What Is Your Dream Rifle?

[C.W. Richter]

Every single one owned, excepting the silly little Keystone Cricket .22 LR for ultra-short range varminting (including squirrels in the fireplace with CCI shotshells!)

 

[xausa]

My dream rifle would be one that I designed the cartridge for, had a rifle built to accommodate the cartridge, developed a load for and took to Africa and used it to take one of the Big Five which qualified for the Record Book. My dream came true, starting in the 1960's and continuing into the 1970's, when I designed my .505 SRE (Short Range Express), had it built, developed a load for, took it to Africa, and used it on this record book black rhino.

 

[Brian Rothhammer]

Well, it has to be beautiful in form. It has to be utterly functional and 100% reliable. It must be balanced, and come up well every time. It has to be in a classic cartridge that can tell it's own story, and it cant cost the earth, so the dream can come true.

Your description befits the pre WW2 Mannlicher Schoenauer quite well.

 

[C.W. Richter]

Every single one owned, excepting the silly little Keystone Cricket .22 LR for ultra-short range varminting (including squirrels in the fireplace with CCI shotshells!)

and even that has a midget mauser-style action, so it deserves some credit! lol

 

[crs]

Like some others here, I already have all the rifles, pistols, and shotguns that I need. I have filled all safes and display case and begun stacking them in closets.

My last "new" one will be my Beretta .45-90 DR when I pick it up in a few days. I just completed the loading of 40 rounds of the regulation ammo and to plan to try it out ASAP.

Then, all I want to do is hunt with all of them!

 

[crs]

CW,
We also have a "House" Cricket 22 for training children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and friends of the family. Plus a single shot 410 gun that the kids have used to take wild turkey. The only grand kid that has not become a shooter, is now singing in the area Opry and may well have a career in country music. Maybe she will marry a hunter.

 

[Monsai52]

For me it would be a Mannlicher-Schoenauer Model 1924/25 rifle in 9.3x62 or 7x57.

Best regards,

 

[shark_za]

I am a simple man..

I want a Left Handed Pre 64 in 300 H&H , or a Dakota Model 10 in the same.
Even a Ruger No 1 in the Super 30 will do.

Id load a 180gr Partition to an accuracy node around 2900fps and be a happy man.

 

[Scott CWO]

I can’t disclose my dream rifle because if I did, @WAB would find one and convince me that I need it. Lol.

 

[yumastepside]

Nothing too exotic, a Daniel Fraser takedown in 7.65x53.

Roger

 

[rdog]

A50 BMG HB & tripod & an endless supply of ammo but in reality i would settle for a Ruger Number 1 in 303 British.

 

[rdog]

A50 BMG HB & tripod & an endless supply of ammo but in reality i would settle for a Ruger Number 1 in 303 British.

May be i was a bit hasty with the 50 Bmg too heavy at my age . The way the world is going i think i would settle for an Australian built 1970s L1A1 7.62 Nato SLR with a spare gas piston & spring ,spare buffer system & sear spring, 5 20 shot Magazines that's 100 rounds in mags, & 5000 rounds of ADI 144 grain F4 ball ammo, that is about the life of the rifle with out a rebuild. Jeff Cooper once said that the FAL was the Rolls Royce of assault rifles i just love them i carried one for 2 years in Vietnam.

 

[geoff rath]

May be i was a bit hasty with the 50 Bmg too heavy at my age . The way the world is going i think i would settle for an Australian built 1970s L1A1 7.62 Nato SLR with a spare gas piston & spring ,spare buffer system & sear spring, 5 20 shot Magazines that's 100 rounds in mags, & 5000 rounds of ADI 144 grain F4 ball ammo, that is about the life of the rifle with out a rebuild. Jeff Cooper once said that the FAL was the Rolls Royce of assault rifles i just love them i carried one for 2 years in Vietnam.

Before the Aussie gun Buy-back, I had the chance at a "worked" L1A1, heavy barrel, tuned target build. Insufficient funds, the same old excuse ...
Now I have a couple I'll not let go, both built in Ruger No 1 actions: 300WSM, throated out to give over 3000fps with 175's, and a 9.3X64.
For one (?) more, a switch barrel bolt rifle built on a Magnum Mauser or GMA action in 300 Norma Mag, and either 416 or 450 Rigby. Good mate, and master g/smith Rob Blomfield has already built one similar, in 300NM, 338NM, and 416 Rigby. I (almost) drooled all over it.
The alternative is a top quality (money not object) 500 Nitro Express with exchange barrels in 12, or 20 gauge...

 

[Rubberhead]

I can quote a few others on this thread, "I'm lucky. I already have it." I'll have to add, though, that I have the practical version of my dream rifle. I have a picture of the impractical version of my dream gun in a 1984 Petersen's Hunting Annual that I’ve kept since it was new.

It’s a Joseph Lang side-by-side in .470 NE. It’s not ornate but I don’t like fancy guns. If the Gun Fairy ever shows up and offers to grant my one wish, I would make my wish to have that gun. Not one just like it, mind you, that exact gun. I would instruct the Gun Fairy to get the gun and more-than justly compensate its current owner. I’d ask her to adjust its now former owner’s mental and emotional state to more completely accept his new reality. But, of course, gun fairies don’t exist. I was able to find and purchase the practical version of my dream gun from a willing seller. But, many would consider the practical version as a total antithesis of the Lang.

It’s a single triggered and scoped over/under in .30-06. That’s enough to make DGDG owners sound like Curly - yuck, yuck, yuck and yuck but it’s not a DGDG unless the first “D” stands for deer. Like I said, it’s practical. I live in the middle of the state with the longest, most liberal whitetail season. I have 140-day season to carry my dream gun. But, I’m mostly a bird hunter.

On an average year, I have 121 bird/duck/rail days that overlap with the deer season. I enjoy the consistency of hunting morning and evening with two different guns function and load nearly identically. Like I said, it’s practical. Some like to have their dream guns in a safe in front of them or on the wall behind them. I like to have my dream gun laid across my lap or slung across my back sharing with me whatever adventure I can muster up without an airplane being involved.

 

[xausa]

I'm sorry about the poor quality of the photo of my .505 SRE. The one I meant to post was mislabeled. Here it is, in any case:

The cartridge in the middle is the .505 SRE. The one on the right is the .577 VSRE and the one on the left is the .450 C&W, a rimmed .450 Watts, for which I have a Krieghoff double rifle.
You can left click on any of the photos to enlarge it.

 

[gajie270]

405 Winchester model 95 Winchester lever gun

 

[IvW]

Two doubles matching set

One
O/U double 450/400 Ne/450 NE 25 inch with a set of 12ga barrels 28 inch and 5 chokes cylinder, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full
Two
O/U double 9.3x74R/9.3×74R 224 inch with a second set of barrels 7x65R/7x65R 26 inch

 

[spike.t]

Two doubles matching set

One
O/U double 450/400 Ne/450 NE 25 inch with a set of 12ga barrels 28 inch and 5 chokes cylinder, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full
Two
O/U double 9.3x74R/9.3×74R 224 inch with a second set of barrels 7x65R/7x65R 26 inch

Presume that is 2 sets of barrels in 450/400 and other in 450ne...plus the 12 bore ones?

 

[IvW]

Presume that is 2 sets of barrels in 450/400 and other in 450ne...plus the 12 bore ones?

Either or

 

[spike.t]

Either or

Ah OK