doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Alter a classic Bob Owen?

Many of you gents presumably have Roy Dunlap's "Gunsmithing" (Stackpole 1950 and later editions). Facing p. 486 is a fullpage photo of a Bob Owen .257 on an FN action. Dunlap writes it has "a particularly well-shaped barrel by a young comer in the business, Tom Burgess of Spokane .... wood is one of the finest pieces of French walnut it has ever been my good fortune to get hold of .... given to me on a visit to Birmingham .... it was what was known in the English trade is 'Exhibition' quality".

As a youngster I practically memorized Dunlap's book and on a visit to Griffin & Howe in New Jersey in November 2000 I recognized the rifle at once, in the used gun rack. Someone had placed a hold on it but I pestered and got it. The scope is one of the strange but rather good Leupold Plainsman 2 3/4x with 7/8" tube and annular adjustments, in a Tilden topmount. The wood is indeed as Dunlap describes it and the general workmanship is beyond reproach.

There were two deficiencies: it had a front ramp but no rear sight, which was idiotic, and unlike Owen's 1903s before WWII, the floorplate is not hinged - strictly standard FN. The rear sight problem will be solved with a Parker Hale micrometer windguage cocking piece sight, on an extra cocking piece to avoid altering the original. I met Nate Heineke at a Reno ACGG show a couple of years ago and he has the rifle for this. Now I am wondering about hinging the floorplate and altering the guard for a latch. Such is well within NL's abilities and would, IMO, finish off the rifle. In 1950 there was no such bottom metal available. Question: would this be unconscionable to meddle with a classic? Another possibility might be to adapt a 1909 Argentine or more modern bottom piece and set it up interchangeably with the original. Your views are earnestly solicited.

That's it, thanks Mike.

I would leave it like it is. The cocking piece sight is a good idea but I would otherwise not alter the rifle unless it could be restored to original condition with the original parts and even then would likely not do it.

Would you alter a Remington bronze or an Audubon print?

Jerry Liles

Mark,

Are you planning on hunting with this rifle? If so, then your idea of "adapt(ing) a 1909 Argentine or more modern bottom piece and set it up interchangeably with the original" works for me.

But if you're are not planning on hunting the rifle, leave it be.

Rob

Just wanted to say thanks for calling the floorplate a floorplate and not "bottom metal". I just hate that term. ITS A FLOOR PLATE.
As to your question, of course you get to do what you want and what ever that is, it will be the correct decision for you. Personnely it was good enough for the original maker and I would see it the same way. Leave as is.

Mark: As Sheriff Andy Taylor use to say... Just leave it be! It is highly unlikely you will find another triggerguard assembly that will drop in with out any alterations, especially the hinge area which always requires some wood removal for it to open. The hinged floorplate I have come to believe over the years is vastly overated as a convenience,especially if one is hunting alone. On rifles without one [Hinged Floorplate] I simply push the top round down WITH MY FINGERS,watch TO MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE A ROUND IS NOT STRIPPED AND CHAMBERED. CLOSE THE BOLT AND THEN USE THE SAFETY TO LOCK THE BOLT CLOSED! I HANG A TAG [I made] ON THE BOLT "LOADED GUN" Then case gun. GOOD LUCK Jerry

That make no sense. Hunting with it is not affected by the type of floor-plate.

Don,

My thinking was the only reason Mark would want a more modern (which I read as hinged floorplate, easier to unload) was to use the gun in the field. Otherwise he would leave the gun as original, being the respectful collector he is...

I agree that the type of floorplate has no bearing on actually hunting with the gun.

Rob

RR, Don, I am not going to hunt with this rifle. Most of us on this forum have in our minds a sort of vision of what the ideal custom rifle should be. To me, a fully worked out custom bolt gun should have a hinged floorplate. That is especially so with an Owen, because his grand rifles from before WWII had them. This rifle falls short. Against this is the powerful ethic expressed by those who say, leave it alone, that's the way it was made. Don't "improve" an icon. I sm stuck between these competing, to me, equally valid viewpoints and have been unable to decide what to do in the ten years I have had this rifle. The result has been that I do nothing, which may be the best course !!!