It's complicated.....I first saw the cased 1903 with the cased Mauser beside it at Vegas. They were both priced out of comfort zone. I worked with the dealer and the owner at the time and only three years later I was able to buy the pictured cased Gibbs 1903.
The Mauser was nice but twice the price of the 1903 which I wanted a lot worse than the Mauser.
After tracking down the family of the original owner who had a lot of rifles made by Gibbs I acquired a couple of photo albums and correspondence of his.
Turns out he was friends with both Crossman and Whelen, there are a half-hundred Whelen letters. The two photo albums are full of pictures of custom sporters sent by both Crossman and Whelen. The half-Oct 1903 is one of the rifles pictured, whereabouts unknown.
Like the Niedner photo albums, these albums have given me a lot of things to look for.
