European made rifles

Right before I started to work for the transmission company I retired from the CEO died (John Batten) who was a famous sheep hunter and had a full page article dedicated to him in the NRA North American Hunter magazine. He had a gun collection worth millions. He had the old original, unfired Spanish rifles from Columbus' days, and everything in between. He was also on the advisory board for Holland and Holland and after he died they bought his whole gun collection. The whole factory was busy crating up his huge collection. Thousands of guns worth thousands each! Hundreds of crates full of some of the most sought after collectors guns in the world. It was something to see.

Sorry to jack my thread... :D Back to the subject. :rolleyes:
 
Warbird, another short highjack story. About 15 years ago I was in London visiting friends and decided to visit Holland and Holland on Bond St.. As soon as we walked through the door I'm sure it was obvious to the staff that me and my brit friend were not going to be able to afford even their used toilet paper tubes. Have to admit I was prepared to get a diplomatic bum's rush.

Instead one of the Jr. "associates" took us in hand for almost 3 hours, upstairs and down, every case opened and handed everything to fondle and pet.
When it was time to leave they handed me a HARDcover catalogue and a monogramed neck scarf and thanked ME for gracing them with a "pilgrimage"!

When I got back to the states I wrote a letter to the "president" of H&H with cudos to his young staff member and thanks. He wrote back "longhand" explaining that was the way they had operated for a couple of centuries and intended to continue in the tradition. And thanked me again for taking the time to visit their "shop".

Wonder how the treatment at winchester or remington or even dakota would compare.

Fond memory.

Mike J
 
I have handle some light European rifles. I did shoot a double rifle that weighed something like 20#, not the norm though.

http://www.steyrarms.com/products/hunting-rifles/classic/
classic.jpeg

3.3kg Not too heavy for this old fat man.
 
My Sako Bavarian (wood stock ), weighs 7 1/2 pounds, or about the same as a Winchester Model 70 with wood stock. Sako also has a Finnlite range of lighter rifles. I prefer a rifle around 7 -8 pounds for hunting purposes & I do a lot of walking through the mountains. Once you start talking larger calibers such as .375 H&H Magnum & similar, I actually prefer a rifle that weighs 10 pounds plus.
 
Warbird, another short highjack story. About 15 years ago I was in London visiting friends and decided to visit Holland and Holland on Bond St.. As soon as we walked through the door I'm sure it was obvious to the staff that me and my brit friend were not going to be able to afford even their used toilet paper tubes. Have to admit I was prepared to get a diplomatic bum's rush.

Instead one of the Jr. "associates" took us in hand for almost 3 hours, upstairs and down, every case opened and handed everything to fondle and pet.
When it was time to leave they handed me a HARDcover catalogue and a monogramed neck scarf and thanked ME for gracing them with a "pilgrimage"!

When I got back to the states I wrote a letter to the "president" of H&H with cudos to his young staff member and thanks. He wrote back "longhand" explaining that was the way they had operated for a couple of centuries and intended to continue in the tradition. And thanked me again for taking the time to visit their "shop".

Wonder how the treatment at winchester or remington or even dakota would compare.

Fond memory.

Mike J
Click to expand...

That's amazing. I likely would have never even attempted to walk in the place, because I, like you, can't even come close to affording the cheapest thing in their catalog. Double rifles are one of those odd interests of mine though, I know hardly anything about them. They are relics of a bygone era, and I'm the type of person who is hopelessly stuck in the past.
 
Heh, the double is still plenty alive, just not in the US- chalk that up to a lack of dangerous game. I had one of the recently imported Remington stamped Baikal doubles and it was a lot of fun. I'd love a nicer one, maybe ine of the Pedersoli double .45-70s.
 
Yea Merkel, Blaser and a couple others make doubles for under $10k. If you're lucky you can also find a BRNO for ~$2k, but they came in light calibers, see lots of them in 7x57. Superposed too. Very nice little rifles.
 
My .458 Lott CZ is a tad heavy, but trust me when I tell ya it is a good thing; heavy big bores don't need scopes in most applications they were purchased for either! Mine is my bear deterrent when beating the bush in Alaska, and for my final Africa visit to take finally take a Buff.

Most Americans, and this includes me, are overweight and could lose 10 pounds before a mountain hunt easily, and save the cost of a super-light custom rifle!:D
 
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