Ruminating on the idea of building/ buying the wife a safari rifle

Has she shot anything with significant recoil? If not, I would buy her a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight Compact in 270 Win or 30-06. A classic rifle, should fit her, CRF in either oftwo outstanding calibers. Recoil will be less with a 270, but should be fine with a 30-06 particularly with 165g bullets. Remington also made a managed recoil round (115g CoreLokt) with a lot less recoil if she's just starting out with high caliber rifles.
 
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BYS, you started well, but then the 'all things to all men (women)' took over.
If you want your wife to embrace hunting, buy her her OWN gun man, not something you can use too.
It must be pretty and elegant as well as functional. So... since Rigby already makes a lady Highland Stalker surely this is it. And yes, 275 Rigby is plenty enough.
Wisdom of the ages speaks again;) Kevin you surely have a very classic old soul.

You are so correct! As soon as that rifle is presented to the wife with the caveat that, "oh and by the way, I had an extra stock made to fit me so it is doublely useful!" He will have lost any good will and assured it is not really her's.

If you read between the lines, this is apparently just really an excuse to get another gun for himself.
 
I would recommend looking at the 338 Federal. Kimber made them in walnut and blue steel. I have taken everything from impala to eland in Africa and deer to elk in the USA. I got them for my girls but they kill so well I use one also.
 
Wisdom of the ages speaks again;) Kevin you surely have a very classic old soul.

You are so correct! As soon as that rifle is presented to the wife with the caveat that, "oh and by the way, I had an extra stock made to fit me so it is doublely useful!" He will have lost any good will and assured it is not really her's.

If you read between the lines, this is apparently just really an excuse to get another gun for himself.

He should buy his wife a nice Model 70 with scope all in for about $2k and then buy himself a rifle so he can go shoot with her lol
 
I think this discussion is missing the obvious point. It is for his WIFE. Get her a reliable functioning rifle in .300 H&H so you can tie in history to the story. Upgrade the stock to something of beauty if the existing one is nothing special. THEN, spend money on a brand new safari wardrobe that is tailored to fit her. If she is not into guns having the name Rigby or Remington engraved on the barrel will mean nothing. Looking good trying something new takes priority! :)
 
Ha ha. I'm gonna make sure she is interested in doing some killing before I drop $12,000 on her a rifle. I would love to buy her a rigby, but I can buy her a really nice rifle and a pretty decent PG hunt for what that rifle costs.
Get her a 30-06 similar to Osa's rifle now.
Then give her a 9.3x62 version of the same rifle in a year or two. Along with book "I Married Adventure"
She will need to hunt Africa again to try the 9.3 out on heavier game.
Win, win.
 
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After a bit of discussion with my Smith we have it narrowed down pretty close. We looked hard at different wood options and decided this would be the stock that makes the most sense.
It's a McMillan fiberglass HTG/M40A1 in thier "walnut" pattern. Which to me looks pretty darn good. I will use his action which is a Caprock action with a switch lug and integral picatinny machined into the front and back of the action with an open top for easier top loading. It will be a long action which will allow it to run both short and long action rounds depending on which barrel is on it. Standard bolt face which will allow us to sneak into the DG realm if we need to with a 9.3x62 barrel. Still a few details to hammer out but it is coming together. We are taking a couple trips to the range this weekend so she can try on a few different rifles/recoil levels and see where we are at.
Screenshot_20230406-112419.png
 
Very nice looking stock, do you know what the weight is?
 
I need to check on that but they do a regular fiberglass and a carbon fiber. I am going to check on the weight.
 
Looks like you have your build figured out. I was going to suggest .30-06, .308, or even .270 for more common calibers. The other 2 I might suggest are .280AI or .257Wby. I think any of those will suit y'all well for 99% of game on all continents.

If it was me, I'd buy a Model 70 or a Savage in one of those options. The Savage has adj. LOP options now. With the money I saved, I'd book myself a leopard or tuskless elephant. Hell on the leopard, she can go shoot the bait with her rifle.
 
I'm going to throw a spanner in the works of your thinking if you want a light mild recoil rifle in a classic caliber.

6.5x55 - 156gr or 160gr bullets at 2500fps plenty of SD mild recoil and between me and my son we have hunted a bunch of game with it from Eland to Springbuck.
Best of all it would be a super gun for white tail back home.

If you need more speed for longer shots 140gr bullets at 2700fps just a tad slower than the needmore.
Hundreds if not thousands of moose gets killed by this calibre every year in Scandinavia.
What he said!
 
Hey it's cheap because it ticks all your boxes for her. You mentioned getting a gun that works for both of you. Buy her the real diamond ring and get yourself one of those newly hip steel rings. In other words, get her a Lady's Rigby and get yourself a Savage;) Make a point to her.
@Action Bob
You old romantic you.
You are only saying that because @Just Gina got her pretty guns and claimed some of yours and you have what's left.
Yes our wives deserve nice equipment it keeps them interested, makes them happy and feel special. Which they are.
Bob
 

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