Rare Vintage BR Rifle for Sale
Eight years into the 21st century, it’s easy for us to assume that our “latest and greatest” gun stock designs truly represent the cutting edge of technology and innovation. We forget that some of the founding fathers of benchrest devised some pretty interesting designs decades ago.
An intriguing piece of Benchrest history came up for sale on Gunbroker.com recently. This 25-lb “unlimited” benchrest rifle, chambered in .222 Remington, showcases many features that were ahead of their time. The action says “Al Weber of Lodi, Calif”, but it’s not clear whether Al built the unusual wood stock, or whether that was the brainchild of someone else. The action looks like it might be an early custom action. Perhaps our readers know more….
Forum member Dan Conzo notes: “View page 17 of the Ultimate in Rifle Precision (1958), by Whelen. Ralph Pride, a barrel-maker and competitor, is using a rifle that is a twin of this rifle. Pride also wrote highly of the Weber action. The round bottom action has heavy lugs, a wall thickness greater than any conventional action at that time, and an integral recoil lug, It has three guard screws (1/4 ” socket head type), and the one-piece trigger guard extends past the front guard screw. The top of action is what they called a strong back with the port held to a minimum and it has the squared off rear tang. This action seems to have spawned the older Hart actions and even the more modern actions by other makers of today.”
In the front is a metal sled with twin Delrin rails for improved tracking. Front rails have been used on 1K Heavy Guns for quite some time, but when rails like this were added to the underside of F-Class rifles that innovation was considered fairly radical.
In the rear is another tracking rail. Interestingly, the rear rail is a wide, “Twin Keel” or “catamaran” design. Presumably this twin keel design enhances stability while reducing friction. That’s a design we’ve just started to see on short-range BR rifles, and it has been hailed as “highly innovative”.
We wanted to showcase this Vintage BR rifle, to give credit to the early innovators. Our current high-tech stocks and actions borrow from many of their design ideas.
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Mr. Weber built actions. The rear block was undoubtedly for some sort of mechanical rest, with a matching rail that fit in the inverted V block. As I understand it,some early unlimited rifles had conventional stocks with the sort of fittings that this one has, and were shot off of one, two piece mechanical bases (rests) rather than sandbags.
Look on page 17 of the Ultimate in Rifle Precision (1958), by Whelen. Ralph Pride a barrel-maker, competitor, is using a rifle that is a twin of said rifle. Pride also wrote highly of the Weber action. The action has heavy lugs and a wall thickness grater than any conventional action at that time, three guard screws (1/4 ” socket head type), round bottom and intregal recoil lug, the one-piece trigger guard extends past the front guard screw. The top of action is what they called a strong back with the port held to a minimum and it has the squared off rear tang. This action seems to have spawned the older Hart actions and even the more modern actions by other makers of today.
I just purchased a heavy varmint model in a cruiser stock from the same seller. Had a seasoned old gunsmith check it out, aside from a few construction quirks, it fired a test round with an extremely well-reamed chamber.
With a 2 oz Canjar trigger and 18 lb weight over a sandbag, it almost makes me look like a decent shooter.
I have an Al Weber 222 rem ser # 131. I purchased the rifle recently, and it looks brand new, the rifle will put five 40grBT in the same hole at one hundred. I feel very lucky to have it.
I have always wanted to find information on my grandfathers production of these guns so I could pass the information on to my children and finding a picture is like a bonus. I’m pleased to here that the guns are still in great shape.
I own one of the last few actions Al made (222 Rem #1095 circa 1971) inherited from my father Fred. We had stopped by Lodi on the way to an Idaho hunt with the intent to hurry the delivery of the ordered action but Al wasn’t home. I recall looking through the window of what I recall as a converted carriage house into Al’s machine shop. My father subsequently phoned Al and was told “don’t call me, I’ll let you know when it’s ready”. The gun remains nearly unused.
Mr. Barrett of Barrett Arms claims that he is the first to make a 50BMG rifle. Not true. Al Webber was building bolt action big 50s during the late 1950′s or early 1960′s. He only made a very few, because the FBI forced him to stop because the 50BMG was illegal for civilians to have at that time.
Al was way ahead of his time in many ways.