doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Can you identify the stockmaker

A friend of mine, not good at the posting stuff, recently acquired this rifle. There are no makers marks on the stock anywhere. The barrel maker you can see in the one pic and and is dated 1957.The cheekpiece treatment is quite unique and I have never seen anything like it before. Checkering is very good quality and done by somebody who knew what they were doing. The wrap around on the pistol grip tells that story. The action is a FN Mauser and chambered in 300 H&H
Let us know what you think and who the stock maker may be.

The forend tip looks like some I've seen on SR Griffins work, but the similarity to his stocks ends there. If I had to name a known stocker it would be Linden. The checkering quality, amount (a lot), zig zags in the leading and trailing edges of the pattern, and especially the way it comes together in the front of the grip remind me of Linden. Didn't he call his treatment of the front of the grip "Cord checkering"? Not sure after that. The wood looks pretty nice for Linden and the cheekpiece looks like a later style, but Linden would be my closest guess.

I am attaching more pics of the details. As you can see the stockmaker had some skills. My friend, Rick who owns the rifle, believes that at sometime the stock was cut and the pad fitted. If the stock had been marked in the back it is gone now.
Does anyone know how Linden marked his work>

I can't help with id, but that IMHO is what inletting should look like. The checkering pattern, mineral streaking and stock design really come together for a striking combination. There are features I'm not so sure about, but overall it is an interesting piece that grows on me every time I look at it.

Thaine

Hey Lynn

I owe you some stuff and will try to get things squared away soon. I am sorry but it has been a stupid year, please forgive me. In the meantime, today, I was reading Roy Dunlap's book
and he shows a couple of Sukalle barreled actions, two
in stocks made by John Hearn, one by Tom Shelhamer. The book
is copyrighted 1950 and he wrote that Shelhamer was still doing
Schnabel forend tips as if they were a thing of the past.
Harvey Rogers was well known for running his checkering around the edge of the cheekpiece. Here is a link to an example.

Rogers

It kind of looks, like someone liked something from this guy
and something from that guy and something from another guy, so my vote is for Shelhamer.

Fred

I do not think Shelhamer would have accepted the job if someone asked him to do something like that. The inletting looks remarkably good compared to the outside of the stock. While it does have some Linden features, his inletting is not that good as a rule. It really looks like a 50's gun, and Linden would have been gone by then. You may be able to get a clue by looking at the custom gun section in the Gun Digest books. Anyone know when Sukalle began making barrels?

John

Is it just me, does it look like it once had a stock shield,
that is now replaced with a piece of wood?

Is the stock oval just covered in a layer of finish?

John is right, Linden never inletted anything that well. I've heard his work described as having been inlet "with a hatchet".

I think I remember reading that Sukalle started in 1930.

Good call on the Custom section of gun digest. I can't help but think this a known maker. It's just too well executed. Style is a little personal, but execution is first rate. I keep going back to the leading edge of the cheekpiece. It's unique and should be a good clue.

My uncle has a very similar stock design done by Paul Jaeger.

Just a thought.

H

The shield is silver and tarnished and yellowed over the years for whatever reason.
The gun is dated 1957.
A clue maybe contained in an article in a 1950's AR magazine which featured the barrel maker. Anyone have a copy?

The Paul Jaeger thought is interesting for sure