From what I was told, Roy Weatherby was an insurance salesman who decided to start his own company to market a unique “brand” of high quality hunting rifles. Weatherby’s rifles would have their own unique design and would be made in their own special calibers; their slogan was “Tomorrow’s rifles today.” Ralph T. Davis was a master machinist who owned “Modern Gun Shop” or “MGS” that manufactured a line of high quality jacketed bullets. Originally, Ralph Davis was Roy Weatherby’s partner and was in charge of the manufacturing of the rifles; of course Weatherby was in charge of marketing and advertising. Its fun for me to write about these men because I keep remembering more things that I had forgotten, another man who worked for Roy Weatherby was Walter Abe (pronounced Ah-bay) and although I didn’t know Mr. Abe, I’ve seen his work and it appeared to be excellent, he later became known for converting 52 Winchester target models into sporters. At that time, the late 1940’s and early 50’s, hunting was fashionable and Weatherby’s catalogs were filled with pictures of Hollywood celebrities like Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Andy Devine, and many others, holding their custom Weatherby rifle and sometimes a bear or elk they had just killed with it.
Last edited by Schutzenbob; 11/08/10 01:53 PM.
