What kind of gun did I end up with?

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mooser

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I picked up this gun in a trade recently, with the help of google and some patience, one can usually figure a lot of things out. I can't for the life of me identify what the make of this gun is. I'm pretty sure it's a custom job of some sort, has a 26" tapered barrel (twice), timney trigger and a funky wood stock that someone spent a lot of time on. The only identification on the action is the words "Safari" on the LH side of the mauser style action, I'm suspecting maybe a Parker Hale action?? Most Parker actions that I've seen are not straight bolt handled though (could have been bent I suppose). There is a "BNP" with a crown stamped into the bolt handle. It doesn't have a removable clip which I've seen on most Parker's. The caliber is 25-06 and despite the cheap Bushnell "Scopechief" scope, it was shooting less than 1" groupings at 100 yards with my lousy aim, lack of sandbags and factory ammo. I've never had a gun that was this accurate, quite pleased, just wish I knew what it was. Thanks for the help, here are a few pictures.

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Paker Hale Safari, not all had a detachable mag. It may have been rebarreled as most had a 24" barrel, if factory barrel it should have some markings to identify as such.
 
In the early 70's there was a kit gun , semi inletted stock, checkering tool, barrelled action , Santa Barbara was the outfit and was mail order advertisements in majour US Mags, good chance is is something like that.
 
Okay, thanks for the replies, I was kind of leaning towards a Parker action, the barrel is almost certainly a custom one, there is no markings on it at all, not even the caliber (including the bottom side). The action doesn't have any markings on it at all besides the "Safari", no serial number, no BNP (aside from on the bolt handle), this is different from my other Parker's, maybe someone else with an older Parker can confirm this as normal? Thanks everyone, I appreciate the input.
 
Oh, and my other Parker's have a slightly different bolt release lever style, neither of my others are a "Safari" model, so I can't compare the writing either.
 
mooser said:
andled though (could have been bent I suppose)The caliber is 25-06 and despite the cheap Bushnell "Scopechief" scope, it was shooting less than 1" groupings at 100 yards with my lousy aim, lack of sandbags and factory ammo. I've never had a gun that was this accurate, quite pleased.
Click to expand...

Those scopes are actually pretty darn good.
If you get tired of it send it out my way.

Mind you it obviously works well with your rifle as is and certainly goes with it's vintage.
 
Yep, it's an early PH Safari, very early in fact to still have the military magazine. It actually looks like it may have been cobbled together. Action from one, bolt from somewhere else and military bottom metal. If I remember way back in the misty reaches of time you could buy actions pieced together from Herters and other places advertised in magazines, for 39-79 bucks.
 
Since you don't have the original barrel, it will be almost impossible to reliably date the P-H action by the Birmingham proof mark.
But since the S/N was not stamped on the receiver, it's surely a pre-'68 action, as starting in 1968, the US Firearms Act requested all receivers to be stamped with a S/N.
If you remove the action from the stock, you may likely find a fainted "SPAIN" stamped on a grounded area on the left side of the tang.

The stock does not look right for a P-H Safari, so it's likely a replacement. The original P-H stocks are well known for cracking often beyond repair possibilities.
 
Parker-Hale Safari built on a Santa Barbara action. There is nothing "Cheap" about the Bushnell scopechief. It evolved into the Bushnell Elite. It was made in Japan by Bausch and Lomb.
 
The Scopechief was made in Japan and was a top of the line Bushnell back in the 70's and early 80's, they are a decent scope. The old Parker Hale rifles were damn fine rifles as well. I had an old catalogue from the 1950's and the old Majestic was priced signifigantly higher than a Winchester Model 70 at the time. I remember reading that the action required no less than 68 separate machining operations.
 
Mike,
Just to correct, the Majestic is a BSA rifle. BSA did make rifles for Parker-Hale, but they were ex-mil reworks. BSA commercial actions are fine ones, though.
 
Mike Webb said:
The Scopechief was made in Japan and was a top of the line Bushnell back in the 70's and early 80's, they are a decent scope.
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+1

Scopechiefs in decent shape can be a bit of a gunshow "sleeper" find. I've scored them for as little as $25 before.

:canadaFlag:
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NAA.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies, @SKS, that was a good link to some interesting PH info, thanks! I have looked under the action and don't see a lightly stamped "Spain". The only stampings that I can find are pictured below, these are parts of the internal magazine. There is what looks like an eagle (a straight line drawing military style eagle) with the letters W3A63 underneath it, and another piece has a curvy "M" stamped into it. The action parts look as though they at one point had some minor corrosion pitting and then they were re-blued. I agree that this must be a PH, how do I tell if it's one of the first "good ones" before the actions were out sourced to eastern Europe and Spain?

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mooser,
Actually, and unlike many can say, I personally can't say there are a much better version of the Surpeme action. As said many times, the Santa Barbara actions (those marked "Spain") are not worse nor better than the very few FN actions used by PH, and most of their production was made with these actions. Now, if ever that happened, only a few of the very late production may have been of Zastava manufacture.
Actually, the only real difference between a FN Supreme, a Santa Barbara or a Zastava action is the finishing (polishing). But P-H took great care at polishing and finishing the actions they received "in the white".
Both the Zastava and the Santa Barbara actions were made from the FN patterns and machinery when they stopped making them and switched to a newer technology. Zastava are still using most of these machines today.

Actually, when most people don't know where the P-H actions come from, they all have nothing but good words for their rifles....

This is how the fainted tang stamp "Spain" looks like on a P-H
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This is how the Birmingham proof marks look like (just for the sake of letting you know);
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This is what a P-H Santa Barbara action looks like (fainted "Spain" mark can be seen at right at the tang side)
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The bottom action action is a FN Supreme and the top one is not related to the post, but it's a SS Zastava;
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And finally, this is what a Zastava action (Yugo era) looks like
P1010015_zps220cb437.jpg


Regarding your bottom metal parts, I am not even sure this came together with the P-H action, as your rifle was so heavily customized. Most of the P-H production, except very early examples have either an alloy bottom metal (like the one pictured above) or a detacheble magazine.
 
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