1st rule: Makes lots of money cause you'll need it to buy a custom rifle.

2nd rule: realize that the vast majority of game killed every year is not killed by a custom rifle.

3rd rule: Ask yourself if you really need to drop $10000 on a custom rifle when a $400 rifle works just as well.

Dave do you know of any one that makes custon revolvers? I have always wanted a 44. colt revolver with a antler handle.It would also be neat to have my name ingraved on it somewhere.

Bear in mind that often contracting for a custom rifle is much like building a custom house. It probably will not turn out just exactly as you had thought or hoped. You might have to make alterations later due to this reason or just because you changed your mind over the year or so it takes to get the piece. They are addicting in that once you acquire one you tend to dream up even more rifles that are on the "must have" list. Will custom rifles do more in the field than a factory Remington? Probably not but they are usually a joy to design, own, and operate. Plus they make for great conversation around the campfire when you tire of discussing elk and cussing horses both of which are necessary along with examining the rifle. Anyone notice that the factory rifles currently being manufactured look a lot like we wanted them to and/or tried to build back in the seventies?

Will custom rifles do more in the field than a factory Remington? Probably not but they are usually a joy to design, own, and operate. Plus they make for great conversation around the campfire...

Sounds like the same reasoning when a man marries a trophy wife 20 years younger than him and buys her fake boobs and a nose job. The only difference is the custom rifle won't *$@& the pool boy and take half your stuff.

Whatever makes you happy.....

Reworking a factory rifle to suit your particular desires or tastes has always been a excellent and cost efficient method to create an affordable custom. Certainly custom is a word that means different things to different people but more or less you end up with the same want fulfillment. Since the M-77 is a good starting base I am certain that 007 will really enjoy his .338/'06. Fantastic choices in every way in my view.
Insofar as selecting the various components of the custom rifle I advise that you utilize equal discresion in choosing your wife. Try to get the parts you want as a package and don't be overly concerned about her age. If care is used in this matter you will be happy with both and them with you. If you are worried about the pool boy then maybe a better choice would be to just borrow a rifle and live with a girlfriend.

I have never owned one of the Kimber rifles but have several of their 1911s. Since the beginning of their current rifle production the only fault I have consistently noticed is that the forearm of the wooden stocked versions often appear to have the wood touching the barrel somewhere along the way. One local gunshops has a couple examples on the shelf today. An easily fixed problem if it is one. This is not evident in the synthetic versions which have a blind magazine that I understand the need for but do not like. Overall they seem to be way ahead of most other factory rifles. This comment is partially based on statements that owners have consistently mentioned.

Wow, excellent post and prescient for me, as I'm currently saving up the bucks for a custom 6.5x55.
Dave, I know you're a lefty (I actually fondled a former rifle of yours over at Champlin's one day a year or so ago) and I know you like the 6.5x55 so could you tell me briefly about the 6.5 you had built? Action? Barrel length? Twist(once you got it fixed)?

I'm kind of leaning toward a lefty 700 action with a 24-inch 8-twist barrel. It being a Swede, I'll probably be using 140s and 160s most of the time. This will be 6.5 number five for me. Can't get enough of that crazy swede. I already have a CZ 550 and a right purty M70 classic featherweight, as well as a sporterized M96 and a stock M38, but I've always wanted a custom rifle. Figured if I was going to shell out the bucks for one, it might as well be a lefty and might as well be a 6.5x55...

007: Here's my 2 cents: If you're going with a wildcat anyway, you might as well go with the AI version. I have no experience with the .338-06, but I had a .280 Ackley Improved (AI) built on a M700 action and bought one built on a R77 action (old model Ruger w/ tang safety) and I love em both. Gunsmith friend who does great work very reasonably. Your .338-06 is definitely a handloading proposition, but you can easily fireform it to the AI version. The only area I differ with DEP is sticking with "standard" calibers. I have a NIB R77 in 7x57 that I'd like to have rebarreled to 7x57 AI some day. Premium barrel, syn stock, the works. I also had a 6.5-284 built on M700 action. None of these are full blown "custom" by DEP's definition, more like "remodeled", but a helluva lot less $$$. No regrets. If it makes you happy, go for it. At least you'll have something different from everyone else. And do it before you forget why you did it in the first place.

It's like this, Dave. When I buy a custom gun, it has to shoot about 1 MOA, just like the non-custom OTC rifles I already own, and it has to look good.

That means no synthetic stocks, and fancy engraving. Why? Because I don't see the need to buy a custom gun if it shoots the same as my over-the-counter rifles, and yet also looks ugly. My OTC rifles look pretty good and they shoot very accurately, even in my 1MOA hands.

One day, when I am a bit older, maybe a decade from now, Ima buy one nice shotgun. It's gonna have a nice wood stock, deep rich lustrous traditional bluing that you can get lost in just looking at it, and a modest amount of tasteful engraving with a hint of gold inlay.

If I still have time enough and am not an ancient crippled old man by the time I can buy one, after the shotgun I will buy one nice rifle. Same standards will apply.

If they didn't have these things, they would not be worth paying all that extra money for them. As someone around here once said, "Life's too short to hunt with an ugly gun."

Oh, and Mike,

With the difference you saved over the custom job, you can take yourself on a hell of a trip to actually use the thing.

Jim

I find it baffling there’s so many on this blog holding the belief the person who acquires a semi-custom or fully customized rifle will place said rifle on an alter and put a lit candle on each side of said rifle.

THESE ARE FUNCTIONAL TOOLS OF ART!!! BUILT BY/FOR AND OWNED BY SERIOUS HUNTERS TO TAKE HUNTING!!!!! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE THE LIGHT GO ON, GUYS?????

Before we get sidetracked again from the original article I want to add a couple other things. First of all you can do the same thing as some hunters who have the fancy wooden stock for showing off when at home. You then replace it with a synthetic (get a good one and not el cheapo) when you actually want to sight it in and hunt. I never bother with this since some of my rifles are for hunting in the mountains using horses. Some are for hunting when hiking around the desert or foothills. You probably know which type stock is for which environment. Ever see a wooden stock when you are 75 miles from town and 25 from the nearest pavement after your horse falls on it? They always fall to the side with the rifle, must be the extra 9 pounds or so of rifle and scope plus the scabbard that throws them off balance.
Now in reality one of my $5,000.00 customs is in most ways no better than the neat $700.00 Remington Mountain Rifle in .280 that I looked at this afternoon. Super nice finish on the wooden stocked Remington in addition to a nice fluted barrel of excellent dimensions. The point is I also drive a $40,000 Dodge Cummins pulling a $18,000 Featherlight loaded with four horses valued at between $3,000 and $5,000 each, plus two wall tents, two stoves, two riding saddles (yes one is a custom which costed $2500.00 15 years ago), two pack saddles, and on and on ad nausem. I don't mean to be pointing out the value of my worldly possessions to create envy and certainly hope I do not sound boastful for this was stuff all accumulated over time. I merely want to demonstrate that the cost of most rifles, custom or not, is only one part of hunting equation and actually not a large part in some respects. Going even further you can even include your clothing, boots, GPS if you like them, satelite phone if you want one, there is no end to the gear, look at the Cabela's catalog.
Insofar as saving for your dream hunt I found the answer over 25 years ago when I gave up a life in the east and moved to wonderful wild Wyoming so I could dream hunt every trip. You have to determine your priorities in life, hope you made the right decision, and pray that some a-hole does not screw them up. I know everyone can't do this for various reasons, fortunately I was so blessed in that it all worked out. I thank the Lord every day for America and especially for the Rockies. I hope each of you can hunt in the west some time in your life if you so desire. Rest assured that both custom and factory rifles will perform quite nicely in the high lonesome where they become a tool.