The World's Most Beautiful and Interesting Rifles

[Hoas]

Thought to share this interesting video with you

 

[Shootist43]

Some of the guns shown come under the heading of "Artistry in Wood & Steel and need to be kept in glass cases, others would be perfectly at home in the back end of a safari vehicle.

 

[rookhawk]

Some of the guns shown come under the heading of "Artistry in Wood & Steel and need to be kept in glass cases, others would be perfectly at home in the back end of a safari vehicle.

Nothing that delights the eyes more than a "best gun" of supreme quality that has patina to dull grey, some thinning of the engraving, case colors worn down and a dented stock that has been re-oiled a dozen times over half a century.

Don't discount functional art, it is functional.

Example I once owned, His Highness, the Nawab of Rampur's Single Selectable Trigger, Auto-Opening, Ejecting, auto safety 20 bore sidelock. Made in 1896 by Charles Lancaster, it is as ornate a gun as there ever was. It's carried by a pheasant hunter regularly now. It wouldn't look as good if it wasn't well loved and cared for.

 

[Jimbob]

I completely agree. Although this has obviously had a new stock or has been extensively refurbished, I like it because the PH who owned it carried it by the muzzle so often that the blueing has worn away.

 

[rookhawk]

I completely agree. Although this has obviously had a new stock or has been extensively refurbished, I like it because the PH who owned it carried it by the muzzle so often that the blueing has worn away.

View attachment 175786

@Jimbob it wouldn't be more perfect if it was reblued. Honest carry wear is fantastic, as is the wear to the edges of the boxlock!

That's a great gun!

 

[Jimbob]

Yeah I really like it. I like this one as well, it's a Zastava 458 used by a bear guide in Alaska, I believe he has used it for over 20 years. It's obviously less aesthetically pleasing but to the owner it's perfect, with every scratch, dint and paint repair meaning something.

 

[Shootist43]

Taking ornate firearms into the field where they might be damaged or ruined is a matter of perspective. Providing you can afford it GO for it and God love ya. I bought my first Swedish Mauser for $200.00. It came disassembled with a Ramline stock, a cheap scope and see through rings. Why, because I didn't want to take my good guns (read Remingtons & Winchesters) on rainy day hunts. In fact I call it my rainy day gun. When I went to Africa last August I took a beat up
03-A3 that had been converted to a 35 Whelen. Why, because I didn't want one of my Sakos or pre 64 Winchesters to get banged up in the back end of a Safari vehicle. I realize that my choice is a personal quirk, but it is one that I can afford.

 

[Roan]

Wouldn't mind having a couple of those in my safe.

 

[Roan]

I believe rifles are made to work that is their purpose so use them.

Thats not to say I dont get a tiny aneurysm when I ding or nick one of my Mauser's.

 

[Jimbob]

It annoys me somewhat when I see nice items that aren't used as intended whether that be a Rolex, a Ferrari, or a nice rifle.

I know some people wish to safeguard the beauty of an object and keep it for special occasions, which I fully understand, I personally wish to forge memories with said item even if that leads to minor damage.

 

[larry4831]

I completely agree. Although this has obviously had a new stock or has been extensively refurbished, I like it because the PH who owned it carried it by the muzzle so often that the blueing has worn away.

View attachment 175786

I think that gives a rifle character when carried by the muzzle and the bluing wears away. If that rifle could only talk. Like Harry Selby's .416, looks like it's part of Africa with every nick and scratche there's a story behind it

 

[Jimbob]

With you there. Honest to god working guns have a character that can't be bought. That Zastava I posted is one ugly rifle but in its own way is a true one off. It's a rifle that the owner spends more time with than any other item. He's taken charging brown bear with it and it's kept him safe.
Only humans can develop bonds with inanimate objects and I think with true working guns they stop being rifles and start being something much more.

 

[cpr0312]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Shootist43]

I'm not quite ready to concede my point. One of the posts in this thread mentioned Harry Selby's celebrated 416 Rigby. I totally concur with the point of that post. My question is this. What kind of hunts and clients did Harry Selby have? From my recollection they were for the most part DG hunts with clients that had considerably more money than working folks. They expected their PH to carry a gun similar to theirs. Read Westley Richards, Rigbys etc. The plains game PHs I hunted with used good Field Grade guns like Howa, Remington and Winchester. Apart from that Elephant, Cape Buffalo and Lion fall just as dead to Rugers as they do to guns costing forty to fifty times as much or more. I laud those hunters that can bring ornate rifles into the field, I also recognize that I am not in their league.

 

[Jimbob]

Although you may have a point there, I think the reason that most carried the more expensive rifles was simply because you couldn't get a 416 Rigby or any other DG cartridge in cheap rifles then like you can today.
Although expensive it's all relative, a PH in the company of DG needs a stopper, and a decent bolt action 416 is cheaper than a double even when bought from Rigby and the like which, again, were the only real suppliers until American companies started churning them out.

Doubles will always be expensive due to the work involved but many PH's then and now feel they are necessary. Selby sure did and if it wasn't for his 470 being damaged he would likely never have switched to a magazine rifle.

 

[Hank2211]

It seems we can all agree that beautiful rifles can be works of art. We also agree that anyone is free to take one of those works of art into the field. We may disagree a bit on whether we'd be prepared to do it ourselves!

On an early hunt in Zimbabwe, a fellow I was sharing camp with had a pre-64 Winchester. I could only assume it was important, at least to him, because I couldn't see it. It was wrapped from stock to barrel in duct tape, with cut-outs for trigger and bolt. On the other hand, I have no problems taking my Rigby .416 Rigby (with the best wood they had!) into the field. The dings and scrapes (and it has both) are mementoes of great hunts. I wouldn't have the gun looking any other way.

I tell my wife - it's kind of like me. I think I look better today than when we got married (32 years ago), because each line and wrinkle speaks to experience. She seems to understand. I don't think she agrees, but she seems to understand. Same about the gun.

 

[Red Leg]

If it fires a relatively contemporary cartridge, I use it in the field. And though I have surely added the occasional ding to rifles and guns which were born, in many cases, more than a century ago. I tend to think of it as a mark that my soul has passed this way as well. In May I'll be in BC chasing a bear with a double 9.3x74R built in Suhl while the Kaiser still ruled. With scope in place it will put right and left barrels into MOA groups vertically separated by 2.5 inches. Clever Teutons. The right barrel is regulated for 100 meters and the left for 200 meters. Ross Seyfried came to the rescue when "normal" regulation proved impossible.

 

[Ray B]

Similar to Hank2211, I look at the marks on various guns in the same light as I look at marks on my body- There's the burn scar and loss of hair from the left side of my chest obtained from a powder explosion in the summer of '68 in a country that no longer exists, then there's the scar on my chin obtained when a scaffolding collapsed in a construction project in Ecuador in '95; Then there's the nick in the stock of the Superposed which occurred on one of the last hunts that my grandpa carried it in '77; or the Model 70 Winchester in 1962 when there was only one Model 70 that belonged to my mother's only brother, an officer of the Portland (Ore) Police Bureau who was killed while on duty a few months later.

Our guns, just like our bodies have stories- if only they could talk.