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.
