doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com An old mystery with some new answers.

Griffin & Howe routinely reshaped the trigger guard bow on Springfields and reshaped the tang of the receiver to more closely resemble that of a Mauser.

Making a little headway, going very slow.

John Logan Hutton
Born December 7th 1896 Lochwinnoch, Scotland
Arrived in the USA (New York) November 9th 1920
1940: Wife, Catherine Hutton
1942: Address, 1720 Barton Street Arlington, VA

...hardly an amateur.
And a clear message; look under the action, and buttplate!
Great thread!

For those with a further interest in Mr. Hutton there are rifles pictured in "Mister Rifleman" that he did for Townsend Whelen.

Hopefully more will come to light that we can study.

National Target is still in business up the road from me in Frederick, MD. I don't know when they left my boyhood home of Rockville, MD where they operated for many years. As I recall, there was a time when National Target and Parker-Whelen shared an address. I'm not sure of that. National Target would have had a hard time working out of the little shop on 14th Street N.W. National Target advertises that they started in 1942. One of Parker-Whelen's long time employees, Herman Proctor, worked for my Dad in the forties. Herman was also the competition committee chairman at my gun club, National Capital Skeet and Trap. He later went to work for the famous Fred Davis at Davis Gun Shop in Falls Church, VA. I first met Herman in 1958 when my Dad took me to Fred's shop to find me a pheasant gun. I found out more about Herman's illustrious career in the gun business years later. Bill Murphy

Thanks Bill, I'm trying to put together the years of National and Parker-Whelen.

It would be great if we could find anyone who had some knowledge of Hutton's history.

When he arrived in New York in 1920 his destination was Kearny, NJ. A lot of missing years for a trained gunmaker.

I think I read somewhere that Hutton was trained as a cabinet maker.Going by memory but I'm pretty sure of it.

MP, no one could want to find out more about Parker-Whelen and National Target and the gunsmiths than I would. When I was a preteen in the mid fifties, I walked up and down 14th Street, visiting gun stores and pawn shops and had no idea of the history I was living. Unfortunately, I have no more to add. I do own the Parker Brothers try gun that Colonel Whelen and his gunsmiths used to fit shotguns (and probably rifles) at the PW shop, but that is about it. I obtained that great trophy years after Parker-Whelen closed from a gunsmith who had never been in the PW shop.

eightbore,
I've got a National Target catalog dated 1938-39. It has a picture of the middle rifle that Michael has posted so they must have been in business prior to 42'. I wonder how many custom rifles they actually produced and does anybody know what happened to them after the war??

Here is one part of the puzzle just received. We can thank Townsend Bowling for it.