I’m looking to find a good home for my pristine Kleinguenther Distinctive Firearms (KDF) Model K-15 “Instafire” in 7mm Remington Magnum, S/N 790486. I ordered this rifle over the telephone directly from Robert Kleinguenther around 1978 with a painfully long couple of weeks for it to be delivered to the local Coast-to-Coast hardware store. The owner’s bride got tired of seeing me come through the door on a daily basis to inquire if it had arrived….
The rifle was afield for less than 1 week back then and tucked away since. Just a couple of boxes of shells pushed through it. The rifle is in *like new* condition. It presently has the original Redfield Widefield 2-7X scope with a Lee Dot 4.5 minute dot reticle and fine crosshairs (see
http://scopedot.com). The dot covers 4.5 inch diameter circle at 100 yards at 2X and 1.5 inches at 7X. The scope is mounted with the original Buehler rings/bases. All KDF rifles were sold with a 0.5 MOA accuracy guarantee to surpass the Weatherby 1.5 MOA offering in the day. Mine came with a test target signed by Robert K. but, unfortunately, I no longer have it.
Stuart Otteson's 2-volume book entitled, "The Bolt Action" has information on these fine rifles favored by both collectors and hunters. Vol 2 is where both the K-14 and K-15 rifles are dissected and a full report given, including a detailed history. KDF was incorporated in 1970 in Seguin, TX after Bob Kleinguenther convinced Voere in Vohrenenbach, Germany that their rifle model, the Shikar, was not going to be successful and that both he and they should set about designing a new rifle to be marketed by KDF in the U.S. In 1972, the design was approve and sent to production with a model number of K-14 for Kleinguenther project number 14. In Europe, it was referred to as M2145. About 7,000 rifles were produced between 1973 and 1977 with final sales taking place as late as 1978. Robert Kleinguenther's years as a chief designer and engineer for Weatherby are apparent in his designs. The K-15 followed.
The K-15’s stellite bolt is a unique balanced three lug design later copied by many, including Mauser 225 and 03, Sako 75- 85 and the Thompson/Center ICON. The action is as smooth as a silk scarf sliding off polished marble. This rifle utilizes a version of the drop box magazine and comes with the original magazine box that feeds like it has eyes. It has an excellent adjustable trigger which also functions as a bolt stop/release. With the rifle completely unloaded, open the bolt and pull back on the trigger which lowers a plunger type stop that rides in a slot in the bolt. The bolt can then be fully removed. The stock has a Monte-Carlo cheek piece and rosewood with white spacers at the forend tip and pistol grip cap. There aren’t any scratches in the finish. The barrel and action are fully bedded prior to delivery and the action has never been removed.
Page 1094 of the 2011 Blue Book of Gun Values lists this rifle at $1,375 (100%) and $1,100 (98%). I’ll include the mounted scope, a hand-tooled leather cobra sling, and a zippered hard case I originally purchased for the rifle with a KDF zipper pull for an even $1,500, OBO.
PM me if interested….
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