punching above its weight" with a long heavy skinny 160 grain bullet. And it has the most romanic provenance of any bolt action caliber with the possible exception of the ".275 Rigby"; its admirers and owners include W D M "Karamojo" Bell, who is more famous for his Rigby but killed many ELEPHANTS with this "adequate little deer rifle"; Roy Chapman Andrews, Hemingway and his wives, Karen Blixen, Denys Finch Hatton (whose personal one was auctioned for five figures a few years ago) and Colonel Sheldon of Denali fame...

For fanatics only pix will do. It is a take down model of early manufacture (pre- 1910)-- will show that works soon-- and has a popup peep sight.

Here are the bolt and the unique detachable rotary magazine:

Second Quote of the Day

I doubt I will ever buy a Purdey but I have always shot beautiful guns, as good as I could wrangle. I have never hesitated to buy fine guns, good books or for that matter art or even good custom shirts. This thoughtful unsigned post from the excellent Mannlicher Schoenauer rifle site gets to the reasons why a poor man might. Read it all of course.

"So we enter the realm of the intangible, the not clearly defined area where a superbly made tool, or similar utilitarian object, approaches, possibly even becomes, a work of art. And I submit that any sensitive person with a genuine appreciation for materials, for craftsmanship and for beauty of line must admit that a high grade double barreled shotgun is a far more honest “work of art” than is most of the welded junk and smeared canvases regularly displayed with insulting seriousness by Guggenheim! Although they have not seen fit to actually display a Purdey, or the locks of a Westley-Richards, the Museum of Modern Art has shown its appreciation for this high level of functional design and craftsmanship by displaying such sporting items as a Bugatti and a Randall hunting knife. The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art has a permanent display of truly magnificent firearms of all types—including a fine modern double as well as that incredible double-barreled flintlock shotgun made for Napoleon by Nicolas Boutet... it has been my experience that most people, even non-shooters, immediately do react to both the beauty and workmanship of these guns as well as to their balance—but shake their heads in disbelief, or profess to be horrified, that anyone would be willing to pay the price guns of this quality cost... Even enthusiastic and experienced shooters usually feel that there is something verging upon the immoral about shelling out $2,500.00 to $5,000.00 dollars for a gun—something akin to taking up with a fancy lady and leaving the family behind...

(Snip) "It is downright appalling to find men who really do enjoy hunting hesitate to replace a beatup, ugly, badly balanced piece of junk, which was trash when they bought it for a few dollars only 10 years ago, with even a moderately priced, medium grade gun costing $2,500.00-$3,500.00, which they can very well afford. The thought of getting something in the $4,000.00-$5,000.00 range... never enters their minds, even though they never seem to hesitate... when buying a new family station wagon that is going to be resting on a junk heap in 8 to 10 years, even though it did cost anywhere from $25,000.00 to $75,000.00...Why is it perfectly respectable, and even approved by society as well as one’s bank, to go repeatedly into hock for many thousands of dollars for transportation which is subject to fantastically rapid obsolescence and depreciation, but irrational and irresponsible for a man to only once invest an almost similar sum in an object which can be used for a lifetime, without continued and expensive repairs, and be virtually guaranteed to be worth as much, if not more, after 30 or even 50 years!"

What he said. Apropos of which: if anyone has a Mannlicher-Schoenauer 1903 or 1950 carbine in either 6.5 X 54 or .257 Roberts, priced reasonably, for sale, I am looking. My condition these days demands light and smooth and low recoil; my standards demand some esthetics; my imagination thinks: Bell, Baroness Blixen, the Hemingways, Sheldon in the Arctic...

Yes, my common sense says (in Betsy Huntington's slightly sardonic drawl): "those people had more money than God", but I can dream, sell, barter...

NSFW Rifle?

...so first, MaryAnn sends me this pic from her recent safari, of amorous lions...

I am of course reminded of this Rigby double rifle with the same "theme" on the plates (click to enlarge; plain vanilla version, slightly used, on sale for a not-ridiculous- these- days $59,500, below it).



Jonathan Hanson sent the last words on it, from Bruce Douglas:

"Bruce's comment was that if you were hunting and were suddenly charged by a cape buffalo or something, you could turn and yell at your bearer, 'Quick! Gimme my fuckin' lion gun!' "

Working Rifles

A .30- 06 on an 03 A3 Springfield action (lower) and a modern Euro- style Czech Mauser .223. Any of you scholars know why the Springfield has a military trigger guard but a blind magazine?

Rigby

The .275 Rigby takes a second elk for Jonathan. No seller's remorse here.

Well, maybe a TINY bit... but if they make us elk shanks a la Chinoise, more or less after Fuchsia Dunlap, I will forget it....

The Elegant ".275"

Locavore Hunter, in a post on teaching new hunters to build their own rifles, has a nice quote on my favorite cartridge, perhaps more commonly called the 7 X 57:

"The 7mm Mauser has a fascinating history that I won't get into just now, but suffice to say that the sort of person who favors a 7mm Mauser will find approving nods from the right sort of people. Its like driving a car powered by a straight six engine or listening to Dave Brubeck albums on vinyl."

My choice of cars (a Morgan?) or albums (Zevon, also on vinyl-- think I still have one or two) might be different, but I like the concept. Reading Vance Bourjaily 1st eds?

Hint: the post title points to a couple of examples of interesting history.