Work Guns I’ve Known

And those years I spent flying for outfitters, my 590 was my companion. Never had to so much as shoulder it, but hearing the experiences with yours makes me think. Of course, NWO doesn't present the same salty, sandy, gritty conditions that the coast does. Or angry grizzlies. Maybe the odd blackie with an attitude, but mostly bush chickens for the starving pilot slowcooker.

You know the life. :) 12ga certainly is the most versatile, and as a survival gun it’s excellent. For a purpose specific Grizzly guiding gun in the coastal rainforest it’s very limited.
 
Can’t argue with the cool just not a 9.3 guy, I like hot .375 Mag 235gr. Think a trimmed and lightened Model 70 .375 will be slick, and affordable, already own it and no new chambering for the cabinet. :)

Ah, I didn’t see that you still had the M70. I was thinking more in line with the Saterlee style - lighter and easier than the 2 1/2 with enough punch.
 
Im confused why you didn't make the Saterlee a H&H. What was the reasoning behind it?
Also what did it weigh in at complete?

You have your lightweight kimber mountain rifles and now i guess you need the stainless double.

I tried to get Stuart to build a Ti .375 H&H. ;) The H&H won’t fit in a Satterlee intermediate, and he won’t chamber it above a standard intermediate cardtridge. I didn’t argue with his methods and design, he literally built it. By the time was all said and done, stock finishing, sights etc it had climbed well into the mid 6s. When my Kimber is 4lbs 10oz that’s hard to rationalize why carry the extra pound and a half or three quarters, and risk a $12K build on boats and in the mountains. In short it was a beautiful piece of machining but beauty wasn’t what I need.

Ah, I didn’t see that you still had the M70. I was thinking more in line with the Saterlee style - lighter and easier than the 2 1/2 with enough punch.

Gotcha, yea, if a Wildcat ultralight stock and skinny barrel can make my Model 70 .375 H&H 6 3/4lbs, which should be easy to do, it’ll be the ideal Satterlee replacement with lots more jam on tap with 235gr CEBs at 3,000fps or more. And give me a good chunk towards my stainless double.
 
Did you put any rounds through the Titanium Mauser? If so, how it shoot?

No barely got started with that gun and couldn’t begin to give it a fair assessment, it arrived to me too late to get developed for the guiding season and I never took to it. Had a fellow with plans for it that I got to know by association from outfitting and it went to him where it’s being rebarrelled to my understanding, likely to a sheepy and goaty cartridge.
 
You know the life. :) 12ga certainly is the most versatile, and as a survival gun it’s excellent. For a purpose specific Grizzly guiding gun in the coastal rainforest it’s very limited.

Is it safe to assume the limitations as a guiding gun are based on accuracy? Too much drop? Poor grouping? Poor penetration? I would have thought in a close encounter situation a shotgun slug would be alot of knockdown power especially since multiple rounds can be fired in quick succession?
 
In the grand scheme of things slugs don’t do well on sloped, heavy bone, and are too slow in my eyes and give up a good deal of hydrostatic shock to a .375 mag. My double .375 hit faster than the fastest pump slug gun, and really, there’s only time for one shot usually anyhow if things went western.

Other thoughts are I also can’t hand a shotgun to a client to finish his hunt if his rifle is lost, broken, or quits working. In the end you’re getting poorer terminal ballistics compared to the .375 H&H that it’s competing with in my safe for field time, less range, less accuracy, and lower quality guns. Shot and seen shot enough slug bears to have questions about them as a stopper, compared again to a .375 not to sound like a broken record. Wasn’t convinced shotguns were worth pursuing as backing guns for a bear guide.
 
In the grand scheme of things slugs don’t do well on sloped, heavy bone, and are too slow in my eyes and give up a good deal of hydrostatic shock to a .375 mag. My double .375 hit faster than the fastest pump slug gun, and really, there’s only time for one shot usually anyhow if things went western.

Other thoughts are I also can’t hand a shotgun to a client to finish his hunt if his rifle is lost, broken, or quits working. In the end you’re getting poorer terminal ballistics compared to the .375 H&H that it’s competing with in my safe for field time, less range, less accuracy, and lower quality guns. Shot and seen shot enough slug bears to have questions about them as a stopper, compared again to a .375 not to sound like a broken record. Wasn’t convinced shotguns were worth pursuing as backing guns for a bear guide.

Slug wound channels have always looked very unimpressive to me, almost like if you could imagine throwing a rock through an animal. They seem to tear a hole, rather than penetrate and cause major tissue damage. Slug holes always have a pile of hair in the wound channel as well. The only thing less impressive is buckshot.
 
Well in my bush driver days fixed and rotary, always carried S&W 586 on my hip loaded max W296 125 grn hollow point sierras worked very well, sure miss it on my hip:)
 
Well, I have a budget of $30K for a rifle project. Not trying to drop that number like it’s something I take lightly, it’s a huge amount of money. However, with it I want to develop or have made my ultimate adventure and bear country outfitting rifle.

It should be,

-Stainless steel for salt spray and wet conditions that can’t really be described without seeing them.

-8lbs or less.

-.375 Magnum (many smaller bores would do swell I simply like .375s and want it to remain African dangerous game legal).

-Manual cocking or have a decocker so it can be carried closed and loaded.

-20” or shorter barrels for a handy guide / pack / pilot’s carbine.

-Integral Talley scope bases.

-Stabilized walnut stock with built in spare cartridge storage.

Envision an internal hammer gun or sorts, with a method of cocking the internal hammers externally, but cocking both with one motion, and no hammers to snag gear or become broken and bent. A thumb lever, or Farquharson style cocking / swinging lever that would be incorporated into the trigger guard.

Cheap way out is a Krieghoff nitrided, hard way trying to machine my own. But would be a lot more rewarding.
 
Convergent rifle evolution, I had the Echols stock and his bottom metal on my first of the three SS .375 Model 70s. I chat with Phil a couple times a year, heard about Tia’s .416. She sounds tougher than the boys, some recoil to absorb there as it isn’t a heavy build, built for carrying. Really like the picatinny rail for the light, been several nighttime grizzly situations that would have been a comfort for.
 
Here it is.

qu6VoaT.jpg
 
Thanks very much for the write-up! It's interesting to see what someone who actually, I mean REALLY uses their firearms thinks about them.

Some fantastic surroundings you have too, awesome pictures!
 
Back
Top Bottom