doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com A question for all!

We had a similar thread a while back about a "Holy Grail" rifle. Opinions to a specific rifle will certainly differ.

At minimum, I think a "Holy Grail" candidate has to be a gun from a renown maker of the era, and a provenance to a renown owner. Engraving by a renown artist of the era, and a using gun as opposed to a commemorative would be a plus.

Most specific guns at the top of that pyramid are likely unobtainable now. But there are still examples a couple notches down with that same criteria.

My personal choice for a specific gun would likely be Jack O'Connor's .270 Mauser built by Alvin Linden. O'Connor shot more game with that rifle than any other he owned.

Grancel Fitz's Griffin & Howe custom Remington Model 30 would be another. Fitz killed all 25 (at the time) legal North American species of big game with that 30-06.

R.G. Owen custom on the Springfield 1903-- as made for his friend Captain Paul A. Curtis

Michael, very happy that you are well or getting well and back. My personal preferance would be the early Remington Model 30 also. I think it was one of the fastest handling bolt guns of that era and sleek looking. My other is any early Guild gun, bolt action single shot. I have one I love.
Mike

I like the question, just not sure I will like my answer. In my 20�s I decided I would collect Winchester lever actions, specifically rifles with the goal being one of each model from the 1873 on; hey I knew that by the time I could afford a Henry or 66, I still wouldn�t be able to afford one. LOL. Somehow, I managed to put together a nice representation of most models (no �76).

In my 30�s I was bitten with the caliber bug. I wanted something in every caliber I could get so I could �play� with each one. I tried to fill the major calibers, (.22, .25, 6.5. 7mm, 30 etc) from small to magnum. That has been an interesting ride even through to today.

Along the way, I won a Secretary of the Navy Trophy Rifle, a Remington 720, then I managed to find one of the first ones that made it to the civilian market and added a couple of nice Remington 30s to go with them. I recently had the opportunity to buy Remington M30 #10, but the condition was only fair and I just couldn�t see what purpose owning another M30 would serve.

Now in my later 60�s I find that I have been bitten by the custom rifle bug. At first, I just admired the works of many of the 50s � today's artists. I just could never figure out who or what I wanted from that bunch. Then I realized I was very happy with my Remingtons and some Savage 1920s I had and started looking at the earlier, pre WW II stuff. There I began to see craftsmanship for what it was. Work, mostly by hand, by talented individuals that had a sense of balance and purpose to it. So now I am getting my feet wet in the early sporter field. I started with a pair of early 1900�s Mausers, by O.G. Scherell and Sempert & Krieghoff. I like the way they feel and point, but they aren�t American. So the quest is to find a US made rifle or two. I think I may have succeeded with a custom stock Newton I picked up in Denver last month, but will need the help of you experienced folks to tell me winner or dud. I have it apart right now for cleaning and will take pictures as I put it together and post them for comment later.

This has been a long winded narrative to explain how I have gotten to this point and why my desired goals are the following. A nice NRA sporter, a Sedgley, and then something along the lines of a Hoffman, early G&H, Neidner or my Holy Grail, a Linden rifle. If along the way I should happen to come across the work of other talented smiths, I would be delighted, but the one desire I harbor is to be able to root these out by looking for them around the country, vice just buying them from a major dealer. Some will be by auctions, but others hopefully will be gun show and other sale finds. To me that is where the thrill is. BTW, I wouldn�t turn down the work of Tom Burgess or some of the other smiths of that era.

Thaine

I am pretty much with Eightbore on this, so here is what was almost the Holy Grail. H M Pope 7 x 57 barrel on a Mauser with S R Griffin stock, early Jaeger scope mount. Unfortunately Kornbrath was not in on the plan. Made for Todd Sloan who later managed G & H.

To me, the holy-grail in pre-war bolt rifles would be a Fred Adolph creation.

Sort of like eightbore, I HAD my holy grail: a pre-war double-trigger 7 X 57 Oberndorf liberated from a German baron's residence by a Canadian sergeant on the Dutch-German border, brought home by the regimental chaplain who sold it to me. I never got to use it. Gunsmith buggered mounting scope; broke my heart, practically gave it away it to a recluse in the hills who needed it more than me. (Making do with another performer, a CZ Brno 7mm bought new in 1952 with a much higher standard of craftmanship than those that followed.)

Ownership provenance adds immensely to a fine rifle (or shotgun). When two nearly equal fine rifles are compared, the one with provenance will almost always win out.

Yep, that would be my Holy Grail too.

When I first tried to answer this question I thought of talented makers whose output was small, men like Harvey Rodgers and Adolph Minar.

I thought about my own Holy Grail which would be Stewart Edward White's Wundhammer that he took to Africa. I have his other Wundhammer which might be more important in the scope of American custom makers.

I also thought about a few of the "fanciful" rifles that are thought to have been made like the Krag by Zischang.

In the end none of these were my recommendation. My pick was a rifle that in your lifetime you might only get to see a picture of one, if your lucky. They truly only come along once-in-a-lifetime.