Show your work horses and bubba rifles

[Boone66]

The closest thing to a Bubba rifle I have is this. What makes it "Bubba"? If we are to believe etymologists, the word is an alteration of "brother".... in this case, this rifle is like the little brother who doesn't want to be left behind and insists on coming along:

View attachment 606752

View attachment 606753

What caliber is it Chambered in?

 

[Badboymelvin]

Melvin, is that the same 425 Express round from the early 1900s?

I reckon you are thinking of the 425 Westley Richards mate.
The 425 Express is quite modern. It’s the .300 Win Mag necked up to .423
Awesome cartridge!

Russ

 

[Badboymelvin]

@Badboymelvin
After shooting that rifle I call it the pussycat that roars. Gentle in the recoil but packs a big punch in tuther end.
Bob

I disagree Bob, I think its recoil is substantial.
At 8.5lb it’s especially awful off the bench…
I wish l had’ve read your comment before l sighted it in last weekend!

Russ

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I disagree Bob, I think its recoil is substantial.
At 8.5lb it’s especially awful off the bench…
I wish l had’ve read your comment before l sighted it in last weekend!

Russ

@Badboymelvin
Russ
When I shot it I thought I would need 2 pairs of big boy pants from what you were saying BUT I could have worn my wife's frilly knickers ( if they fitted me) that's how pleasant I found it.
If I could post the video of me shooting it I would. Then again it did look small in my hands looking back at it.
Bob

 

[Tom Leoni]

What caliber is it Chambered in?

6.5x54!

 

[Boone66]

6.5x54!

Nice, a great cartridge

 

[SteveNZ]

That’s the original stock on the VZ33 ? Looks a good job.

Yes it is, since it spends a lot of time hunting Tahr in the New Zealand mountains i didn't see the need to change it (and it fits like a glove).

 

[Warbeast]

Some nice , well worn rifles here.

Love it

 

[Zinz]

It might not look well-worn, but my Winchester Featherweight stainless/walnut has the most miles on it…several safaris and countless Texas and Colorado miles in the last 20+ years. Shoots 180gr BarnesX into cloverleafs all day long. Absolutely, my go-to rifle. I found another one at auction a couple years ago and got it as a spare should something ever happen to this one.

Management buck and a whopper pig in S Texas last year.

Respectable kudu in Namibia 15 yrs ago

The spare, should I ever need it

 

[ftrovato]

Bare bones 340 Weatherby Mag. I call it my meat stick. Has gotten it done all over North America.

 

[Warbeast]

Does this count as well worn?

 

[ZG47]

Does this count as well worn?

It looks as if you have handled it and possibly carried it a little bit. Show us the bolt face and bolt handle!

 

[Andrew62]

My go-to safari rifle, Kimber Talkeetna, .375H&H, barrel cut down to 20” then threaded, put on a Lumley tactical style bolt handle to cycle shots faster. I sent the stock to Dead Eye Customs to be Cerakoted.

 

[Warbeast]

It looks as if you have handled it and possibly carried it a little bit. Show us the bolt face and bolt handle!

That will not count.
Its more of a beaty save queen then a daily.

Its a rifle of a friend of mine. Was astonished by the looks and that he used in africa.

 

[PanhandlinPat]

Old thread but I’ll play. This is the first rifle I ever built myself, 35 whelen on a 1917 gew 98, shilen #5 barrel cut to 21”, wisner 3 position model 70 type safety, FN bottom metal, old jaeger trigger, warne 1 piece mount with quick detach rings. I always wanted to put express sights on it but never got around to it. Cheap old fiberglass stock I reworked for the build, has a negative comb so rifle recoils gently - even with my magnum level loads. Pairs nicely with the dead air nomad screwed on the front. Spent many evenings with hand tools working the action over to get it to feed and run smoothly.

This is the rifle I grab for big critters up close. It’s been used as a backup rifle on many hunts, and finished off a few client animals. That 35 whelen is great for breaking down bigger animals that have been poorly hit. A .358 ttsx smashing through the hips or shoulders and then penetrating through the body of a 500 pound animal will make a 6.5 yielding client reevaluate their life decisions.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Old thread but I’ll play. This is the first rifle I ever built myself, 35 whelen on a 1917 gew 98, shilen #5 barrel cut to 21”, wisner 3 position model 70 type safety, FN bottom metal, old jaeger trigger, warne 1 piece mount with quick detach rings. I always wanted to put express sights on it but never got around to it. Cheap old fiberglass stock I reworked for the build, has a negative comb so rifle recoils gently - even with my magnum level loads. Pairs nicely with the dead air nomad screwed on the front. Spent many evenings with hand tools working the action over to get it to feed and run smoothly. View attachment 702994This is the rifle I grab for big critters up close. It’s been used as a backup rifle on many hunts, and finished off a few client animals. That 35 whelen is great for breaking down bigger animals that have been poorly hit. A .358 ttsx smashing through the hips or shoulders and then penetrating through the body of a 500 pound animal will make a 6.5 yielding client reevaluate their life decisions.

@PanhandlinPat
What do you call magnum type loads in your Whelen.
A 250 @ 2,700fps and a 310 @over 2,400fos is up there in power levels out of my Whelen.
Bob

 

[PanhandlinPat]

@PanhandlinPat
What do you call magnum type loads in your Whelen.
A 250 @ 2,700fps and a 310 @over 2,400fos is up there in power levels out of my Whelen.
Bob

200 grain ttsx at 2860 out of the 21” barrel. Calling it magnum type because it’s 338 win performance.

I have had that ttsx shed its petals at that velocity, but they’re always found in the offside hide or shoulder if they do shed. That bullet penetrates better than it should.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

200 grain ttsx at 2860 out of the 21” barrel. Calling it magnum type because it’s 338 win performance.

I have had that ttsx shed its petals at that velocity, but they’re always found in the offside hide or shoulder if they do shed. That bullet penetrates better than it should.

@PanhandlinPat
I'm getting up to 2,950 fps out of mine

 

[PanhandlinPat]

@PanhandlinPat
I'm getting up to 2,950 fps out of mine

That 21” barrel handicaps it a bit. Mine is a highly compressed load, have to crimp the bullets. Very accurate though and very consistent. Point I was getting at is the old cheap stock is well designed so it’s easy to shoot. Much easier than my FN 338 win mag pushing a 210 grain partition at the same velocity.

 

[Rifleman97]

Old coast to coast pump action 20 gauge, killed many hundreds of ducks, pheasants, and deer.

My dad realized he couldn’t hit anything with the “damn thing” so he put a hose clamp around the barrel, and adjusted where it sat, using the V of the screw head meeting the body as the V of a rear sight in a pinch. Once he had it sighted in it worked so well he never felt the need to take it off. Once the original got too rusty to leave on, and his last year alive that he hunted, he replaced the hose clamp with a new one and sighted it in. Was his go anywhere do anything gun for anything too big for a 410/22, which was his favorite.

The second image got rotated wrong and the rear sight is a bit out of focus, but I think it shows well enough how he used the sight.

Now onto my own personal “workhorses”

Top to bottom: Winchester XPR in 350 legend, LC smith field grade 1944, mossberg 500 from 2006-2008 ish?

The XPR has a pretty durable finish on it and I really don’t purposefully knock it around, so it doesn’t look too dinged up. However the wear on the bolt and the cerekote where the ejected rounds hit the back of the receiver show how much it’s been used. I’ve taken probably 30+ deer with this gun in the last 6-8 years, whenever the 350 was released. I preordered it at launch to immediately not have to use a shotgun slug on deer anymore. As someone who cares about accuracy that was huge for me.

The LC smith I bought when I was in high school, I’ve taken a good amount of pheasant with it. Haven’t shot it in a year now, the forend needs a replacement piece I can’t remember the name of and there’s no gunsmith near me willing to do it, I just haven’t been bothered enough to ship it somewhere. If someone knows of a reasonably priced side by side gunsmith feel free to message me.

The mossberg 500 was the gun my dad bought me for passing hunter safety when I was 10-11 ish. It’s taken many deer, thousands upon thousands of clay pigeons, to various clay competitions in college before I upgraded to a browning Citori, many pheasants before I bought the LC smith and even a few after I got it. It actually looked a lot worse before I re blued the barrel and magazine tube, although the wear on the magazine tube is already appearing again lol. I used to have a slug barrel for it but it was stolen at some point, and I don’t have a need for it since I use my 350 for deer in Iowa now.

Ignore the hideous carpet lol I haven’t had the budget for flooring yet, just got this house a year ago and have had other priorities lol.