Old school rifles

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Old School Weatherby, with Serial Number under 600, this was among the earliest rifles made in Weatherby's South Gate, Ca. shop. Built on FN action, it is adorned with the gold plated sling studs, trigger and flashy trigger guard with elaborate engraving that characterized Weatherby rifles of that era. The "California" style stock, another Weatherby trademark, was made of screwbean mesquite a special order option along with elaborate checkering. A stockmaker who once did special order work for Weatherby told me he disliked checkering mesquite because the wood's embedded sand made it hard on checking tools. Caliber is .257 Mag, Weatherby's favorite caliber and the Old School B&L 8x variable scope and mounts make it my favorite pronghorn rifle. IMG-0720 (2).jpg IMG-0737.jpg IMG-0742 (2).jpg IMG-0733.jpg IMG-0724 (2).jpg upload_2022-2-23_9-18-39.jpeg
 
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Offfhand said:
Old School Weatherby, with Serial Number under 600, this was among the earliest rifles made in Weatherby's Southgate, Ca. shop. Built on a FN action, it is adorned with the gold plated sling studs, trigger and flashy trigger guard with elaborate engraving that characterized Weatherby rifles of that era. The "California" style rifle, another Weatherby trademark, was made of screwbean mesquite a special order option along with elaborate checkering. A stockmaker who once did special order work for Weatherby told me he disliked checkering mesquite because the wood's embedded sand made it hard on checking tools. Caliber is .257 Mag, Weatherby's favorite caliber and the vintage B&L 8x variable scope in Buehler mounts make it my favorite pronghorn rifle.View attachment 1061772 View attachment 1061773 View attachment 1061774 View attachment 1061775 View attachment 1061776View attachment 1061789
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Gorgeous rifle!
 
Another Winchester from years gone bye is this M-54 made in 1935. 54's from that era usually show abundant evidence of hard use on wood and metal plus such ugly modifications as recoil pads, tapped for scopes, altered bolt handles and rusted/corroded bores. This one has holes for scope bases but otherwise is pretty nice. Caliber is marked 30 GOV'T'06. Someday I may mount a scope to see how it shoots, possibly on its 100 th birthday, only three years hence. 21A_5261 (2).JPG 21A_5267 (2).JPG IMG-1031 (2).jpg IMG-1023 (3).jpg
 
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tark said:
Here's three old timers for ya' . A Stevens model 1915.22. Made early in the production run, with no Savage markings. Stevens was bought out by Savage in 1915 and The guns had "Savage" markings applied during the production run. Next, a 98% Savage 23D with a period weaver Model 344 scope. Gun is almost new...but not "almost enough" that I don't shoot it.

Sorry I just gotta jump in here. Stevens was bought by Westinghouse Electric in 1915 so they could fulfil a contract to build Mosin-Nagants for Russia. No civilian firearms were produced until 1917 limited production. Savage bought Stevens in 1920 and was a subsidiary of Savage until 1942 no Savage markings were struck on a Stevens rifle until sometime in 1920.
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And my 1950ish 22/410 still says J. Stevens Arms, with no mention of savage anywhere. Branding is a funny thing...

To get the thread rolling again, i got a pair of virtually new takeoff barrels today that i intend to make into single shot rifles. They are both old school calibers: a Ruger #1 in 257 Roberts and an older winchester 70 in 270 Winchester. Bob has a scope base on it and the 270 is D&T'd for iron sights. Both immaculate shape.
 
Jim Watson said:
Yes, what single shot action will you put those barrels on?
Own make?
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Oh i get it now lol.

It will be of my own making. Some sort of falling or rolling block design. With hand made stocks of course. Gonna be a winter project. Might try to do one receiver out of brass, but need to investigate pressure limits and whatnot.
 
A single shot Roberts on a brass receiver would be interesting, but the scope mounts might kill the novelty of it. So I'd vote for the .270 with peep sights and a diet of heavy cast loads if you pursue a brass build.
 
Don't have a picture but I have a Remington 721 from 1961 in 270. I recently found and installed a used factory stock, (it had a Boyds for a few years), but I wanted to put it back in "original" configuration. I'll hunt with it this season but wish I had the time,(and cash..), to find a vintage scope to put on it.
 
I6turbo said:
1938 model Winchester 52B (with an outstandingly excellent Leon Thomas trigger)
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Gorgeous 52. Is your trigger stamped in any way? I've been considering pulling mine out of the stock to see if there are any identifiers on the trigger. It looks box stock but breaks at about 6oz.
If I feel up to it I may try to get a group photo of my AARP rifles in the next day or 2.
 
Howland937 said:
A single shot Roberts on a brass receiver would be interesting, but the scope mounts might kill the novelty of it. So I'd vote for the .270 with peep sights and a diet of heavy cast loads if you pursue a brass build.
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Its a pretty svelte scope mount, with some classic lines. With the right scope and rings it could look pretty neat. I can always remove it too.

92-6.jpg

Whatever form they take, ive got some beautiful chunks of walnut to turn into the furniture.
 
Howland937 said:
Gorgeous 52. Is your trigger stamped in any way? I've been considering pulling mine out of the stock to see if there are any identifiers on the trigger. It looks box stock but breaks at about 6oz.
If I feel up to it I may try to get a group photo of my AARP rifles in the next day or 2.
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My Thomas trigger is clearly marked. I assume all of them were, because what little I've been able to find about Leon Thomas and the competition situation at the time would lead me to believe that people who made serious competition parts for these guns, like Thomas and others, probably marked their goods because they were trying to build businesses and reputations. (Reportedly, a lot of shooters who were really serious about their competition results with the 52 would often switch to an aftermarket trigger like Kenyon, Wright-Allen, Canjar, Thomas, etc.) There is very little information that I've been able to find on the Thomas trigger but I found an old article about Thomas a few months ago. I saved the URL but it's on a computer that I need to fire up and download a bunch of stuff from, but IIRC Thomas had a shop in Louisiana.

Some people on the internet say that the Thomas trigger wasn't all that much better than the factory B trigger, but the one I have is outstanding for target shooting. I have 8 different rifles with set triggers that I've adjusted very carefully and super light for target shooting, and several other rifles on which I've worked the triggers and have them quite light and crisp. I haven't yet shot the Thomas trigger side-by-side with some of my best ones, but I think it's right up there with the best of them.

Here's a photo in which you can see the Leon G. Thomas marking on the body and on the trigger blade itself. The blade is also quite a bit different in appearance to a stock B trigger.

eiYzyBe.jpg
 
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