Where are all the old Benchrest rifles?

[Pete Wass]

Thinking back over the twenty odd years I have been shooting and all the shooters who have come and gone and all the rifles that have been built over that time, Where are all the old Benchrest rifles? There are always a few listed but there must be hundreds languishing somewhere. What prompted this is an ad I saw, someone looking for a Wichita Mini. Never see them for sale and never see them at matches.

Pete

 

[joshb]

Some are in my safe! I have a Witchita in 6ppc.

 

[bugman]

reduced to components, and used as varmint rifles

 

[Emmett Dibble]

Right next to all the old Silhouette rifles…

 

[Gary in MD]

Hoarders!! lol

 

[jonbearman]

In my basement,LOL!

 

[257ack]

I have a rail with a Allen Hall action that I am not able to put on the bench anymore,(83 yrs old) and a Borden LV. I have a covered concrete bench and a 200yd berm on the farm but just dont shoot any more. I sure miss the matches that I used to go to. I expect that a lot of things have changed since then

 

[wright brothers]

I read the old 700s turned consumable and are now at the bottom of the river.
Dang sling slang shoulder pounders.
And Merry Christmas.

 

[ebb]

I have the ugliest vintage BR rifle on the planet. It's a Hall in a really light weight hollow stock that is the ugliest purple on the planet. The guy that had it before me dropped it and it has a bunch of dings in it that he tried to fix with the wrong color paint. It has a 36 power Leupold, and when it's on it is on. I have shot several zero groups with it, but I have to wait for the temp to get right cause I don't know how to load for it very well.

 

[Lee in Texas]

I have a bare Shilen DGA action that I want to build a hunting rifle on. I bought it as a bare action.

 

[Eagle1899]

I'd love to see pics of all these old rifles!

 

[6BR_DM]

Thinking back over the twenty odd years I have been shooting and all the shooters who have come and gone and all the rifles that have been built over that time, Where are all the old Benchrest rifles? There are always a few listed but there must be hundreds languishing somewhere. What prompted this is an ad I saw, someone looking for a Wichita Mini. Never see them for sale and never see them at matches.

Pete

Bob White has them. https://theshooterscorner.com/benchrest-rifles/

B494 | $2189​

6PPC Light Varmint Wichita Mod 1375 R/R action; Hart 22" bbl, 1-14" T .262 nk c.300 rnds; Six f-glass glue-in stock; Grey w/elaborate custom pattern' Shilen 4 oz trig; Exc cond. A three-lug action with an enviable reputation.

 

[Will Henry]

As some people probably noticed, I shot a Wichita Mini at TD6. Sadly, I shot it poorly. The old rifle is currently being re-worked and has a Hart barrel in 6ppc on it. I'll shoot it in a couple weeks.
My other BR rifles consist of a 40X with a SS sleeve in a laminated stock, an unsleeved 40X in a Lee Six stock (this one chambered for the original 6BR). Another 40X was bought in 1970 as a 6mm Rem. It is currently in a Brown Precision stock with no barrel, but will likely become a 6 BR.
The Mini I took to TD6 was a rifle I had built and shot in 1979 and 80. I had done very well with it. I sold it in '81 then bought it back from the son of the guy I had sold it to, 44 years later. It wasn't really ready for the Tack Driver; neither was I! WH

 

[357Mag]

Thinking back over the twenty odd years I have been shooting and all the shooters who have come and gone and all the rifles that have been built over that time, Where are all the old Benchrest rifles? There are always a few listed but there must be hundreds languishing somewhere. What prompted this is an ad I saw, someone looking for a Wichita Mini. Never see them for sale and never see them at matches.

Pete

Pete Waas -

Howdy !

…” 20 odd years “ = “ old “ ??

I used a Wichita WBR1375 benchrest action ( s/n 15 ) as the core for my first custom
varmint rifle, back in early 1977. That action is still goin’ strong some 48 years later, and
I am gettin’ ready to have a 5th barrel put on it for my 2026 anti-groundhog effort.
I have changed the stock and trigger multiple times over the past 4 decades, but that great action soldiers on !!

I also had a very early .22BR benchrest rifle that Fred Sinclair made for me on Wichita “Mini” I was going to make a foray in short range benchrest, but my best friend and shooting buddy re-entered the Army; and I didn’t want to go to competitions on own.
Thusly, I never got into short range BR as a major effort.

That 22BR rifle was taken down to its major component parts. Sinclair “ moved “ the stock and action for me. Fred installed the barrel on an M-77 I had, for a hyper accurate varmint rifle.

Around 2004, I got Wichita to assemble another new “ Mini “for me…. from individual parts they still had lying around. I held onto the action, until I became unemployed for 4mo… for the first and only time in my life. I had to sell that action to a ‘smith in North Texas, who was looking hard for a compact action for a customer’s new build. I got twice what I paid for the Mini, and the $$$ helped keep our family goin’ while I secured a new job.

*** IF you want to see some unmolested latter -70’s original benchrest rifles, perhaps we could get SNERT. to send a pic of a couple he has managed to procure ?!
Those are a couple of juuust pre-PPC guns.

Pic shows the WBR1375 action sporting a Hart SS .224” cal 1-14, and Remington
M-700 trigger; converted by Ken Burns to 2oz. 24” bull barrel and Walnut/Walnut laminate stock put the rifle beyond legal HV weight, but no matter…. this was my
no-kiddin’ wildcat-chambered varmint rifle….starting back in 1977.

With regards,
357Mag

 

[Murray Brook]

I have the ugliest vintage BR rifle on the planet. It's a Hall in a really light weight hollow stock that is the ugliest purple on the planet. The guy that had it before me dropped it and it has a bunch of dings in it that he tried to fix with the wrong color paint. It has a 36 power Leupold, and when it's on it is on. I have shot several zero groups with it, but I have to wait for the temp to get right cause I don't know how to load for it very well.

Any rifle that can shoot zero groups certainly isn't ugly in my eyes. I have a Sako, beautiful rifle to look at that shoots in the 1's. Inches that is. There are days I would like to wrap it around the hitch on my pick-up.

 

[ogre1911]

I know of a mid 60's butter smoove R. W. Hart action that arrived at WSMNUT's shop yesterday.

 

[Lee in Texas]

I want to see someone get an old barrel
block rifle and put it in a hunting stock. Block and all. Hogs at 1000 yards+.

 

[Bill Norris]

Thinking back over the twenty odd years I have been shooting and all the shooters who have come and gone and all the rifles that have been built over that time, Where are all the old Benchrest rifles? There are always a few listed but there must be hundreds languishing somewhere. What prompted this is an ad I saw, someone looking for a Wichita Mini. Never see them for sale and never see them at matches.

Pete

I was presented this old Hart a few months back by my Smith ODCR. It was re-barreled to 30BR. It is a treasure no doubt.

 

[D Coots]

This piece of history in my safe probably qualifies.

Shoot dogs with it.

 

[357Mag]

Thinking back over the twenty odd years I have been shooting and all the shooters who have come and gone and all the rifles that have been built over that time, Where are all the old Benchrest rifles? There are always a few listed but there must be hundreds languishing somewhere. What prompted this is an ad I saw, someone looking for a Wichita Mini. Never see them for sale and never see them at matches.

Pete

All -

Howdy !

…. “ Old “ ?! I’LL show you “ old “ !!

Here’s a pic of a 1974 pic, showing an immediately post-WWII “benchrest “ rifle.
It had just been used to kill a groundhog @ 100 yd.

- Action was a liberated K-98 that featured the stripper clip cut out. A gunsmith from
Van Wert, OH closed the magazine opening in the lower action by filling it in; and fashioning a rudimentary single-shot feed ramp… using a materiel I could not ID.

- Trigger guard fashioned from mild steel strip.

-Fred Sinclair postulated that the barrel was probably cut from an old truck axle, and was 20” long 1-14 5-groove.

- “ Cherman “ style double set triggers

- Heavy walnut stock featured a rounded forend, pronounced cheek swell, outer space-lookin’ roll over Monte Carlo, fwd sweep to bottom end of grip: and unidentified recoil pad. No checkering.

The chambering was a fairly new whiz bang high-performance .224” wildcat of the time, called “ .22-250 “. It did not become a “ factory “ chambering for another 15yr into the future.

It’s either a 12X or 24X Leopold on it. Can’t exactly recall which.

This local area-made rifle proved to shoot more accurately than the custom
Interarms Mk X ( M-98 ) heavy-barreled varmint rifle I bought brand new; that originated out of P.O. Ackley’s shop. That rifle had a “ factory “ .22-250 “ chamber.

With regards,
357Mag