I recently got a maple stocked 22 sporter with some neat features. Fred will be along to post some photos for me. I would like some opinions as to who may have made the rifle, I have my own idea but wonder what you all think.

Dan

First off, Happy 4th of July everyone and a big thank you to those of you who have helped to keep this country free.

Here are the pictures from Dan. I hope I remember how to upload images, it has been a while.

Dan,
Whenever I see a maple stock, I think "Hal Hartley".
Mike

Mike,

It's definitely not by Hal Hartley, he usually marked his in the barrel channel. Plus I think he only did the stock work, not metal work.

Dan

With the custom metal work involved with the safety and the closeups of good work that is outside “the style”, I’m going to guess James Howe. Diamond inlays, “swamped” sides on the front ramp, and somewhat unusual checkering are my other clues. Am I close?

Bryndon,

That's who I think made the rifle, another clue in my mind is the dished cheek piece. Only one of my Howe rifles doesn't have the dished cheek piece.

Dan

Well, for what it is worth, I think it is a Howe as well. But here is a question, do you ever look at Howe's rifles and
then read his chapter on stock finishing and think "I bet he used this formula?" Right now, I am finishing a maple stock for a
flintlock kit that I am building with and for my son. I've been using Howe's formula #1 and I wonder how similar my stock will look
to this stock when I am done.

I'm not good at all at matching build features to a particular gunsmith.
But I have to say I wouldn't think that the wood work and especially the checkering & diamond inlays would be anything I'd think were done by a 'Master'.

The Single Set Trigger is an interesting feature.

What's going on at the back corner of the trigger guard tang? Is is a mistake made at the time of construction, or maybe a repair?

It just looks like checkering overruns when looking in person. There are some more on the back end of the forearm pattern.

Kutter,

Howe was a master of metalwork, not sure anyone thought of him as a master of woodwork. Griffin was the master of woodwork.

OK thank you for that info.

I'll take your experienced word that Jas Howe is a good candidate for having done the metal work. That part looks good and has some interesting features.
But that stock just doesn't look like it was orig to the rifle to me. Looks amateur-ish.

...Was J Howe that bad of a stock guy?

A later restock perhaps by an unkn?
What little of the wood we can see especially the cheek piece looks like a lot of first attempts IMO.
An off center stock nose and way over size at that.

The scalloped cheek piece wouldn't be needed here if the wood had been trimmed down to a decent dimension in the first place.
Checkering looks ametuerish. It's a 'point pattern',,but was done as a 'Fill In' pattern. So the lines of checkering do not always form the border lines.
Diamonds aren't diamonds. Aspect is close to a square.
Run overs galore, Crossed/jumped lines. and those colored diamond inlays. I's almost guess from the looks of the checkering (and maybe the inlays) that that work was very recent.

No finish in the checkering, or old oil, dirt etc. Might be just the pic though Maple is very pale when uncolored and fresh cut w/ no stain, finish or oil on it.
Really on a early classic American stock?

What am I missing.

Not knocking the rifle,,just can't figure out a complete connection to an Classic American Custom rifle,,metal work and the stock work together as one piece.

Any thoughts on what scope mount the base might be for? It's along the same lines as the Noske and Griffin & Howe, but has no visible means of securing the upper half fore and aft. I'd like to see a side view of it.

All my Hal Hartley bolt action stocks were walnut, for which I supplied the blank.[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/alb...?width=960&height=720&fit=bounds[/img]

The scope mount is shown in Howe's Vol 2 page 267, figure 110 and it is a Niedner. Although it is different than my Niedner rifle with a Niedner scope mount and base on it so there must be at least two different Niedner scope mounts. Neither of them have a locking method for fore and aft but they do have a stop for when it's fully on the base and then just clamps tight.