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Matching the Hunting Rifle, Hunting Knife and Scope ( Or Iron Sights) And Africa too!

750 views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  Desert Bighorn 
#1 ·
On all my hunting rifles I like to have a period scope and carry a knife that also matches that same era,

It is silly I know, but since when have hunters and shooters not been prone to idiosyncrasies.

For example, on my .308 Sako Finnlite I have a Leopold Ultralight 2-7 Scope with vintage Sako mounts. The knife that I carry with it is a Swedish Mora 200, stainless blade with synthetic handle.

My Winchester model 70 Standard weight in .270 carries a restored Weaver fixed 6X also made in the early 1950’s. That was my antelope rifle when I lived in Wyoming. Back then residents got plenty of late season doe tags.
My knife for that rifle is a single blade full sized folding Case made with jigged bone handles, brass lined with a carbon steel blade.

My safari grade Belgium Browning in 30-06 has a Leopold one piece bridge mount with an adjustable ghost ring peep side on the back and carries a Denver Redfield 2-7 scope. The rifle being from Europe, the knife is a classic solingen carbon steel blade with stag handles made in Germany.

My traditional TC New Englander Muzzle loader has TC peep sights and I carry two Green River knives when hunting with it. One a regular hunting carbon blade and the other a carbon skinner. These were the knives of the fur trade Mountain man era. Americas first knives.

The 6.5x55 Stainless model 70 has a walnut stock and carries one of El Paso Weavers rarest scopes. A stainless steel fixed 4X with a straight front. To match that, the Green River knife works made a short run of a “stainfree” knife with a very high carbon steel blade with walnut grips. I find it to be my all time favorite steel. Almost stainless but still can be sharpened with a river rock, and makes great sparks when struck for fire starting

The custom 35 Whelen build on an FN Action has a vintages 4x Weaver scope on it with the huge big thick post, kinda like a “middle finger” sticking up. I used that rig for shooting big black Russian boar on moonlit nights on Dep permits in orchards and barley fields. The knife was one of my favorites. A big Kabar with a six inch carbon blade and antler handles. I first saw that same knife in a display case in the local sporting goods store when I was 12 years old. It had a huge price tag, $6.25. It was still there when I was 22 and I bought it for about $20 without a sheath.

I make all my own knife sheaths anyway out of harness grade leather and sew the pieces together with copper wire.

My last rifle knife combo is my favorite. I have a bolt action model 54 Winchester in 30-06, They were first made in 1925 during the rich roaring 20’s. Those model 54’s were just a joy to look at and hold,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and shoot. They were accurate works of art. By comparison the model 70 which came out in 1937 during the great depression was cost saving come down.

My model 54 has factory installed Lyman peep sights; also has flip up African front sights and an integral front sight, with the ramp forged right into the barrel. Not the cheap screwed on ramp holding the front sight.

Remington made their first folding bullet knives in 1922. Before he died, my friend and master gunsmith gave me the pre-WW2 full sized double blade folding bullet knife his dad bought for him.

Those knives were just incredible in their workmanship. Production stopped during WW2 and they were again made in the 1980’s but never could the equal those earlier ones.

Pre WW2 Remington bullet knives are the most highly valued of all American factory knives.

I wrote a story about the man who gave me that knife here on Ifish titled “Big Jim’s Little Knife”.

Some years ago I had a trip planned to Namibia. My intention was to take that rifle and knife and one book. It was about the cuisine of Africa. I wanted to shoot only just one animal, a non-trophy gemsbok. They are reputed to have the sweetest meat of any game animal in all of Africa.

I arranged to have a chef prepare dish after dish from my book for a 10 days stay. During the days I was going to be with San-Bushman trackers learning from them and following lions as well as other game.

A cancer diagnosis got in the way of that trip.

DB
 
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#2 ·
Well, it certainly is clear that you are a .30-06 enthusiast. I hope you made it to Namibia. I hunted there in 2007--my only visit to Africa -- and had a great time. I cannot recall which tasted better, gemsbok or kudu backstrap, hot off the braai. As to the knives, those Green River patterns are certainly iconic, but some sources suggest they actually reached the market in numbers after the fur trade had dwindled. But the Russell offerings still available certainly evoke our 19th-century history. I made up three sets of a Green River skinner and their "Dadley" straight knife, with sharpening steel, in a single broad sheath, copper riveted,one for me and each of my brothers.
Here is an excellent backgrounder:
 
#6 ·
Thank you very much for such a full response. Yes, the Russell knife company still makes most Green River classics, including the ever so useful Beaver skinner. With it's round front it is so functional.

For my muzzle-loading hunting I even have a Green River patch knife for cutting patches from cloth for round balls,.

One of my prized field dressing tools is an Eskimo Ulu made by the the Disston hand saw Company. The side gut hooks work so well,

Great thoughts/memories about your hunt to Namibia. i again thank you for that. The Skeleton Coast there is the only place left in the world where lions can still roam the ocean shore

I have mentioned this before here on Ifish. The "Sheltering Desert" by Henno Martin has been republished, A great totally true WW2 era story about two fellows hunting/living off the land with their Luger pistol for two years in the Namib Desert.

I might not get to hunt Namibia. At 75 my priorities have shifted back near fully to field biology. I plan to make my home available to field biology interns. Give them free lodging and guide them as best I can. From my front porch they can see mountain goats with a spotting scope during the summer.

And yes I do admire the 30-06. I took my desert bighorn ram with it. At 125 yards after a two hour stalk. Used my Belgium Browning which at that point I had hunted with for over 30 years. Also had that simple vintage Redfield scope on it. I was in my my later 50's then

I could not have imagined on a once in lifetime hunt, ruining the chance for a "once in a lifetime stalk" by shooting it from afar beyond the range of it's natural defenses. I would have cheated myself and that wild sheep.

It was a chocolate Ram with golden curls.
 
#3 ·
Ohh, and all of these rifles have a harness grade leather Whelen sling that is fitted to them and me that has adjustments for thick winter clothing or light summer clothing, Even my model 39 Marlin .22 and my Model 94 30-30. For both of them i carry a now no longer made Case "Cowboy Stockman" pocket knife. Actually that knife is always with me. It is made of carbon steel and the spey blade has been replaced with a leather awl for cutting neat holes in leather,

One of my most prized native American flint tools is a white agate leather awl. It kinda looks like a funny arrowhead at first. I have only found just one in my life. It can drill wholes easily in thinner buckskin

Regarding my use of a Whelen sling, my practiced mandate is to be able to get into position with it in three seconds, in any and all field situations and in another three seconds, get a shot off in which i can hold a six inch circle at 300 yards.
Even when huffing and puffing after a brisk climb.
 
#4 ·
DB, it is remarkable how few of our younger hunters and shooters are even aware that the sling is an extremely valuable tool for enhancing field accuracy.
When I worked at the Otero County Shooting range in La Luz, New Mexico, perhaps a half dozen of our hundreds of regular shooters knew how to employ the Whelen or the 1907.
 
#9 ·
I hold your close in hunting style in the highest regards DZ. You remind me of those New England master woods hunters I grew up admiring, who quietly moved through the forest wearing soft rubber bottom LL Bean Maine Hunting boots carrying Savage 99's, Marlin 336's and Winchester 94's using aperture sights with big ghost ring peeps.

My own hunting journey has taken me into the wide open spaces of plains, desert, steppe and prairie biomes. I will always miss the times when my eyes were good enough to use my model 54 which was a rifle designed before scopes. With distance a low lower glass is needed for my eyes now.

Also, for many years i hunted California where a fork at least in one side was needed to be a legal buck. Some of those forks were pretty small and in dim morning light a low lower scope was a great tool to determine legality even for a buck 50 feet away.
 
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