Anything Pope said about Stevens has to be tainted by his bad repoir with the company he worked for. He left on very poor terms and never had anything good to say about them.
As for his comments on Winchester, they too are slightly tainted by his wonderful relationship with Winchester, and their willingness to sell him just about anything he ordered in any configuration he wanted. One of the only companies who would sell Pope bored and unrifled barrels, and even complete guns with nothing but a hole down the bore for Harry to finish later.
But although Pope did indeed switch to Winchester 1885, evidence shows he built far more barrels for Ballard rifles than he did for all the others combined. So Harry may have chosen Winchester 1885's, but his customers greatly favored the Marlin Ballard.
