Beautiful rifle. I have a couple of custom 1903's made by my father. While undoubtedly his work does not approach Jaeger's level, they are quite fine.
One is a .30-06 placed in a walnut stock which my father inletted, shaped, and finished. Beautiful form of the wood. To my untrained eye, the inletting looks pretty good to me: no obvious gaps or binding points. I can't imagine trying to do this myself. The stock has no checkering, either because this was an additional level of difficulty or because my father preferred unchecked stocks.
The other is a .25-06 build on a Springfield 06 action. The barrel is a medium weight 24" blued barrel (fairly light blue, not a deep heavy blue -- maybe my father blued this himself and couldn't achieve the heavy deep blue that is commonly seen, I don't know). Again, my father inletted and shaped the stock, no checking.
The .25-06 stock has a roll-over cheek piece. I suspect this is considered a little tawdry or excessive by today's standards, but it is well done and I find it attractive. The stocks of both rifles have 15.5" trigger pulls, 2" longer than the usual commercial standard. This is really pleasing to me, because I'm 6' 2" tall and really need a longer trigger pull.
Both rifles shoot well, if not target quality. I get 1.25" groups with the .25-06 from a bench with a preferred cartridge. I haven't shot the .30-06 as much, but think I have managed repeatable 1.5" groups with a preferred cartridge with it -- though I haven't tried that many different loads with it. I hope someday to take up reloading and perhaps tuned loads may reduce the group sizes, unless the limiting factor is my own marksmanship, which possibility I do not discount a bit.
It is a joy to hunt with these rifles. My son took his first big game with the .25-06 last October, a pronghorn antelope. I took my first deer in December 2002 with the .25-06. I have yet to take the .30-06 on a hunt yet, but would like to do a Colorado cow elk hunt in the future as a beach-head into the realm of elk hunting. These are both heavy rifles. I think the .25-06 weighs over 10 LBS. But I am 6' 2" and fit, so this is not a problem. I rather like the additional weight as a recoil moderator.
