Most of my rifles have some custom work done to them.

My first centerfire rifle was a .30-06 that I bought from Herter's back in 1967.  It was a barreled action and a semi-inleted walnut stock that I shaped, glass bedded, checkered with a skip line pattern, and finished.  Ten years later I had a gunsmith re-chamber it to .30 Gibbs.  That rifle put 29 elk into my freezer.

In the late '70s I bought an Interarms Mark X Mauser .25-06 barreled action and another Mark X action.  I had my gunsmith re-chamber the .25-06 to .257 Ackley and he made a tapered octogon barrel in .22-250 for the other action.  I bought Fajen semi-inleted fancy walnut stocks for them that I finished inletting, glass bedded, checkered with a 5 panel wrap around pattern, and finished.

In the early 2000s I bought a plastic stocked Rem 700 in 7 mm Rem mag.  I glass bedded that stock and lenghtened it to fit me and installed a Limbsaver pad on it.  A couple of years ago I fitted that barrel and action into a Weatherby Griptonite stock, pillar and glass bedded the action, legthened that stock to fit me, added a Houge recoil pad, then painted the stock topped with spider web.

In 2004 I bought a Rem 700 Stainless chambered in .375 RUM.  I immediately took off the factory stock and replaced it with a laminated blank from Richards that I pillar and glass bedded, checkered it with my favorite 5 panel wrap around pattern, fitted a Limbsaver pad on it, and had a KDF muzzel brake installed on it.

After wanting a Weatherby rifle for over 40 years, in 2009 I finally bought a .300 Wby Vanguard.  Again, I immediately took off the factory stock and replaced it with a AA Fancy walnut blank from Richards.  And like my .375 RUM, I pillar and glass bedded, checkered it with my favorite 5 panel wrap around pattern, fitted a Limbsaver pad on it, and had a KDF muzzel brake installed on it.  That quickly became my favorite rifle, it is now my standard elk rifle, and I have taken it on 6 international hunts.

Because I don't want take my .300 Wby with it's Fancy stock out in wet weather, last year I fitted it into a Vanguard Griptonite stock that, like my 7 mm RM, I pillar and glass bedded the action, legthened that stock to fit me, added a Houge recoil pad, then painted the stock topped with spider web.

About 5-6 years ago I bought two more Wby Vanguard rifles, one in .308 Win and the other in .223.  Both of them came in Griptonite stocks that I customized the same as I did with the Griptonite stocks for my .300 Wby and 7 mm RM.

I also have a .45 Cal percussion Kentucky rifle and a .54 Cal  percussion Hawken muzzleloading rifles that I built from kits back in the '70s.

I don't have all of the facts of the story, but a friend of mine wears a Weatherby belt buckle that Roy personally gave him.

Something about years ago my friend shot an outstanding one hole or something group with a .460 Wby, somehow the target got back to Roy and he had it on his office wall.  Then sometime lateer, my friend visited the Weatherby factory, and when he mentioned shooting that target, he was immediatley ushered up to Roy's office, and Roy gave him that buckle.

I bought my first centerfire rifle, a Herter's .30-06, in 1967, and immediately started reloading for it.  When I got home from Vietnam in 1970 I bought my first pistols and shotgun, and also immediately started reloading for them.

In the '80s I got into Trap and Skeet competitions an even started making my own lead shot. 

I now have a fair Redneck full gun safe and still shoot pistols, rifles, and a shotgun almost every week throughout the year.  I figure that I've reloaded and shot over 300,000 shotgun shells, and who knows how many tens of thousands of rifle and pistol shells.  I currently have 5 shotshell reloaders and 2 rifle/pistol reloading presses on my reloading workbench.

Luckily I bought all of my reloading presses 30+ years ago when they were still reasonably priced.  My problem now is first finding the reloading components that I need, and then having to pay the current outrageous prices for them.

I thing that the Democrats thinking now is if they can't ban our guns they will make ammunition and reloading components unavailable.

That makes as much sense as banning any car that has a speedometer that goes higher than posted speed limits.

Another reason I will NEVER vote for any politician that has a D behind their name.

My favorite .22 rifle is a Rem 541 T.  I lengthened it's stock to the same LOP as my hunting rifles, and topped it with a Leupold VX Freedom 3-9x40 CDS  Scope so practice with it is very similar to the fit of my hunting rifles.

What advantage, if any, is there in the tipped TSX versus the TSX with no tip?

I started using Barnes TSX bullets when I built my .375 RUM for a Cape Buffalo hunt.  Accuracy and performance was great on all of the animals, from a Chobe bushbuck to my Buffalo, that I hunted on that trip.

So 5 years later when I bought my first Weatherby, a .300 Wby Vanguard, I decided to try Barnes bullets in it.  I started with 168 gr TSX bullets, and accuracy and performance was good with them.  Then, while preparing for another hunt, I decided to try 168 gr TTSX bullets. 

The TTSX bullets were just slightly more accurate in my rifle than the TSX bullets were.  Performance on game animals was great with both bullets.

A few years after than, I thought that I'd  try some 180 gr TTSX bullets in my .300 Wby.  Accuracy and performance was also great with those bullets, so now those are my hunting bullets for that rifle.

I started using Barnes bullets when I made my .375 RUM for a Cape Buffalo hunt. I loaded 300 gr TSX bullets for that hunt and shot my Buffalo and 4 other plains game animals with those bullets.  All of those bullets worked great, but the only one that I recovered was from my buffalo.  All the rest were complete pass throughs.


On my next African hunt I loaded 270 gr TSX bullets for my .375 RUM.  I shot 11 animals on that hunt, the Barnes bullets worked great, and only recovered these 2 bullets from a Kudu.


In 2009 I got my first Weatherby rifle, a Vanguard chambered in .300 Wby.  The Barnes bullets worked so well for me in my .375 RUM that I decided to try them in my this rifle. I started with 168 gr TSX bullets, then went to 168 gr TTSX, and now I shoot 180 gr TTSX bullets in it.


My first hunt with that rifle and those bullets was an Exotic hunt in West Texas, then a couple of bull elk here in Montana, 3 hunts in Africa, and hunts in New Zealand, Azerbaijan, and Canada.  Accuracy has been good with all of those bullets.  Out of all of the animals that I've shot with Barnes bullets, I've only recovered 8 bullets, and all of them looked like the Barnes advertized mushrooms.

I used my .300 Wby on an Alberta moose hunt last September.  For my "sight in" shots when I got to camp, I put two 180 gr Barnes TTSX handloads into this old aluminum frying pan shooting prone at 170 yards.