Kifaru Rambling Rifle

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SharpDog

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I remember over 20 years ago Kifaru sold these very lightweight packing rifles with interchangeable calibers. Short and long action. The short action was .308 based so you could get the full range of .243, .260 Rem, 7-08, .308, 338 federal and .358 Win. Similarly, in the long action you could get .25-06, .270, .284, 30-06 and a few other long action calibers.

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They were my grail rifles before I got into ARs.

Whatever happened to them ?

Here's a post over 6 years old on the forum that announces new rifles.
Kifaru Rambling Rifle Gen II:
http://www.kifaruforums.net/showthread.php?t=32328

Here's another thread:
https://www.rokslide.com/forums/threads/kifaru-rambling-rifle.5945/

Their FB page is down.

Rumors I've heard is the actual rifle maker split with Kifaru and went to (or was already in) Alaska to set up shop there.

Apparently there was some legal blowout.

In any case those rifles were very interesting and are still on my grail list. Would love a set with 3 or more interchangeable bbls.

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There were aggressively light weight. Note the extremely small 'foregrip' ... kind of like arms on a T-Rex ...
 
Interesting rifle, and a neat idea. Not really my cup of tea, but I'll be doing some research on them now.
 
I'd be amazed if they met modern bolt action accuracy standards with a design like that.
 
Wrong Kifaru.

Ross Shelton used to build Kifaru Arms rifles. Patrick Smith founded Mountainsmith, which is now Kifaru, largely ran by Aaron Snyder.

Not a single stitch of imagined relationship between the two.

There seems to be SOME relation if you read the Rokslide thread above.
 
My $.02: The big attraction would be the multi-barrel option, and there I think it may suffer from the T/C Contender problem: once you've got a barrel mounted, most owners would rather leave it there and buy another gun rather than switch barrels around.

The SIG Sauer 202/404 is similar in concept up to a point, but lacks the feature of extra bolts. I seem to recall others as well.
 
I remember those and has a slight interest in them however after reading more and seeing how you had to hold the rifle to shoot, my interest soon passed. I am in the same boat with DD, once my rifles are set up, I don't like to screw with them. I would rather just buy and new rifle to suit what I need.
 
Wrong Kifaru.

Ross Shelton used to build Kifaru Arms rifles. Patrick Smith founded Mountainsmith, which is now Kifaru, largely ran by Aaron Snyder.

Not a single stitch of imagined relationship between the two.

I’ve known Patrick Smith for years and have owned several of his shelters and packs over the years. Patrick showed me his rambling rifles in his shop when I bought my first shelter from him in about 1998 ish. The Rambling rifle concept was part of the whole package, light weight shelter, stove, pack and rifle for the serious back pack hunter.

I have no idea who built the Rambling rifles for Kifaru. They were based on a model 700 action and I hated just about everything about them. Kifaru does make great shelters and packs though.
 
Interesting concept. As for the whole switch-barrel I would have to agree that most people, myself included, would rather just build a separate rifle setup for what I intended to do with it. Those welds looks like they had their helmet on backwards.
 
I have the original Kifaru Rambling Microlite Rifle serial# 001 (308 & 7-08 barrels) that I purchased from Patrick Smith on 07-19-00. Took the rifle to Golden, CO and sighted it in with Patrick. Then we went on an elk hunt with our Kifaru rifles and I scared off the only elks we saw on the trip...never got to fire my rifle & Patrick probably still hasn't forgiven me. The 7-08 barrel has never been fired and the 308 fired only for sight in. I have a Swarovski 3-12x50 scope on it, plus lots of good memories! It has been in the safe for 20 years.
 
I'd forgotten about those things. I have to admit I thought it was a good idea at the time. Ah, youth. That one on GB went for $1050. :eek: Hideous welds and all.
 
I have the original Kifaru Rambling Microlite Rifle serial# 001 (308 & 7-08 barrels) that I purchased from Patrick Smith on 07-19-00. Took the rifle to Golden, CO and sighted it in with Patrick. Then we went on an elk hunt with our Kifaru rifles and I scared off the only elks we saw on the trip...never got to fire my rifle & Patrick probably still hasn't forgiven me. The 7-08 barrel has never been fired and the 308 fired only for sight in. I have a Swarovski 3-12x50 scope on it, plus lots of good memories! It has been in the safe for 20 years.

The plural of elk is elk.
 
... I think it may suffer from the T/C Contender problem: once you've got a barrel mounted, most owners would rather leave it there and buy another gun rather than switch barrels around.
That was my experience exactly. I started years ago with a Contender frame with barrels in .223 and .35 Rem. Added a couple of Encore frames and a whole array of rifle and pistol barrels. I started selling off the barrels that weren't being used, then concluded I preferred bolt action rifles and revolvers to the Encores. The only real advantage I think a switch-barrel firearm may have is the ease and low cost of adding a new chambering. But with the raft of new accurate low-cost rifles out there, that advantage has less and less value. Sold my last Encore two years ago.
 
That was my experience exactly. I started years ago with a Contender frame with barrels in .223 and .35 Rem. Added a couple of Encore frames and a whole array of rifle and pistol barrels. I started selling off the barrels that weren't being used, then concluded I preferred bolt action rifles and revolvers to the Encores. The only real advantage I think a switch-barrel firearm may have is the ease and low cost of adding a new chambering. But with the raft of new accurate low-cost rifles out there, that advantage has less and less value. Sold my last Encore two years ago.

I did the same with a Blaser 93, thinking the switch barrel would be a really cool option. I never once switched barrels. And wound up selling the rifle. I think the only place switch barrel rifles make sense is in a country that requires a firearm license for each rifle owned. In that case you can have one licensed receiver and multiple barrels. Although I’m not sure that’s even valid because in many places you need a license for the particular caliber to buy or posses ammunition in that caliber.
 
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