O'Brien Rifles and H&R Ultra Wildcats

[ricksengines]

Hi Everyone. There seems to be some confusion on the internet boards over the O'Brien Rifle Calibers and the H&R Ultra Wildcat calibers that were produced back in the day.

Both producers used the Sako L461 Action (which in my humble opinion is just GREAT). question is what calibers did each manufacturer actually produce.

I know that O'Brien made the Mach III (on the xp-100 Action), Mach IV, 17 Javelina, and 17 Magnum were produced using the L461 Action.

H&R produced the Ultra Wildcats in 17-223, 17 Remington, 222, and 223.

So my questions are did O'Brien make the 17-222 or 17 Remington?

Did H&R ever make the Ultra Wildcat in 17-222, 17 Javelina, or 17 Mach IV?

I appreciate any clarification or additional information that can be added. Please do me a favor and if possible add a reference to either an O'Brien advertisement or catalog or similar reference for the H&R varieties.

 

[ricksengines]

Hi Everyone.

I found an old O'Brien add. Unless Vern increased the number of calibers that his company made this should serve to answer part of my inquire and also help to clarify the actual calibers he made. Hopefully this clears up some of the mud.

According tot the add I found, O'Brien Rifle Company made rifles in 17- Mach IV, 17 Javelina and 17 Magnum. I believe that they also made rifles in 17-222 and 17-223. At lease I have found several references that indicate that O'Brien made these two calibers as well. If anyone can verify this I would appreciate the info.

From what I have been able to find out, when O'Brien sold out to H&R and they began making the Ultra Wildcat rifles I believe that they dropped the 17-Mach IV, 17 Javelina, 17-222 and the 17-Magnum.

From what I have found H&R made Ultra Wildcat rifles in 17-Remington, 17-223, .222, and .223. If any one has information that H&R made Ultra Wildcat rifles in any calibers other that what I have listed please add the information to this post. Many Thanks.

 

[stonecreek]

There was an H&R 317 just up on Gunbroker which had what appeared to be a factory barrel (only judging from the photos) marked ".17 H&R". Just what caliber this might be is a mystery to me. Otherwise, you are correct that H&R only cataloged the .17 Rem, .17/223, .222, and .223.

Perhaps our resident O'brien/H&R 317 expert, keving, will jump in here and help sort this out. If it's about O'briens or 317's and kevin doesn't know it, it's just not know.

 

[ricksengines]

Thanks for your input. I appreciate the information very much. The 317 that just auctioned off on Gun Broker was a 17 Remington. Nice rifle.

 

[kevinlg]

Your info about the O'brien and H&R chamberings is correct.

But........then there are the H&R "auction" rifles, and the "Ackley-O'Brien" rifles.

If you search "O'Brien" on our site here, you'll find a lot of info......and save me a LOT of typing.

 

[ricksengines]

Sorry, I was just trying to get and share some information due to the misinformation that I found on some of the posts elsewhere on the web. I wanted to give stonecreek the correct information on the chambering of the 317 that just sold on GunBroker. In addition, I tried searching O'Brien and came up empty. No biggie.

Thanks for verifying my the info I posted. BTW I was the person that got the Blue Book of Gun Values to recognize O'Brien's Rifle Company. I wanted to check to make sure that they got it right. The listing has been in there for several years I know but I just got the latest copy and wanted to check their facts against what I initially provided to them. Thanks for the help.

 

[kevinlg]

Wow.....I got four pages of results.

Search box at top right of this page. Enter: O'Brien. Uncheck the "search this forum only" box. Click on search.

Should work. Hope this helps.

 

[ricksengines]

Hi Kevin

Thanks I saw the list and will read nearly all of them as I have time to do so. I already read some of the jucier ones especially when I saw Javelina.