Some GREAT FRIENDS presented me with this rifle last night..
Now, I will give a little backstory. The rifle was originally a Stainless Classic 338 Win Mag with a BOSS system on it. I got the rifle in 1995/1996, sometime around my senior year in High School. It has been around quite alot. My Dad took it to Alaska and took a brown bear, to Idaho for elk, to Saskatchewan for deer, and then around home as well. I was in the Marine Corps at this point. So, eventually after using the rifle for quite a few years, he finally let me have my 338 back!
Well, it has always been a great shooting rifle, but about 1.5 years ago, Brian and I were going to have 338/375's built. I figured since I like the 338 so much, this would just be more of a good thing.. Well, as it happened, Lori got me a Pre64 Alaskan 338 Win Mag and I thought, huh, I will probably never use my old 338 anymore, and just kinda set it to the side. Well, since Brian and I were supposed to have the rifles built, I had already given the rifle to the smith, and he just had it sitting there. Eventually, I just asked him to cut the BOSS off of it and recrown it.
It was sent back to Brian's FFL and sat at his place for quite awhile, again, I had no real interest in it and it wasn't hurting anything.
I was liking everything I was seeing coming from JES Reboring.. Kinda sealed the deal, figured I would eventually get to this project. Around this time Brian was at the house, brought a few 375 Ruger cases with him to "test". Well, I smeared some Imperial Sizing Wax on them, stuffed them into the dies and WHAMMY, 35 Newton cases! I loaded a few dummy rounds up, for Brian and I, and if you all remember the post, I threw them up here.
Fast forward to last evening. We were all down at Brian's place, for his boy's birthday party. Great time by the way, excellent chow and Brian's folks are top notch, along with the rest of his family.. Well, I walked inside and Brian hands me my old 338 Win Mag, which, I thought was just recrowned..
I look at the rifle, and don't think much of it, EXCEPT everyone has a darned camera pointed at me....
I ask, "whats going on"? Brian says look it over, so, I do? It has a baggy hanging from it, with my two dummy rounds and the old BOSS in it?
HELLO, I happened to look at the top of the rifle, I see the XXX over the 338 part and another stamping on top...
At this point, I am beside myself. I can't even hardly speak. Lori is beaming. I am just checking it out.. I can't really tell what is going on, but I like it!
Well, I did have to put the rifle away for the rest of the evening, but I did sneak in a few times, just to handle it, work the bolt a little, aim it.. ya know, rifle looney stuff. My head is spinning at the new cartridge to load for...
Yeah, I wanted to run home, get my dies, bullets and powder, just to shoot it.. I held strong most of the day, only because we spent the rest of the day on the range get some longer range shooting in..
Well, finally, Brian let me go home and I went to work. He did have to surrender about 25 pieces of 375 brass for me to "work" with..
So I did ALOT of this
Some of this..
And finally have these, prepped and ready for game time.
They even chamber pretty slick...
I also put the rifle on the scale, bare bones right now
Figure it should be downright perfect once everything get's mounted up..
JES did great work, they rifled it with a 1-12" 3 groove.. Looks pretty good to me, but the proofs on the firing line. Gotta figure out some mounts and stuff, but it feels danged good. I dropped some bedding into the recoil mortis, to secure it a little better, but I imagine it'll be a little while till I can ring it out... OR, I just might rob a scope off of something else, ya know, just to "test" it.. :lol:
Now, I will give a little backstory. The rifle was originally a Stainless Classic 338 Win Mag with a BOSS system on it. I got the rifle in 1995/1996, sometime around my senior year in High School. It has been around quite alot. My Dad took it to Alaska and took a brown bear, to Idaho for elk, to Saskatchewan for deer, and then around home as well. I was in the Marine Corps at this point. So, eventually after using the rifle for quite a few years, he finally let me have my 338 back!
Well, it has always been a great shooting rifle, but about 1.5 years ago, Brian and I were going to have 338/375's built. I figured since I like the 338 so much, this would just be more of a good thing.. Well, as it happened, Lori got me a Pre64 Alaskan 338 Win Mag and I thought, huh, I will probably never use my old 338 anymore, and just kinda set it to the side. Well, since Brian and I were supposed to have the rifles built, I had already given the rifle to the smith, and he just had it sitting there. Eventually, I just asked him to cut the BOSS off of it and recrown it.
It was sent back to Brian's FFL and sat at his place for quite awhile, again, I had no real interest in it and it wasn't hurting anything.
I was liking everything I was seeing coming from JES Reboring.. Kinda sealed the deal, figured I would eventually get to this project. Around this time Brian was at the house, brought a few 375 Ruger cases with him to "test". Well, I smeared some Imperial Sizing Wax on them, stuffed them into the dies and WHAMMY, 35 Newton cases! I loaded a few dummy rounds up, for Brian and I, and if you all remember the post, I threw them up here.
Fast forward to last evening. We were all down at Brian's place, for his boy's birthday party. Great time by the way, excellent chow and Brian's folks are top notch, along with the rest of his family.. Well, I walked inside and Brian hands me my old 338 Win Mag, which, I thought was just recrowned..
I look at the rifle, and don't think much of it, EXCEPT everyone has a darned camera pointed at me....
I ask, "whats going on"? Brian says look it over, so, I do? It has a baggy hanging from it, with my two dummy rounds and the old BOSS in it?
HELLO, I happened to look at the top of the rifle, I see the XXX over the 338 part and another stamping on top...
At this point, I am beside myself. I can't even hardly speak. Lori is beaming. I am just checking it out.. I can't really tell what is going on, but I like it!
Well, I did have to put the rifle away for the rest of the evening, but I did sneak in a few times, just to handle it, work the bolt a little, aim it.. ya know, rifle looney stuff. My head is spinning at the new cartridge to load for...
Yeah, I wanted to run home, get my dies, bullets and powder, just to shoot it.. I held strong most of the day, only because we spent the rest of the day on the range get some longer range shooting in..
Well, finally, Brian let me go home and I went to work. He did have to surrender about 25 pieces of 375 brass for me to "work" with..
So I did ALOT of this
Some of this..
And finally have these, prepped and ready for game time.
They even chamber pretty slick...
I also put the rifle on the scale, bare bones right now
Figure it should be downright perfect once everything get's mounted up..
JES did great work, they rifled it with a 1-12" 3 groove.. Looks pretty good to me, but the proofs on the firing line. Gotta figure out some mounts and stuff, but it feels danged good. I dropped some bedding into the recoil mortis, to secure it a little better, but I imagine it'll be a little while till I can ring it out... OR, I just might rob a scope off of something else, ya know, just to "test" it.. :lol:
