doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Remington 37 Stockmaker

I am hoping that someone here may be able to help identify the person who made the stock on the rifle below. Generally target rifles are tools for doing a job, and as such are not particularly attractive nor refined. The following is one of the exceptions. The quality and execution of the stock work on this rifle is on par with the finest custom rifle in my opinion. Particularly the inletting and checkering. I would love to find out who did the work. The cheek piece is unique enough that it should be a clue, as is the checkering. I have seen similar work attributed to Monte Kennedy, but I have just not sen enough of his work to be able to say. The illustrations in his book show some similarity in cheek piece shape. Any help would be appreciated.






This photo shows the quality of inletting, and also the metal work that went into the rifle. Anyone familiar with the 37 Remington knows how ugly the tang is on it. This tang has been welded up, the hole for the safety filled, and the whole reshaped to a very attractive shape in perfectly inletted. This work alone would cost more today than the cost of a used 37.


Thanks,
John

You are on the right track John.
Have you compared it to rifles in Kennedy's Checkering & Carving? Sure has that look and I will be anticipating more definitive input than I can offer.

Thanks Steven. I did look at the rifles in the checkering book. There is some similarity in the cheek piece shape. All the rifles in the book are sporters so it made it a little hard to compare. I have not seen any other target rifles by Monte and really did not know if he made many of them or not. I also suspect that this rifle was made quite a bit later than when the book was published, so it is hard to say how his style changed.

John

John,

First some great photos. Second if you say Monte Kennedy I don't see any reason to disagree with that.

I have a couple of reprints of catalogs from a Apex in Sun Valley California back when Kennedy was stocking for them. The copies are not very good but you can still see the little curve at the bottom of the pistol grip on his checkering.

I'm not very knowledgeable about postwar makers and from what little I know it sure looks like Kennedy to me.

That gun sure would look nice with a set of Redfield Internationals, front and back. Is that nice little .22 for sale?

Kennedy or Leonard Mews. Very nice work and the tang work is inspired.

Does anyone have any pictures of other Kennedy stocks?

Eightbore. I have a set of redfields for it, but for match shooting I put a warner on it. I also just picked up a redfield 3200 that looks good on it. I'll likely hang onto this one. Just so hard to find well made target rifles, and it shoots pretty good to. 50 yards, prone, iron sights.

John

SWEET!
Just like the cap inlay...

Maybe I missed it, but what is the caliber? Sure does look good as a shooter.

Love the checkering too.

BrentD, it is a .22 LR. The Model 37 was Remingtons answer to the Winchester 52. When introduced in 1937 it was a better rifle than the 52 of the time and it really gained quite a following. Winchester was forced to make some changes to improve the 52, particularly the trigger, to remain competitive. These changes resulted in the 52C model which was the first with the micro-motion trigger. One interesting fact about the 37 is that there is not a single stamped part on the entire gun. And this includes the magazine.

John