doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com What’s your holy grail?

I know that many collectors have something they have searched for years trying to locate. What is the thing you have always wanted but never found?
For me it’s Stewart Edward White’s Wundhammer rifle.

Somewhere out there is a Griffin & Howe .30-40 Krag built on a Farquarson action. The G&H serial number is a 3-digit number, although I no longer recall it.

I used to see it at the Allentown, PA gun show for years, but couldn't afford it at the time. I think the asking price back then (early 1980s) was $3,500, which was several months' pay for me at the time. It was about the most beautiful single shot I'd ever seen and I've lusted after it for at least a quarter century.

Not particularly historic, nor even usable to me today as I can't really shoot iron sights very well anymore, but it's the one that springs to mind when you ask.

I have always wanted an early Hartford Pope rifle with a .25 caliber barrel in one of Pope's early (wildcat) chamberings.

Rem40x, I remember that engraved G&H Farquharson rifle well. I examined it closely at a Baltimore show, it was on Pete Harvey's table. It had a quarter rib with express sights and I think a Lyman Alaskan on G&H top mounts. At that time my eyesight was better and I spotted one small pit in the bore. That saved me the trouble of trying to find a way to pay for it. My impression is that Emil McConnell bought it. A couple of years later it appeared again at a show, don't recall which one - Emil was an inveterate trader - but it had been spoiled, some cretin had slapped on a recoil pad.

Jack O'Connor's .270. I tried to win a copy, but did not. Something incredibly romantic about that gun since I grew up reading O'Connor. His inspiration sent me on the quest for sheep (and yes, I got a great Dall). What a man!

I was thinking about that grail question a few weeks ago and decided if some Colts went away there would be room for some S&W's.

So I swapped an extra Woodsman for a Highway Patrolman, like my Dad's (my brother inherited), and my good buddy James Tucker gave me the box, tools & paper.



Then I sold an extra New Service as the down payment for this Model of 1950 .44 Special. I had one years ago and rue the day I let it go in a trade (for a 2cd Model .44 HE & boot), so I found another with a few spots of pitting for about twice the price I paid for the first one...
Now I'm looking at a nickle plated Model 27....

Both of these shoot very well but man-o-man, the 4" .357 is LOUD!!

I guess I'm easier to please than most, but isn't that .44 a Dandy?!? And we are just about the same age.

Steve, Two nice ones, I like the older S&W's, they are all very well made. For years I carried a custom triplelock rechambered from .455 to 45 Long Colt in the woods. One day when I needed something else I was offered way more money than I thought it was worth so it went.

40X The rifle you are looking for may be No. 636, I don't know where it is today.

MP, you're being messed with. My Holy Grail is OH, I already have it. However, I'm still looking for more.

I love the American pre-war customs by Griffin and Howe, Hoffman Arms, and R.G. Owen and always get excited by new finds. But my Holy Grail would be an original, unmolested John Rigby .416 Rigby made in the 1920s or 1930s. Mike Schwandt sold a fantastic example a couple of years ago but the price was pretty staggering at the time. If the same gun were to come along again, I wouldn't repeat the same mistake.

Here is my holy grail. And it is for sale right now too, but I can't afford it. This is the second one I coulda/shoulda bought. .45 Creedmoor rifle



Brent