A custom rifle, you bet. It would have to be on either a mod 98 or 1903 action preference to the 1903. Use the two stage military but have it cleaned up properly. Add a new safty. Needs a fine walnut stock, after all that is what a stock should be made of. 20 lpi checkering in a Dick Bortmus pattern, wrap around. steel pistol grip cap, steel trap butt plate. Slinder, must be slinder in the forearm and the cheek piece relieved around it. Oil finish. The barrel should probably be an E.R. Shaw but I'd get a Shilen match grade. It would be 22". Polished blue finish but not the super high gloss. My name engraved in the side of the reciever, plain but tasteful. Would have a Leupold one piece base and leupold rings and a 2-7x new Redfield scope. Maybe even put my 2 3/4x Denver Redfield I have on it, hum! Quick detachable sling swivel studs, none of that white spacer garbage. The action needs bedded solid with pillars and the barrel floated full length and oil finished inside. Also finish under the pistol grip cap and under the trap butt plate. The cartridge would be some standard 6.5, perhaps the 6.5x57. 1-9 twist with throat cut for 130 gr bullets. The loading dies would be cut from blanks with the same reamer the chamber was cut with. Add a leather military sling and I think I'd be good to go. Now to just win the lottery!

I would not consider selling a custom I had made and if my son or grandson didn't want it, it would be burried with me.

Kudos for you to reaching out to teh used gun market.  There are so many hidden gems there for less than teh retail fo a new factory gun - let alone the retail on having a custom gun made, that it seems silly to me not to shop for new rifles.

For me, restoring an old gun is fun and it results in a fairly custom rifle to start with. What I mean is that if I’m restocking then I get to pick what the new stock will be. The same is true of refinishing. Should I leave the worn metal alone, blue it, or brown it? It is up to me. Rather than build a new rifle or modify one in perfectly working order to something else I find pleasure in bringing an old classic rifle back to life. Sometimes it is a common cartridge chambering but sometimes it is not.

In a case where I end up with a somewhat unusual chambering I get to experience a taste of the exotic while at the same time not spending extra for it. When I bought my combination gun (aka cape gun) that happened for me completely unintentionally. I bought it as a 38-55 and 12 gauge. Two fairly common chamberings. Well the left barrel IS a twelve gauge. It just happens to be a 2 and a half inch chamber instead of the ubiquitous two and three quarter in chamber. That’s not bad – just different. It lets me use the old style all brass shot shells. And they are pretty darned cool. Similarly the right barrel turned out not to be a 38-55 chambering, but .360 nitro express (aka 9.3x57R) which is just a tiny bit smaller in diameter and longer in case than the 38-55. Just different enough to be exotic and historic but close enough to common that I can reform the easy to find 38-55 brass readily into the correct dimensions. So not a bad thing at all but completely different than what I thought I was buying when I walked out of the gun show! It is yet another reminder that you might not get what you are expecting. So use some caution when you attempt to sight in a rifle (or even a shotgun) for the first time!

In my opinion, a custom gun is any gun that the owner has changed or had changed from the standard factory model.  This work can vary from simply changing the recoil pad on a rifle or installing custom grips on a pistol to a full custom gun that has been built from the ground up to your specifications.

I consider most of my guns as tools that I want to shoot and enjoy, so I don't worry about lowering their value as collectibles or resale value if I change something on them.  So I will customize these guns to fit me and to improve their accuracy or performance.

For example, I have 4 shotguns, and I have done something to each one of them to either make them fit me, or to enhance their performance like lengthing their forcing cones and having the barrels ported.  I was an avid Trapshooter for many years to the extent that my ATA classification was AA in 16 yd singles, A in doubles, and 27 yds for handicap.  I was shooting a Browning BT-99 for singles and handicap, and a Trap model Browning Citori for doubles.  On both guns, I installed different recoil pads, installed mercury recoil reducers in both stocks, and added lead weight to both forearms for balance, lengthened the forcing cones, and had all three barrels ported.  I had also cut down the height of the comb on the Citori to match the comb of the BT-99. 

Then I got interested in Skeet.  Our Skeet club invited John Shima, who was one of the top Skeet instructors in the US, to give us a Skeet clinic.  The first thing John did was to check the fit of each of our shotguns to us.  John had a tackle box full of moleskin that he was using to add height to the combs of most of the guy's shotguns.  I had brought my Citori Trap shotgun (with skeet chokes) that I had previously cut down the comb of the stock.  When I was  in line waiting for John to check my gun fit, I commented to a friend that "I hope he dosen't add moleskin to my stock, because I cut it to fit me for Trap."  John heard my comment and smiled at me. 

When John checked the fit of my gun he didn't change anything, and at the end of the clinic, he told me to never sell that gun.  I later used that shotgun to earn NSSA classifications of A or AA in all four skeet guages and skeet doubles and to make the Montana All State Skeet team.

As for rifles, I could never afford a custom built rifle, but I admired many of the features of custom built rifles, so I built my own.

I have built custom stocks for 5 of my hunting rifles.  These rifles either started as a barreled action or a standard factory rifle that I replaced the factory stock with a Fajen or Richards or other semi-finished stock that I finished and checkered myself.  This includes pillar and full glass bedding with full floating barrels, cross bolts, trigger tuning, and for a couple rifles, adding in-stock recoil reducers and barrel brakes.  I am proud of these finished guns, and they are custom fit to me.

Four of my hunting rifles look just like this .300 Weatherby Vanguard that I custom stocked.

Beautiful job on those Vanguard stocks! Who did them?

Yourself! WOW! You take on outside projects to checker?

Beautiful rifles guys - no doubt.

Those border on works of art.

Love the laminated wood stock - that is such a neat look.

I am no gunsmith but have some stock replacements and bedding jobs - it is a very rewarding experience to come up with a "sefl customized" job on a rifle... particularly if it shoots straight when you get done.

There is an ongoing series about this very sort of project on BGH right now that I am enjoying.

Nice rifles - guys... keep the photos coming!

Buffy - those are exquisite stocks! You checkering work is awesome in my opinion.

The choice of wood and even the designs are really great.

I would be afraid to take them to the top of an anthill, let alone a sheep mountain.

For myself, while I can appreciate a good-looking stock, and nod to the quality of a custom barreled action, etc., but I have never even thought twice about spending the money on one.

I guess it's like the guy who just lives to take an old car and spend hundreds of hours restoring it to mint condition - it never appealed to me (though I sure think they look great).

Thanks for the great pictures of those beautiful rifles - they are inspiring!