Old School

W

William Suter

Well-known member
Supposed to meet my buddy tomorrow and figured I shoot my 22-250's, so I got them out and set them on a table and then started really appreciating the beauty of nice walnut stocks compared to the cold look of a chassis rifle. Don't get me wrong, I've got a few, but looking at my Sako and the nice dark stock and the high gloss bluing on the barrel just looks badass to me. Then there is my Rem 700 Varmint Special. Same nice shiny barrel and high gloss walnut stock. Gives me goose bumps. I know they aren't tactical and they're pretty and shiny and don't always belong in the woods. But in their day, when they were new I'm sure they saw plenty of time in the field.
And the moral of this story, is its just hard to beat the beauty of a pretty wood stock and shiny dark blue barrels.
 
I am over my hi-tech firearm phase. I can appreciate modern synthetic and metal firearms for what they bring to the table. However, I love nice wood, pretty bluing, and classic lines. The last several years, I have been on the hunt for old guns. When I say old, it is guns from the 1940s era and up through the 60s. What I pass on to my son and grandsons is going to be something special.
 
At one time I thought anything other than walnut and blued was an insult to firearms. Somewhere along the line aluminum & stainless became a thing of beauty. Lol
 
I’ve slowly phased out about everything I had that wasn’t wood stocked and blued and that’s basically all I’ll consider now. I’ll make exceptions for stainless, but I’m a sucker for older BDL 700s. I even swapped the original stock off my VSSF in 220 swift for one off of a BDL varmint special. A couple of my favorite setups are an 80s era 700 BDL .270 with a fixed 6x Leupold M8 for the whitetail woods, and a near mint late 80s early 90s 700 BDL Varmint Special .22-250 with a fixed 12x Leupold M8 for groundhogs. I’ve kept one synthetic stock/matte finish rifle for deer hunting in bad weather, and a model 7 predator for wet weather coyote ventures. Done with ARs also. Had a half dozen or so at one time, down to one now. Would really like to find a BDL with the engraved receiver and bottom metal in 25-06.

I like classic generic cartridges also. Not into Creedmoors, PRCs, etc. Nothing against them, I just like old school and traditional stuff. 17 Rem, 220 Swift, 22-250 Rem, 243 Win , 260 Rem, 270 Win, etc

I’m even picky about my slings, really like the old padded Torel leather slings with the suede diamond like shape design in the center.
 
Adam if you like the old 700's, you should see my Varmint Special 222. It looks like it came out of the shop this morning. I'm not going to bash tactical rifles, they certainly have their place. There are several that are pretty nice looking rifles. (See Alf's) I just bought a Rem 700, 223 in a McMillan stock. Carbon or composite stocks are OK as I know their purpose and I like stainless barrels to. But those cheap ass plastic crap they put on rifles these days just makes me grind my teeth. It's usually the first thing to go.
 
.222 Rem holds a special spot with me. Killed my first coyote and many groundhogs with a 700 BDL in that cartridge. Stupid accurate and just plain works. Still have it, but I’ve always said if I get another 700 varmint special it will have to be in a .222 Rem.
 
Those BDL Varmint’s are one of my favorite old rifles. They just looked good. Always wanted one in a 7mm-08 but never could afford one whenever I saw one for sale.

As much as I appreciate the walnut and deep blue of a classic rifle I lean towards ease of care a lot more today. I just don’t have the time to keep up with them anymore. Everything I have bought recently has been stainless and composite stocked. I am also bored with what is available for almost every factory offering out there and tired of the cheap plastics and shitty build quality and am just having what I want built for me now.
 
Its pretty doubtful that my Varmint Specials ever see the woods. I know some will disagree but if I scratched the triple deuce I'd never forgive myself. It's a range rifle only. I have a Rem VSSF and the Rem with the McMillan for the woods. Both of them are 223's plus my AR.
 
The older I get the more I realize how much I love a good walnut stock. All of my rifles have good solid wood stocks now. Wouldn’t ever go back to a synthetic stock.
 
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I found this 1967 Remington M700 ADL last year. It is chambered for the .270 Winchester cartridge and is in pretty much mint condition. Since last year was the 100th anniversary of the .270 Winchester and I haven't had a .270 for quite a few years, it seemed a good time to fix that situation. I grabbed this little gem and added a Trijicon Accupoint 3-9x40 scope. It is a shooter; I found several loads that went sub-1" and sighted in and hit the late-season antlerless hunt. I made meat on the first morning with my new old school cool rifle.

 
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