What is the most unique rifle you ever had?

sir_springer said:
Reminds me of the first rifle I hunted with, and got my first deer...a 4x4 mulie...when I was 14, some 42 year ago.

Dad bought the Lee Enfield from Eatons, circa 1963 or so, for the crisp sum of $10. It was typical military surplus, and weighed probably 10 lbs or more.

As you can see from the photo, he chopped the hell out of it, the barrel down to about 19" and stripped every single scrap of extra weight off. He carved the stock out of mahogany himself, but salvaged the forearm. Had the clip trimmed to 5 shots, making sure it was flush fit. Then had Williams peep and Sourdough sights installed.

I'd estimate it weighs about 6 lbs, and carries like a lever 30-30. And shoots pretty good, too. Unfortunately, last time I had it out to the range some 20 years back, discovered it was perforating the primers. Haven't shot it since. But no way will I ever part with it! One of these days I'm gonna have to get that problem fixed.

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Well sir, that is really a nice looking rifle. If I was going on a tough mountain trip, I would sure look long and hard at that, before I chose another rifle. I would prefer that sighting arrangement any day, over a very large, high power variable scope, for hard mountain hunting.
 
M1Shooter and H4831...

Thanks! It is indeed a joy to pack for deer hunting. And when you bring it up, it's right there, much like a Marlin or Win. 94. Some good memories attached to this puppy.

Anyone has any info on the perforating primers issue, sure would be interested!
 
Most unique rifle I've had....

Ross Model 1905 target rifle in .303 British:

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And my pair of No 4 Mk 1's with PH-5 target sites, one in .303 Brit the other 7.62 Nato conversion:

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NAA.
 
A bubbad 1895 BSA steyer ex bisley rifle chamberd for .303 British.
An aquaintance bought a Marlin .44 mag lever action rifle (half magazine and 22" barrel) at a local auction for a few hundred bucks. Marlin made less than 1600 of them and they did'nt even make in to the catalouge.
 
A Mannlicher-Schoenauer take-down in 9.5X57 (not 9.3)was the most unique rifle I have ever owned......... especially since it had a second barrel in 7X57, and they switched easily.

I needed to sell it when we bought our first home in Whitehorse, however it brought nearly a quarter of the down payment. :)

Ted
 
When I was a kid, I had a double barrel with a 7mm underneath. Can't remember the manufacturer, but it was Euro made.
 
Johnn Peterson said:
There may be more than one manufacturer that made a firearm like that. The one I have, with an additional set of 12ga. OU barrels, is a Brno ZH 304. 7x57R and 12ga.

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It did have fancy engraving and it looked expensive. the only reason I could afford it was because someone had ruined it and sawed it off. I ended up getting rid of it because the 7mm was useless, which is what I wanted it for. that and it was interesting.
 
Waterloomike said:
It did have fancy engraving and it looked expensive. the only reason I could afford it was because someone had ruined it and sawed it off. I ended up getting rid of it because the 7mm was useless, which is what I wanted it for. that and it was interesting.
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In addition to this Brno in 7x57R, I've had two bolt actions in the standard 7x57mm. Especially on Deer size game I've never found the 7x57mm to be lacking and the 7x57R is basically the same thing but in a slightly different style case.

What first got me interested in this combination gun was seeing my brother in law 'using' one. Briefly, while out for a drive on logging roads in the B.C. central interior, he stopped to pot a 'ditch chicken'. When he shot, a short distance away a two point Mulie took off and he hammered that as well. Great idea for defination of a 'double'!! ;)I needed one:D.
 
Unique might not be the best word to describe mass produced rifles, but I have owned a couple of interesting ones. The winner is probably an old M-95 Styer with a straight pull bolt which was supposedly the template for the Ross.
 
Why not? said:
A Mannlicher-Schoenauer take-down in 9.5X57 (not 9.3)was the most unique rifle I have ever owned......... especially since it had a second barrel in 7X57, and they switched easily.

I needed to sell it when we bought our first home in Whitehorse, however it brought nearly a quarter of the down payment. :)

Ted
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Ah yes, the M1910. That must have been a very nice little rifle.
 
Johnn Peterson said:
For me, probably the most unique rifle I've ever had, and actually still have is what I picked up to replace the Ruger No. 1 in 22-250 varmint/pred rifle I gave my son. I lucked into an old custom Winchester Highwall in 219 Donaldson Wasp with a matching vintage 10X J.UNERTL scope. Unique, and an antique and accurate. It's favorite diet is Hornady 50gr V-MAX. I've posted this info in past but here goes once more.
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John, one of the coolest little rifles I ever saw was a Martini Cadet which was fitted with a heavy barrel chambered for the .17 K Hornet and I'm sure it wore a 10X Unertl.
 
Boomer said:
John, one of the coolest little rifles I ever saw was a Martini Cadet which was fitted with a heavy barrel chambered for the .17 K Hornet and I'm sure it wore a 10X Unertl.
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With the Highwall, its caliber, the scope all being from the same era, I'm really pleased with the accuracy results. For me, as I want it for a varmint/pred rifle, the 'icing on the cake' is the accuracy with varmint bullets.

In line with what you've mentioned about a Martini Cadet, I was thinking along somewhat similar lines. I've had some small feelers out for another scope, along the lines of the 10X J.UNERTL. For a similar project to what you saw, I picked up this little BSA Martini.

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It's been 'tiddled' up a bit by/for a local single shot enthusiast, decent barrel and good set of iron sights etc. Oh, it's in 22LR. Anyway, I thought before I put it under the knife for a custom job I'd shoot it for a while. I can't 'cut it', it's a tack driver!! I'll leave it as is, ;)for now but another alteration that had been made by the previous owner is the side of the action has been cut away to allow feeding cartridges with a low mount scope.
 
I have had and shot a Ross 303 since 1967 and for years I was the only one I know that had one.

Since advent of the 'net and CGN though, I've learned of others and it's become a cult of sorts.

I had a Schmidt-Rubin in 30-30 once. A Globe re-make I believe.

No magazine, the stock was all buggered up with a rasp, missing sights with a rotten home-installed butt pad.

I kept the bolt and stock and gave the receiver and barrel to a gunsmith friend. It was a very good .30 calibre barrel that I thought he could make use of. He retired and traded it off along with all the other barrels in a barrel he had.

Also had a Mosin Nagant in 308 with a basement Bubba home welded bent bolt.

Got rid of that too.
 
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i be the viking that whimpered and whined until catnthehat sent me a rifle in a swap for a CZ bobwhite & my double flinter. he had been yowling (as only Cats can do) about the flinter for years. whereas i had only been whining for a few months.;)

the rifle i got is a ruger #3 reworked by Bill Leeper with a 303brit, 1/2 round &1/2 octagonal barrel, kleppinger trigger and express sights.
i desecrated this little beauty by putting a 6x leupy scope on it with QD rings so i can use the sights in lieu of the scope if i choose.

this is my most unique rifle except maybe my haenel aydt in 8.15x46R . it's a little odd too.

cheers
 
Great thread. I love to read about neat rifles. It doesn't matter to me if I have never heard of some of these beauties, I still appreciate the owners' pride in showing them to us. Keep them coming!!

I have quite a few "unique" rifles that I have stumbled onto over the years.

Tied for first place would have to be my SAT barreled Mosin Nagant and my 1913 Model 1984 "Belgian Congo" SRC in 30-30. Nothing more needs to be said about those two.
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My most prized rifle, however, is my Dad's old M1917 BSA-converted 30-06. I managed to buy it back after a 50 year absence.

Right up there in "prized" rifles would be the 6.5x55 that came from H4831.
 
Johnn, I wonder where all those cute little BSA Martini rifles went? Back in the---no, no, I've said that too much. Back in the days when everyone was a shooter, those little Martini's filled the closets of gun clubs all across the country. They must have come on surplus in great numbers, because clubs had oodles of them. Many were also sold to individual shooters. They were certainly accurate little rifles, but for some reason, I could never do my best shooting with them. Seemed to be something to do with the balance.
The large and heavy full blown 22 Martini's vied for top spot with Winchester 52s at the high end gun clubs, shooting in match class competition.
 
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