contender said:
Nice! I've never bought a gun just because of the wood,,, but I have bought a few where the wood helped the decision.
I have bought rifles because of the wood. The four rifles on the left, in particular...and that 10/22 Mannlicher in the middle of the rack...and maybe the CZ Mannlicher...
From right to left, these are...
- A Ruger 200th year Deluxe 10/22
- A Ruger Talo French Walnut 10/22
- A CZ 455 Mannlicher 22
- A CZ 452 28-inch barrel Super Exclusive 22
- A Marlin 39 22
- A Winchester Model 62 (belonged to my Dad; he bought it for $8 when he was a kid)
- An older Ruger 10/22 Mannlicher (unusually nice wood on this one, too)
- An M1922 Springfield 22 (my Dad paid $25 for this one back in the day; they are considered collectable today)
- A custom shop Remington Model 504 22 (this is probably the nicest .22 I've ever owned…the photo does not do it justice…you have to look at it closely to see that the fore end tip and pistol grip cap are made of slightly lighter wood)
And the non rimfires…
- A Kimber Select Grade 257 Roberts (one of the prettiest stocks ever; haven't shot this one yet, but I will…I have all the dies, brass, and bullets; just haven't loaded anything yet)
- A stainless Browning 308 A-bolt (this particular rifle was a gun displayed by Browning at the SHOT show a few years ago; the wood on it is exceptional)
- A relatively rare factory Model 70 in 300 Weatherby (they only made a few of these about 20 years ago, and this one has really nice wood). I am going to put a scope back on this one and play with it a bit. I like the Model 70 and this one is really nice. I paid well under $400 for it when I bought it about 20 years ago.
By the way, the Ruger Express rifle in that first post above is beautiful. I found one of these a couple of years ago and it is another I bought just because of the wood.
The Ruger Express rifles are very, very nice firearms.