doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Stockmaker John L. Hutton, follow-up.

Howdy gents. In trying to post a pic according to the instructions on the FAQ page in my last reply of today, I could find no "File Manager" link on the "Full Reply" or "New Post" page. Going by the info up near the top of the FAQ page for adding a pic, all it seemed to do was post the link, but if you click on it , it will take you where you want to go.

Here is the rest of what info I have put together regarding John L. Hutton. The info is also on my FLICKR web site, along with over 150 photos of the stock, rifle and shortened Model 70 action this stock is fitted too, but is likely to be easier for you to read about here.

I'll post the link to the photos first: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cgm-gunstockcheckering/sets/72157692997236912


Now the info:
John L. Hutton (4-2018)

I recently got this unusual, one-of-a-kind, Winchester Model 70 .220 Swift with a �Hutton� custom stock from my dad. He purchased it from John Hutton�s wife, Catherine, sometime soon after John had passed away early in 1965, so it�s been in my family for a while. The Hutton�s were our next door neighbors when I grew up as a kid in Boulder, CO. I was born in 1949 and my dad built our house at 811 Hawthorne Ave. and finished it in 1952. The Hutton�s house was built next door at 803 Hawthorne Ave. in 1958, and since my dad and I can�t remember anyone else ever living there other than John and Catherine, so I will assume that they were our neighbors since that time. The National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology � aka NIST) opened a new facility in Boulder in 1954, and John was transferred to Boulder from the main NBS facility in the Washington, D.C. area where he had been working. He was the supervisor of the machine shop at NBS Boulder. So, when the Hutton�s actually moved to Boulder is unknown to me, but it was likely to have been sometime between 1954 and 1958. Catherine Hutton passed away in 1982.

My father remembers that John had told him that once he had previously been a furniture maker and that his specialty had been the making of �Queen Ann� legs for chairs. Whether that had been in Scotland or here in the U.S., or both, is unknown. John was a rather portly gentleman when I knew him growing up, and Catherine had told my brother and I that despite how he looked then, John evidently had been quite a good rugby player back in Scotland during his younger years. I can remember John often speaking of Col. Townsend Whelen in conversations he and my dad often had about various rifles. I had always been under the impression that John had apprenticed as a stock maker back in Scotland, but that may not be the case. I am fortunate to been given have John�s checkering cradle, some of his stock making tools, his wooden tool box (which he told me he made once he finished his stock making apprenticeship) and some of his gun books. Every year at Christmas, Catherine made our family a box of homemade Scottish shortbread � the very best melt-in-your-mouth shortbread that you could imagine!!!! I can remember seeing John often sitting out on his backyard flagstone patio (that my brother and I re-grouted one summer) on most pleasant Colorado evenings in an Adirondack chair sipping an ice-cold high-ball.

What makes this rifle a little out of the ordinary is that the action has been shortened by ��. The front-to-rear trigger guard screw spacing is 6-3/4�, rather than the normal 7-1/2� for a standard pre-64 Model 70. That means the bolt, the follower, the magazine box and the floor plate all had to be shortened or remade shorter as well, (see relative photos), which would have been no small task. I have had others familiar with welding look at this action, and the conclusion is that it was expertly done. My brother said he remembered hearing that this work was done by the Winchester Custom Shop, but that is news to me. I know of no way to verify who actually did this metal work or when it was done.

According to the action�s serial number, 21312, which indicates a 1938 date of manufacture (according to WACA and BlueBook/Fjestad) or 1939 (according to G. Madis - 1of1000). From what I can gather on-line, the barrel stamp 42 indicates that the barrel was made in 1942, (see relative photos). This would indicate to me that the action work was done after 1938/9 and the barrel could not have been put on this action prior to 1942. The stock was made specifically to fit this short action, but not necessarily this barrel. If you look at the photos showing the �Hutton� stamp inside the stock behind the recoil lug, you can see where a block of wood has been expertly inset/inletted into the stock along both sides of and under the barrel�s chamber area. This would seem to indicate that at one time maybe a barrel with a larger chamber diameter was originally fitted to this action and stock, and that possibly this action originally sported another barrel of some sort.

This .220 Swift barrel is 25-5/16� long, 1.140� in diameter at the action face and 0.582� in diameter at the muzzle. It is 4-1/4� from the action face to the center of the barrel boss, which seems to match with another standard Model 70 stock I slipped these action components into for comparison, (see relative photos). I have attempted to document this rifle and stock with many photos, some of which may be redundant, taken over several sessions. During disassembly, I cleaned and oiled the metal works and I applied Kramer�s Antique Improver to clean and add moisture to the dry original stock finish.

The 8X Unertl scope pictured was purchased new by John in the early 1960�s, for $90. He originally put it on a different rifle that I was purchasing from him (using an informal time payment plan) at that time for $90, (he gave me the rifle and sold me the scope). This was an 1898 Krag with an R.F. Sedgley barrel chambered in what was a pretty new round at the time it was made, the .219 Zipper. I was told that the stock had been made by one of John�s friends, a Col. Eddie Brown and sported 12 LPI checkering, for a good grasp! The barrel has a 1-16� twist, so accuracy is hit-or-miss with anything over 50 grain bullets.

As far as I can recall, my dad may have only taken this Hutton stocked .220 Swift rifle out and fired it on one occasion, when I was in my later teens. Now, I just look forward to when I can find the time to take it out and shoot it myself!


I'd welcome any comments or speculations about this rifle that any of you may wish to make. Thanks for reading through all this!
Clint