I have no idea why you are getting so defensive about a couple passive comments but here's my take on it. you are building a firearm styled after classic firearms of yesteryear and then you use the flashy materials synonymous with modern manufacturing. the two do not mix. it would be like a company building a replica of the 1903 springfield with a black laminate stock and stainless steel or a chrome plated enfield copycat(which gibbs did do and never sold well). if you are going to put a mannlicher stock on something then at least make the gun look somewhat authentic and use the same kind of finish that was used in the early 1900s.
When you implied that the .308 cartridge is not "a decent caliber" and stated that stainless steel and Mannlicher configured stocks "is not a good combo", I was only
curious as to why you felt that way. I'm not the one "getting defensive" about your "passive comments".
When you argue that s/s and Mannlicher (actually, correctly speaking as taylorce1 pointed out, full length) stocks together make the gun look unauthentic, you would have to make the same judgement about
any rifle combining s/s with walnut, if "authenticity" is the standard for acceptance. The use of stainless steel for use on firearms didn't become in vogue until the sixties so, to use your argument,
no firearm made before the advent of s/s would stand the test of tradition if they were made with s/s-not just Mannlicher-stocked rifles.
I have seen 7 RSIs in person, 4 were in 308, 3 were in 270, 4 were stainless steel, guess which caliber was blued... hint, there were 4 of them!
All of which is a moot point when we examine the facts: Because I like to take people at their word (you claim to have seen four s/s Ruger International models) and because I reported that my International model was not only finished in blue, and added that I believed "most, if not all" RSIs were blued, I decided to take the time and effort to peruse my collection of Ruger catalogs, dating back to 1971, to determine what the facts really are. What I was able to determine is this: The Model 77 RSI was introduced in 1982. In 1989, the MKII line was first advertised. In 1993, the RSI Model was transitioned to the MKII configuration. In every catalog edition, the RSI (International) model was described as having a
blue finish (actually, the 2010 catalog reported that the RSI "Hawkeye" model was finished in "matte blue"); in no instance was the RSI model ever listed as having been made in s/s.
Where you might be confused is the fact that most, if not all, MKII
bolts came in s/s. This, of course, is not the same as the action and barrel being constructed of stainless steel.
But the real topic in this thread is SaxonPig's luscious collection of Mannlicher (oops!-full length
) stocked rifles. Beautiful specimens indeed.