Mike Dubber
Elite Cafe Member
I have just returned from Las Vegas and the the Safari International Show held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. I was there with John Bolliger, Riflemaker from Pocatello, Idaho, to present our creations - rifle and pistol - for the SCI Grand Auction that was held Saturday evening, January 22. Safari Shows are massive things, typically attended by about 35,000 SCI members. Our auction pieces were placed in a wide center isle of the show just outside the Mountain Riflery booth; cordoned off and staffed by a guard. John and I alternately attended the display and spoke to SCI folks for four days - I think we may have spoken to every one them! The project had been heavily promoted through the Safari Magazine and other SC I web and their show publications.
The set was presented as you see in the photos below. The rifle was a 300 Win Mag custom - John had used a piece of Turkish Walnut that he had saved back for 12 years waiting for such a project. The rifle was a thoroughly blueprinted Model 70 Winchester. John passed the metal off to me after it was set in the stock, and while he completed the stock work, I did the engraving. Meanwhile, I had started work on the 1911 Colt Auto...a Colt Auto produced in 2011, one hundred years after its initial production. The goal was to create set of two different guns that matched, as much as reasonable, in engraving style, coverage, and quality. The set celebrated North American Game animals - the Grizzly Bear, the Elk, and the Big Horn Sheep.
The Saturday evening dinner and auction is the highlight of the Annual SCI Show. Our Rifle/Pistol offering was placed at #10, about half way through the auction. Tucker Carlson, the celebrated FOX News personality, presented a wonderful pre-auction Americana speech. That helped to hold the 3,600 dinner guest at their tables! We were excited/apprehensive/exhausted to watch the proceedings...the bidding back-and-forth as the bid amount finally reached $290,000.00. It was a new SCI record for the highest auction bid in history - one that John and I had set at $265,000.00 during the 2018 SCI dinner/auction.
The set was presented as you see in the photos below. The rifle was a 300 Win Mag custom - John had used a piece of Turkish Walnut that he had saved back for 12 years waiting for such a project. The rifle was a thoroughly blueprinted Model 70 Winchester. John passed the metal off to me after it was set in the stock, and while he completed the stock work, I did the engraving. Meanwhile, I had started work on the 1911 Colt Auto...a Colt Auto produced in 2011, one hundred years after its initial production. The goal was to create set of two different guns that matched, as much as reasonable, in engraving style, coverage, and quality. The set celebrated North American Game animals - the Grizzly Bear, the Elk, and the Big Horn Sheep.
The Saturday evening dinner and auction is the highlight of the Annual SCI Show. Our Rifle/Pistol offering was placed at #10, about half way through the auction. Tucker Carlson, the celebrated FOX News personality, presented a wonderful pre-auction Americana speech. That helped to hold the 3,600 dinner guest at their tables! We were excited/apprehensive/exhausted to watch the proceedings...the bidding back-and-forth as the bid amount finally reached $290,000.00. It was a new SCI record for the highest auction bid in history - one that John and I had set at $265,000.00 during the 2018 SCI dinner/auction.
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