real rifles

[gaerich]

I, for one, am tired of walking into a gun shop/show and seeing row after row of AR-15s, AK-47s, black plastic this, brown plastic that. Why are real guns not "cool" anymore. I want to start a thread where we can show our wood stocked, uncool old guns. Stuff like our dads carried and fed us with





these are two of my personal favorites, a 1916 Spandau 8MM Mauser and a 1955 Winchester Model 70 300 H&H

talk about classic

 

[Jason_W]

Why are real guns not "cool" anymore.

I don't know if it has anything to do with cool. Synthetic stocked guns are less expensive to produce and as a result make up a larger portion of the market.

Your rifles are beautiful, but they're hunting rifles, not all day plinkers or shooters. Hunting, unfortunately is on a steady decline in popularity nation wide. Why put up with the recoil, muzzle blast, and cost of an 8mm or .375 H&H if you're never going to shoot anything other than targets?

Finally, synthetic stocks, when well made, do offer some advantages over wood in that they're less sensitive to temperature and moisture changes and are typically a lot stronger.

 

[witchhunter]

I shoot a lot of varmint rifles and they are all synthetic stocked. My deer rifle is a wood stocked Ruger 77 in .257 Weatherby. Yup, it's got scratches and marks on it. All of em earned the hard way since 1973. Shoots lights out and still feels just right when I am lugging it around out in the woods. All things have their place and this one's place is with me.

 

[tdoyka]

they just don't!!! i am tried of black plastic junk. ak-47 and ar15 included. i only have one rifle, savage m12, with "plastic". the rest have real wood or laminates.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I have a couple of muzzleloaders with synthetic stocks. The rest of the pile are wood and nice blue.

 

[highpower]

The only rifles I have with plastic furniture is a couple of AR 15's. Everything else is as God intended it to be. Blue steel and wood.

They run the gamut from my M1A:


To my Model 70 Featherweight:


To the .22 truck gun that lives behind my seat.

 

[back40]

i have a mixture of both, and feel they all have their place.

plenty of guys hunt dangerous game in africa with synthetic stocked rifles due to their indifference to temp and humidity. not sure it get's much more "real" than that.

same thing for combat. name a more "real" purpose than defending this country and the lives of those that fight for it. pretty much all of those rifles are synthetic.

i love blue and walnut just as much, if not more than most, but synthetic stocked guns certainly have a role to fill.

 

[Savage99]

Here is a real European rifle made in a classic style for hunting.

It's a Brno 21H with the original factory scope mount.

 

[Jason248]

I don't know if it has anything to do with cool. Synthetic stocked guns are less expensive to produce and as a result make up a larger portion of the market.

Your rifles are beautiful, but they're hunting rifles, not all day plinkers or shooters. Hunting, unfortunately is on a steady decline in popularity nation wide. Why put up with the recoil, muzzle blast, and cost of an 8mm or .375 H&H if you're never going to shoot anything other than targets?

Finally, synthetic stocks, when well made, do offer some advantages over wood in that they're less sensitive to temperature and moisture changes and are typically a lot stronger.

I agree with this, I do like wood guns and have a few, but synthetic does have its place and because it's rare I can get out and hunt anything other than paper and coyotes I usually shoot my ARs...

 

[1911 guy]

I buy guns for a specific purpose and usually buy the "prettiest" one that will do the job. I like blued steel and wood. But I also have a lot of trigger time behind an M16, so I happen to like the AR platform and own several. I also own a couple synthetic stocked bolt guns. I see no reason to get all worked up, even though I, too, prefer the "old stuff".

Someone who isn't a gear-head doesn't see the attraction in a quarter mile drag car. I'm not a "foodie", so french cuisine is too little food for too much money and it tastes kinda suspect. The same goes for anything. The new plastic sells. It gets people into the sport. When they learn to appreciate a firearm as a piece of finely tuned machinery, they also begin to appreciate the possibilities of aesthetic beauty. Until then, it's just a tool or toy.

 

[MistWolf]

Real rifles don't have Monte Carlo stocks, diamond inlays or white line spacers.

It's all a matter of taste and making the rifle better suited to it's mission. Stock shape, decorations, grip style, furniture material, sight type, finish- none of these things make any one rifle more real than another. Otherwise, the politicians wanting to ban firearms piece by piece are right

 

[ugaarguy]

Folks, you can admire beautiful rifles with blued steel hardware and nicely grained wood stocks without disparaging other rifles. Calling rifles like ARs and AKs junk, or not "real rifles" is divisive to our own community. Let's keep or comments positive please.

 

[Davek1977]

Just because something isn't your cup of tea is no reason to bash it or insinuate that you are somehow superior for avoiding it. One could point out all the advantages of "modern" gun making, and point out that many of today's rifles can cost less, shoot more accurately, and weigh less than comparable rifles of half a century ago, but one could also point out that a beautiful walnut stocked Model 70 will forever look "classier" than the run of the mill AR or AK. Both people would be right, IMO. There's room for all types in my safe. From the Winny 62A my grandpa bought decades ago, or the AR I recently purchased, all have a place in my safe and in my heart.

 

[Doc7]

Wasn't tommy tactical thread closed for comments like this yesterday? I only have wood stocked rifles. Get over it. Synthetic ones are real and cool, just like wood ones are.

 

[jehu]

Gotta love that M1A, The rifle mans rifle! If you think all AK's are ugly then do a search and look at a Polytech Legend, they are wood and steel and the ones with the wine reddish looking wood furniture are beautiful.

 

[gaerich]

Good lord people can get butt hurt easily, I didn't say anything was bad about plastic guns, I own several myself. I was just pointing out how nice it would be to see traditional firearms available as well, and to provide a thread for people to share their photos of old school type shooters. By some of these responses, you would have thought I said I hate Glocks... oh wait I do. Just kidding don't get out the rope and plastic handled pitchforks just yet.

 

[Agsalaska]

Bless you OP.

 

[Sam1911]

Well, you know how it is. If you've seen one wood-stocked rifle you've pretty much seen em all, I guess.

Still, there's probably a way to start a thread asking for pictures of old school hunting rifles without denigrating newer styles of weapons and irritating those that like them.

Probably too mch to expect, though...

 

[stubbicatt]

Thanks man! I'm with you! Wood stocks are really nice.

Ever notice people using the word "platform" when they are talking about a rifle? For some guys it is the misuse of the word "clip" when they mean magazine that puts sand in their teeth, for me it is "platform" when what the speaker means is "rifle."

Stubbicatt- Curmudgeonly old fart. (You kids get off my lawn!)

 

[Tirod]

I don't have any heartburn over gun styling - much. It's important to note that the existence of blued steel and highly figured wood on rifles is an indication of wealth, not utility. Blued steel ranks just one step better than nothing at all for corrosion resistance, and highly figured woods are chosen for their qualities in appearance, not accuracy, durability, or weather resistance.

As for the actions, there are actually very few not based on a military application . . . just like in the AR world, milsurp rifles are the commonly known and cheaper examples, precisely for the same reasons - the government underwrites the cost of development, production, and innovation, then sells off the results after 20 years of use. I speculate we've had far more military rifles in the market over the last 100 years than civilian.

So, "real rifles" as the OP defines them would be highly finished exotics for civilian uses that don't have durable finishes, use a great deal of hand embellishment, with stocks chosen specifically for their appearances. Which is, for lack of a better comparison, like saying that "real cars" are only those that cost over $100,000 that can reach speeds of 200mph.

Leaving all the real cars and trucks on the road in some other unrealistic classification.

 

[jmr40]

This is my real rifle. I bought my first fiberglass stock in 1983 and haven't hunted with a wood stocked bolt rifle in over 30 years. I got tired or "real" stocks expanding and contracting and POI changing. Stocks splitting, cracking and carrying a pound or more of excess weight.

This rifle weighs less as it sets than my 30-30's do without optics on them. It shoots .5-.75 MOA and it does not change POI regardless of the altitude, humidity or temperature. I can leave GA, drive to CO and see an 8,000' change in elevation, 50 degree temperature change and lose about 70% of the humidity in less than 24 hours. And be assured that it will still hit where it points. You can't say that about a "real" stock. The stock can, and has survived falls that would have easily broken a "real" stock.

 

[Jason_W]

^^^

And synthetic stainless is a sharp looking combo too.

Synthetic and laminate stocks when well made can look good in their own way. I've seen some 4x4-esqe wooden stocks that look horrible.

 

[MistWolf]

Good lord people can get butt hurt easily, I didn't say anything was bad about plastic guns, I own several myself. I was just pointing out how nice it would be to see traditional firearms available as well, and to provide a thread for people to share their photos of old school type shooters. By some of these responses, you would have thought I said I hate Glocks... oh wait I do. Just kidding don't get out the rope and plastic handled pitchforks just yet.

Not a bolt action, but very traditional, a Winchester 94 in 25-35 my grandfather bought from an estate sale back in the late 20s or early 30s
View attachment 699276

As for myself, I really dislike Monte Carlos, white line spacers and diamond inlays and didn't like it when they filled the racks at the LGS. I like rifles with modern classic walnut stocks when it come to aesthetics. I'll try to get a photo of my Remington 700 Mountain Rifle and post it in this thread. THAT rifle has classic lines

 

[R H Clark]

Here is what you consider a real rifle. A 1969 L579 Sako Deluxe.



To be honest though, I am a lot more likely to keep that beauty in the safe and carry this


or this

 

[Ky Larry]

Gun shops order and display what they think will sell. Personally, I prefer hunting rifles over G.I. Joe wannabe gear. However, this is still America and we all have the right to choose. This thread reminds me of the old rednecks who said my hair was too long in my youth.