doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Modern Single Shot - work in progress

Here are some work in progress photos of a Ruger I'm having built. Most of what there is to say about this is told in the photos. The barrel is originally from Badger Barrels. It has a Kepplinger single set trigger, and the safety is recessed.

The gunsmith is Bob de Vries of Melbourne, Australia. It is currently with the stocker, Ross Waghorn, also of Melbourne.

Rifle is chambered for the 7x65R. We might get her finished by mid next year.










cheers,
- stu

Here's an early design sketch. It's totally satisfying seeing this project through from initial planning to now finally coming to fruition.





- stu

WEll, I should make some smart remark about the lack of a real hammer and something for your thumb to do, but skip that. It is a heck of a nice piece of work from what I can see. That rear rib is spectacular and I know nothing about machining. You have a hell of a nice project....

Keep the pictures coming as is moves along.

Brent

THe folding open sight is much too far to the rear.

Looks like very nice machine work, and an excellent cartridge.

Bear in mind, this is just my opinion, and my aim is not to ridicule the gun; but I must agree with mkb, the rear sight is too far to the rear. I would have reversed the position of the rear sight blade, and the front scope mount dovetail, but that's just me. Ruger No.1's tend to require the scope to be mounted fairly far to the rear, anyway. A really long scope will be needed to span that long ring spacing, and still give decent eye relief.

Again, very nice work; we all just have different tastes/needs.

Jeff

I'm with akjeff--7x65R is a .280, more or less, --"all mod cons" but it's got a RIM,too! Great choice; hope to see the final product.

I agree that the rib is machined quite well and is very attractive, but I also agree that the sight position and front scope ring position need to be reversed. After having made a few ribs myself, I've found that the overwhelming tendency is to make them too short in length and too tall in height, while usually placing any rear open sight much too far to the rear. This tendency appears to be exacerbated by the regrettable fact that most smiths aren't iron sight shooters and so aren't aware of the need for long eye relief when using the open rear barrel sight. The need for long eye relief is even greater in older shooters' far-sighted eyes and older shooters are exactly the type who can most often afford the expensive custom touches like ribs. IMO the open rear sight should be placed quite close to the end of the forearm, as close as possible without being actually in front of it except on rifles with short forearms. IOW about 8"-10" in front of the receiver ring should be about right for most open sight applications.

If you want to see some well-designed and well-made ribs with proper sight positioning, take a look at Steve Hughes' book Custom Rifles in Black and White to see the rifles made by Ed Webber, a Hagn and a Sharps 1877. Although neither rib has provision for a scope, the rear sights are well-designed and properly positioned and the scope ring locations could have easily been machined if wanted.

I've noticed that lately it seems that many custom rifles are being designed and dimensioned solely for their looks at the expense of their usability and ergonomics. In fact it sometimes seems to me that some makers have no intention for their rifles to ever be actually used in the field or even to be fired at all and so they pay little or no attention to such things as iron sights and their positioning. Too bad.
Regards, Joe

I don't know if I would say the rear sight is too far back. It depends on your eyes and stance as much as anything. When I was younger, I wanted all rear sights back as far as possible.

But supposing you find it is too far back at some point, such as when you hit the midcentury mark and your eyes start sliding downhill, then you may want to replace your folding V sight with a large ring aperture. It would be easy to do so and would give you a very sharp sight picture and the longer sight radius. Remington used to make such a sight a century ago. Reinventing something like it, would be very usable on this rifle.

Brent

Bah Humbug!

Youse guys are just jealous because he can use a rear sight that far back. I know I am...

Given the quality of the workmanship one has to assume that the scope base and rear sight position was properly thought through and works for Mr. Stu. It going to be a great looking rifle.

Congratulations, and send more pictures when it is done!

Glenn

I've heard very good things about your stockmaker. I look forward to seeing an example of his work.