Back in the United States, we don’t have the history of craftsmanship that Europe does when it comes to firearms. Sure we make some awesome functional firearms, but you don’t see the same artistry. We make rifles to use them, not admire them. In the Old World, they’ve been making guns so long that companies have had time to get bored with the process and start embellishing their designs, making them incredibly beautiful to look at as well as functional. One of those companies, Fuchs Fine Guns, has produced what is quite possibly the most beautiful rifle I’ve ever seen . . .
With shotguns, the pros figured out quite some time ago that an over/under design for the double barreled offerings is better than a side by side configuration. But with rifles, the over/under design isn’t really “done.” Side-by-side rifles are abundant for big game hunters, but over/unders are few and far between. Which makes Fuchs’ rifle rare among rare finds.
The rifle is chambered in .416 Rigby (I think…jetlag may have been getting to me) and is available with either a 2- or 4-round magazine. Which means either one or two rounds per barrel in the magazine. The gun is in the style of an African hunting rifle, and the caliber choice is in line with that kind of gun.
What I found really interesting is that the barrel (well, both of them) is free floating. This isn’t just a wall-hanger, it’s intended to actually perform its job. Fuchs pride themselves on making accurate guns, and by all accounts this rifle will produce a 1/2-inch group. At 300 yards.
The internals of the rifle are interesting as well. The gun uses a set of recessed extractor claws in the bolt face to remove spent cartridges, and due to the design of the bolt the locking lugs are located at the back instead of on the bolt face. The triggers are different too. They use a GLOCK-esque sear protector that allows them to set the trigger pull weight to a dangerously light level without having to worry about the gun discharging before the shooter pulls the trigger.
The magazine is the icing on the cake. Fuchs doesn’t do the engraving in house, but the people they use are top notch. This scene of a family of lions is absolutely beautiful and incredibly detailed, almost to the point where you’d have trouble figuring out which side of the rifle you’d prefer to display. And while the bolt handle on this specific rifle isn’t that ornate, they can fix that too.
Fuchs makes bespoke firearms – each rifle is custom made to the customer’s order. Ther’s no such thing as “production runs” and no SKUs, just what the customer wants. As you’d expect, the price tag for that kind of service is on real estate levels. I asked the rep how much that under/over rifle would cost, and he responded simply “400.” That’s not dollars. And it’s not hundreds of dollars, either. That’s 400,000 euros, or about $532,000.
So it’s a gun that will cost you as much as a Ferrari. But it’s worth every penny.
Amazing how much “work” Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly do for their PAC when they send out staffers to fight their corner.
It is a beautiful rifle in a Baroque way, though to my taste the bullet pack’s techie appearance clashes with the timeless engraving. The upper classes in Europe have a tradition that commends the country estate as preferable to the city and esteems shooting sports as appropriate to their station, since only they have the land on which to enjoy these activities. Land is much more available in the US, and so hunting has no air or reality of exclusivity.
The Germans and Italians have been producing O/U double rifles for eons. It is the British who’ve insisted on the S/S as if tradition and best function were the same thing.
Nick, plenty of Euro companies make O/U rifles. Krieghoff, Chapuis Armes, and Merkel immediately come to mind.
Now if you mean an O/U bolt action, that’s another story.
…uhh, yeah, if the only other rifle you’ve ever seen was a Nylon 66
My take on this is that I can’t imagine shooting through a door with no visual affirmation of the target unless bullets were already flying through the door the other way. Trial aside, he may be the only person who will ever know if the shooting was an accident or murder, but even if it was accidental he deserves a few years in a 9’x6′ cell to think about what he did.
Wow.
I would love to shoot that.
There are paintings in the Louvre that are almost as beautiful but I suppose I couldn’t bear to shoot one of those either.
I like the one little room off one of the long halls that is just paintings of food, like cuts of beef and beef eyes.
”a prohibition on possession of magazines having a capacity to accept more than ten rounds applies only the most minor infringement on the Second Amendment,”
there. fixed it fer ya.
The destruction of the 2nd Amendment is insidious.
Great article. I own a P32, a P11, a PF9 and a Sub 2000. All work fine and are good guns for the money. Wouldn’t sell any of them.
I am a huge Bears fan so going by Shannon Watts logic, if I happened to see Aaron Rodgers and get a picture taken with him, I am a stalker. Hell, I was in a picture with double barreled Joe Biden once.
I was in Obama’s senate offices a few times.. . . . . and I was on tv holding a beer once with Jerry Brown when he ran for POTUS . . . . do I win a stalking prize?
And for 500k, you’d probably still have trouble getting ammo.
Yeah, I’d hit that.
Attention friends and family, I just added this to my Amazon wish list. You might want to go ahead and put it on layaway.
It would be interesting if, on election day, a huge group of people go vote then take up unregistered rifles and mags and just stand in front of the main legislative buildings. Send the message home, with the new officials.
I assume that St. Petersburg College is a private institution. Shouldn’t it be able to institute its own policies on its own (private) property?
After reading the CSGV page and The MDA page, I’m joining the NRA.
Any other pro org need a few bucks? I have a tax return buring a hole in my pocket..
He certainly isn’t doing himself any favors.
Either he’s a terribly irresponsible gun owner
OR
He’s a cold blooded woman beating murderer.
His anger issues have been presented. Here’s an example of his negligence. They’ve already paraded an ex-gf around saying he isn’t what he wants you to believe. And now there’s this.
Its not looking good for him….
They look like propulsion devices. Nothing about their appearance seems to suggest weaponry, except for the “setting fire” part. They’d be as likely to run home and set something afire than the enemy.
In WWII, the Russians tried training dogs that had bombs strapped onto them to run underneath tanks as a way of attacking the Germans. The problem was that in practice, the dogs couldn’t tell the difference between the German tanks and the Soviet tanks.
I recently acquired a Phoenix Arms HP-22A when I happened to be shopping at a local sporting goods/hardware store and was standing looking at the gun cabinet. The guy behind the counter said “Hey, you see this?” He had just slipped a promo sign behind one that said “$1.00”. Of course I asked what was wrong with it and he said it was brand new, they just get a few free from the manufacturer every few months to do what they want with. I think you can figure out the rest of the story. I have to say its hard not to carry that little mouse gun, I tend to only carry “get the hell off me” guns and don’t care if anyone says how wimpy a .22LR is. I love it, you can shoot it all day (assuming you have enough .22LR ammo) and it is heavy enough so you can pull the trigger as fast as you can and get good groupings with all 10 (or 11) rounds…almost nonexistent recoil.
Sorry for going off topic a bit, just had to stand up for the wimpy .22 carriers.
when the four barrel version comes out callme…..
Hey, Shooting the Bull–
I really like your articles and videos. What is the industry protocol on multiple shots into the same block of gel? I’ve noticed you will often put 5-7 shots into the same block, I presume to save time and money. But do you think that, say, the first 3 shots “soften up” the gel and make subsequent shots perform differently than they would in unshot gel? I noticed later shots in this video went way further than the first 2, for example. Or perhaps in other situations with larger calibers maybe the gel gets damaged and subsequent shots are disturbed.
I’m not complaining by any means. I’m legitimately curious about the science of this.
Let’s not forget the aborted project by the US Dept. of War to produce “bat bombs” – bats outfitted with incendiary devices on timers. The notion was that they’d pack the bats into bomb casings, drop them over Japanese cities, and the bomb casings would pop open at a designated altitude. The bats would then scurry to take shelter in the flimsily-constructed Japanese homes, ignite, and burn the city down.
As it turns out, the testing didn’t work out all that well. And it turn out that splitting atoms made a much more effective incendiary device – so the caves of Carlsbad were again safe for the bats.
To the posters discussing the trigger safety – I believe it was Patrick Sweeney who wrote that it was actually designed by Glock as a drop safety. Evidently the weight of the trigger itself could cause the gun to fire if dropped from high enough and at the right angle. It was never meant as a safety against poor handling, but it does have a purpose.
It’s a piece of art, no question. But even if I had the dough (which I don’t) I don’t think I could convince myself to spend it on a gun.
OH MY GOD! I’ve been waiting for this to pass for SO LONG!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TTAG has done fine on the Connecticut issues. The blog has not gone overboard. Keep doing what your doing.
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Got the Hogue Grip for the P938, it feels great, especially with the extended mag inserted. Been to the range 4x’s since my last writing and have had ZERO issues with any ammo tired: 115 & 124 FMJ and 135g +P Hornady Critical Duty. When I got home to clean this last outing something seemed unusual. I couldn’t place it right off the bat and then as I looked through the sight line toward the darkness of night I realized what it was. The front Night Sight has gone totally dead (it was fine till now)! The rear sight is fine, but the front GLOW is ALL gone. Called Sig and the slide is going back tomorrow to get a new sight installed. This is actually the 2nd time I’ve had a factory installed night sight that was dead. I had a Kahr K9 that came new with a dead front night sight. It was replaced 3 years ago and is going strong. As for the P938, with roughly 450 rounds through it without an ammo malfunction, it is a welcome cc addition.
Fixing a sub 2000 in 9mm if the problem is the bolt carrier getting hung up in the hammer face, no dremmel required 🙂
1) lube it up with frog lube
2) get the buffer thingy from tacticool (it is a cushion thing that goes on the spring and reduces felt recoil, I’ve been up for 20 hours now so my English is suffering, google it and u will know what I’m talking about.
3) dry rack the bolt carrier about 100 times, initially you will feel the roughness as it slides back, over time you will stop feeling this… Do it while sitting on the can so you don’t waste precious time.
4) take the gun apart about ten times and when installing the bolt carrier back in don’t use a rod to push the hammer down as people recommend but rather use some force on the charging handle to bring the bolt carrier forward… It will get easier after a few times.
5) done, the action should feel a lot smoother now and the buffer tube will keep the bolt from going 100% back when firing so it won’t get stuck again. having done this I’ve had zero problems in over 800 rounds.
6) use the dremmel for installing a magpul ar buttstock on my ak… A whole ‘nother story.
It’s completely Shannon’s fault for not vetting beforehand who she is taking a picture with. She got comfortable in her echo chamber and let her guard down. She screwed up and she damn well knows it. This is just damage control by misdirection. Bloomberg has got to be pissed about the money he spent on an amateur.
Wow, over 400 replies (so far). Gotta be a record.
I just gave my Lab daughter a hug and kiss goodnight and reassured her I would always look out for her. FWIW
If you buy the VCOG, does it come with the “rifle” shown in the picture?
: )
Midway is showing them as “coming soon” for about $2,400.
Charged at a guy pointing a gun at him and assumed he wouldn’t get shot….turns out Darwin was right.
Comment moderated
Wait a minute, the freaking watch needed to fire the gun is sold separately? Could that POS get any worse?
Just once I would like to a press release that says something like:
ArmaLite has recently been made aware that an advertisement utilizing the image of the statue of Michelangelo’s David holding an ArmaLite AR-50A1 rifle was found to be offensive by certain individuals… Get over it.
OK, I give up.
Second the Victory Brewery comment above.
Hide your dogs!!
Gee thanks for the review of the 500,000 euro rifle. what’s next a review of the 1.2 million dollar Patek Philippe sky moon
tourbillion? if I wanted to read reviews like this I would subscribe to the Robb report.
One aspect of this that Denton touched on is the plastering of these toads names and faces on the cover of Time magazine where they are held up as powerful and evil incarnate. That infamy alone can drive defective people to do horrible things in the way that Herostratus burnt down the temple for the sole purpose of achieving infamy.
As such the counter programming is to mock them as pathetic losers. Case in point: A number of years back a porn star killed a coworker and maimed some other folks. Charley Chase who “worked” with the guy described him as “The worst smelling man I have ever come across.” and had some other unkind things to about his unsuitability for that trade.
In one episode of “Beavis and Butthead” Beavis sees his own tombstone. The inscription reads “Here lies Beavis. He never scored.” That is the epitaph we need hang around the necks of losers in death.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/here-lies-beavis-he-never-scored