doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com A Leonard Mews Thread

Hello Michael Petrov, and B Bennett,

Leonard Mews was a friend and fellow club member of the Appleton Rifle & Pistol Club, here in Appleton Wisconsin. He was also a fellow member of the Black Wolf Schuetzen Vereine, in Black Wolf Township, Wisconsin. Black Wolf is perhaps the oldest Club in the U.S. dating back to 1853 with 160 years continued use to this day. Leonard's membership at Black Wolf overlapped the time of other members there like; William Staege, Ed Yost, Dr. Disch, Major Hussner, Lloyd Buch, Ham Lewis, Adolph Zwickey, and other Old Time shooters. ref: http://yostaction.com/staege.html

Leonard Mews marked all his stocks with his "Name Stamp" which read "LGMews". If he stamped his name in the Barrel channel or Action area, he made the complete stock from scratch. (a block of wood) If stamped the stock under the butt plate, he only checkered an existing stock given to him by a customer. These could be Factory or custom by another maker.

Also, in his later years, he purchased a few 80% rough stocks from Bishop and Fajen. He completed the final fit and finish and checkering, and then stamped his name on the butt before installing the butt-plate.

His Name Stamp looks like this ...



I have collected a dozen or so Leonard Mews rifles over the years, including Rifle No. 10 that was Leonards personal Schuetzen rilfe. These rifles have various checkering patterns and styles. One 22-Varminter (no.11) was made for Leonard's friend and has no checkering. Rifle No. 12 is described and shown in Dunlop's Book on Gunsmithing, (page 542 & 630) as having been made for Colonel Clifford (Christy) Christopherson. Rifle No. 4 was a joint effort between Leonard and Nubbs Fashingbauer of Lac du Flambeau, Wis. and engraved by Arnold Griebel. Rifle No. 1 has the name "George Hayes" (Gabby Hayes) penciled in the barrel channel next to Leonard's name stamp.

I am in process of writing a book about Leonard Mews and his rifles, but it is only about 40% complete to date. As a note to the forum readers, I would like to have owners of other Mews rifles contact me with info and pictures. (Bob, you may recall I talked with you about a year ago.)



I was fortunate to have been given many of Leonard's stock patterns that he used for his "repeat" customers, including the pattern for Dr. Smith's rifles. Many times these patterns were "slices" off the stock blank when it was rough shaped and it has the the customer's dimensions penciled on them. And, a few of the patterns were little more than a plywood cut-out of the rough shape, traced from the finished stock, also with customer's dimensions penciled on them. One very long pattern for a manlicher stock is made of two pieces of plywood, stapled together in the middle. (third from the bottom in the picture)



I also have many of Leonard's tools that he used to make his wonderful creations. I will post a few pictures when I photograph them.

It is interesting that the 2nd Photo posted by B Bennett, showing Leonard at work in his shop, is the original photo used in the 1963 article in a series; "America's Leading Gunsmiths".

In what publication was that series published? More than one Mews gun was offered for sale at Cabela's in Hamburg a couple or four years ago.

Hello eightbore,

This series was in the American Rifleman years ago.

I wish I had known of the Mews rifles that you say were for sale years ago. Although I constantly advertise as to wanting to buy Leonard Mews items, too often they never seem to find their way to me.

Whitey

Hello B Bennett,

The Curvaceous Blond that Leonard made for Dr. Smith lives in south central Wisconsin. It is part of man's Extensive Weatherby collection. Here are a few better pics than are shown in the Kennedy book.





















This Collector specializes in early Weatherbys and has several of them Stocked by Leonard while working there. His Collection also including the Phil Sharpe 270 WBY Varminter stocked by Leonard. Pictures of Leonard building the stock for this rifle are shown in Roy Dunlap's book; Gunsmithing. The rifle was presented to Phil from Roy.

I may have missed it somewhere, but who was/is Dr. Smith? He had good taste and obviously the budget to support it.

Could this be another of Mews work? The pictures aren't great.

http://www.gunsinternational.com/Winches...un_id=100270131


Art

Its a Dr. Russel Smith rifle, but not stocked by Leonard Mews. Likely done by Kennedy or Pfeifer.

Dr. Russel Smith was a wealthy Doctor that loved high quality rifles and commissioned many of them from various makers.

Here is another Dr. Russel Smith rifle. This one stocked by Brownell.

http://www.gunsinternational.com/Lenard-...un_id=100059780

Dr. Russell C. Smith was from Berlin, Wisconsin and later Petersburg, Alaska. Dr. Smith was the Patron Saint of the custom gunmaker, having custom rifles made by many of the custom smiths. When Dr. Smith died in 1968 his collection totaled around 400 guns.

One of the principle buyers of the collection was a friend who gave me a copy of the inventory of what he bought. Many that were sold or given away are not on the inventory. I remember there are about two-dozen Shelhamer stocked rifles.

This rifle is on page 30 of the inventory, shows a serial number of 604991.

One of the doctor's pre-war model 70's from the custom shop showed up at a gun show in Lacrosse years ago;250 Savage model 70 carbine factory engraved with a Lyman Alaskan scope and leather hard case.They wanted 2500 for it which shows how long ago that was.