"The Legendary Elmer Keith on the Mark V" by Gary7

The following article by Elmer Keith is from his column in the July 1959 issue of GUNS magazine. It is Keith's review of the then new Weatherby Mark V rifle.

Video Review: Remington Model 799

Video Review: Weatherby Mark V

"A Kid's .22: 54 years later" by JayPee

Here's the story of the .22 rifle I've now had for 54 years. I hope you enjoy it.

This is the Remington Model 511 Scoremaster my dad bought for me in the Spring of 1956 at the Montgomery Ward store in Ventura, California. It has a bit of history with it -- shortly after buying it for me, my dad loaned it to an uncle who managed a citrus ranch. The uncle was a bit of a shade tree gunsmith who proceeded to file the trigger sear, which gave the rifle a totally unsafe trigger pull and ruined the safety. In fact we had an accidental discharge into the back floorboard of an uncle's 54 Chevy one night when I released the safety while spotlighting jackrabbits.

To add insult to injury my dad stashed it under his house for the three years I was in the Army, which ruined the bluing and the stock finish outright. When I returned in 1964 I was so sick about it I just put it in a closet and tried to forget about it. Six years later, in 1970. I was trying to decide whether to keep it or junk it and took it up to the local range with a pocketful of every type of ammo I had accumulated in my kidhood. I test fired it, bad trigger and all, from a picnic bench off of a folded up blanket and It put 15 rounds into a nickel-size group at 25 yards with a fogged-up three dollar .22 scope on it, and boy I was royally hooked.

A gunsmith buddy sent off and got me a new trigger and safety for the outrageous sum of $2.85, then put a beautiful blue-black blue job on it for $10. I added a pachmayr recoil pad for extra length, did a Tru-Oil finish job on the stock, then added a folding Marble rear sight and a new front blade on a Williams Shorty Ramp, then finished it off with some sling swivel studs.

During it's 40 years in California it busted a zillion ground squirrels and will probably still be sending rabbits to Rabbit Valhalla long after I'm gone. Right now I'm using it in our Club's .22 silhouette matches, which uses small animal silhouettes at ranges from 25 yards to 100 yards. The little rifle doesn't give up a thing to the high dollar rifles it shoots against, either.

These guns were made from 1939 to 1963, before they started putting serial numbers on .22 rifles. Some are seen with a garish ten shot curved magazine sticking out of them, but I always preferred the old-fashioned five shot magazines they came with. And what the heck, as accurate as these guns are, you just don't need ten shots. And to answer a question you didn't ask - it cost $35 brand spanking new.

That beautiful Tru-Oil finish job is now 40 years old, which says a lot for the product, no?

JayPee

"Thoughts on the .308 and 30-06" by JayPee

I trained in the army with the M-1 in otsix (.30-'06) and the M-14 in 7.62mm NATO (.308 Winchester). As a result I have been a died in the wool otsix man all my life because of the ridiculously sharp recoil of the .308, and the greater versatility of the otsix when it comes to bullet weights and powders.. The otsix can be handloaded with the entire range of powders from the very fastest to the very slowest, and very good loads can be had with all –i.e. the otsix will give you first rate accuracy with powders of just about any burning rate and with bullets of any weight heavier than the 110 grain, which is a real dog because of its poor sectional density. The .308 prefers powders in the medium to fast burning rates and isn't regarded as the best hunting round when it comes to bullets of 180 grains or more.

The 7.62/.308 is only "competitive" with the otsix, it does not equal it and can never do so because of the otsix's greater powder capacity. Given roughly a 150 grain bullet, the otsix will clock 2,850fps with 47,000 to 50,000 psi chamber pressure, while the .308 to achieve the same velocity generates much higher chamber pressures. If you load the .308 to otsix pressures, then its performance sags well below the otsix.

Now, having said all that, if you can get the velocities you want in the bullet weights you want with the .308, and it will take the game you want, then it will do as well as the otsix. But if you need high performance on large, dangerous game in 180 grain or heavier bullets, then you'd better stick with the otsix because the .308 can't deliver with the heavier bullets.

Availability of military ammunition in a catastrophic situation would probably be better with the .308 than that of the otsix since the otsix was declared obsolete and "formally" replaced in government service by the .308 in 1957. But since the otsix remains the most popular sporting rifle cartridge on earth, ammunition for it would be far from scarce.

The .308 is one of the world's most accurate .30 caliber cartridges, if you can stand the recoil, and putting it into a short action gun only exacerbates the felt recoil to me. I like bolt action sporter-weight guns, so I avoid it for that reason. It is a good cartridge, but it is not the equal of the otsix across the broad spectrum of hunting applications.

(Boy am I gonna ketch hell from the .308 guys over this one!!)

JayPee

"Sighting in my new (old) M77" by Gary7

I took my new (to me) Ruger M77 to the range yesterday to sight in the scope. The scope that came with this gun is an old Tasco that appears to be a fairly good quality scope. Unlike the new Tascos, which are made in China, this one was made in Japan.

It took awhile to get the thing dialed in and on the target at 50 yards--largely because the wind was blowing so hard down the concrete pipe you have to shoot down that it was making my eyes water. Here was my final 3-shot group at 50 yards. I'll move out to 100 yards next time and see how it does.

I really like the M77 action. It's slick and precise when you eject and chamber a new round.

"Rolling Your Own" by JayPee

I spent a number of years living in the Sacramento Valley of California where walnut trees abound in about every variety known to man. This, in turn, means there were a number of small stock making companies there that specialized in turning out large quantities of semi-inletted gun stocks. And this led to a very popular hobby among rifle enthusiasts there known as "rolling your own," or building rifles to your own specifications.This is one such example of our rifle nuttery. The stock is a piece of Northern California English walnut, finished with about a dozen coats of spray-on Tru Oil, fine sanded between coats and finished out with 0000 steel wool to break the wet-looking gloss. After this the sheen was restored in a bit more subdued way with Birchwood Casey Stock Sheen and Conditioner. We did a lot of glass bedding on these rifles, usually from stem to stern, with the barrel free floated forward of the chamber. Our favorite products were Micro-Bed, and Accraglas Gel. Naturally, the glass bedding was always completed before the stock finish was applied.

The metal is a Mark X Whitworth Mauser action fitted with a Shilen medium weight barrel cut to 23 inches and chambered for the 6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser cartridge. The rifle is too heavy to be carried as a hunting rifle, so I have it set up as a ground critter gitter with a 6x24 AO scope. My favorite load fires a 120 grain Nosler Balistic Tip bullet at 3100 fps with minute of angle accuracy. This means the little 6.5x55 cartridge is knocking right on Mr. .270's front door in a modern, strong action. I have also gotten varmint rifle accuracy with 85 grain and 100 grain Sierra bullets, but surprisingly without any appreciable increase in velocity over the 120 grain bullet. Go figger. One should definitely not try any of these loads in a military Swedish Mauser rifle as they are much too hot for those guns and will damage them right away.

I built seven of these between 1985 and 1995 and usually had 50 hours or more in each one, with the most difficult one consuming over 100 hours. Black or Claro walnut was much less dense than English walnut and consumed a lot more time to fill with finish and complete. Some Claro stocks required fifteen to twenty coats.

I shared the hobby with an unusually fine bunch of friends before arthritis forced me to stop "rolling my own". But what a wonderful ride it was.

JayPee

"My Ruger M77" by Gary7

As I move further into middle age and get back into shooting, I'm finding that I'm rapidly acquiring all the firearms I lusted after as a teenager and college student but could not afford. Always wanted a Weatherby--bam, a Mark V is on the way. (And I've already posted about that.) Another rifle I was quite fond of was the Ruger M77. My cousin had a heavy barrel varmint M77 chambered in 220 Swift. I was into handloading back then and I used to load his brass for him because in the mid and late 70s it was almost impossible to find commercially loaded 220 Swift. His M77 was an early version, the one with the tang safety. It was a joy to shoot, and if you've never experienced the sound of 220 Swift muzzle blast, it's quite intoxicating.

As with the Weatherby, I said to myself back then that one day I'd get a M77. So last week I picked up a well used, but very well cared for Ruger M77 Mark II in 30-06. This was an auction buy and the gun arrived today. I was a bit disappointed when I unwrapped the bolt and immediately noticed a recessed bolt face just like the original M77 had. Hmmm. So I did a little more research and as it turns out the fist Mark IIs were not controlled feed. The only change made to the bolt over the first model M77s was the switch to a blade type ejector (Mauser type). Ruger made the switch to controlled feed as a running production change. And since my M77 is one of the very first Mark IIs, it's not controlled feed. Oh, well.

The M77 was Bill Ruger's attempt to create a classic America rifle that embodied the function and features that hunters and riflemen had loved about the pre-64 Winchester Model 70. Most of the improvements that were introduced with the Mark II iteration (including the eventual move to controlled feed) were designed to further that goal. And whether or not you think comparing the M77 to the quintessential rifleman's rifle is heresy, there is no denying that the M77 has earned its place in the pantheon of great rifles. I'm glad I finally have one.

"My first Weatherby" by Gary7

I handled and fired a Weatherby for the first time in the mid 70s when I was 16. My best friend's uncle died and left all his guns to his brother. One was a Mark V 300 Wby Magnum. Even as a teenager I recognized the Weatherby as something special, and I made a promise to myself that one day I would own one.

So, 35 years later, I decided to make good on that promise. I started off by looking at the Vanguards down at Academy last week and I was impressed by the fit and finish and the quality feel. It did remind me of how I remember the feel of that Mark V from 35 years ago. But one thing that most impressed me about that Weatherby from my youth was sadly missing: a beautiful walnut stock. The green plastic stock on those Academy Vanguards may be functional, but pretty it ain't. So I came home and got on the Weatherby web sit to see if the Vanguard could be had with a wood stock. I knew a Mark V was out of my price range, so I didn't bother looking at them. It looked like the Vanguard Sporter model was what I wanted.

I started looking at the Vanguard Sporters on the gun auction sites and other online retailers. But then I ran across an auction for a "like new" Mark V in 30-06 that had an opening bid that was in my price range. It's one of the last Japanese made Mark Vs and according to the seller has only had one box of shells fired through it. This rifle was clearly the prize or award for some kind for an event or organization because of the laser engraving on the buttstock. Based on the photos, the rifle does indeed look like new.

Now comes the hard part: waiting for it to get here so I can get a scope on it and take it to the range.

Here are some photos from the seller: