You are correct mc. Tom Ondrus was also selling barreled action kits around 2003, and he was advertising them in Shotgun News. I bought one in .45-70 and went to his business, Cable Tool Co. in Austinburg, Ohio to pick it up. We spent a couple hours B.S.-ing and he told me much of the story of the Wickliffe 76. He had acquired the leftover inventory of the defunct Triple S Development Co., which built the Wickliffe 76 rifles, from the estate of a guy named Ed Medves. Mr. Medves was a gunsmith, and I think he may have had something to do with the original design of the action. When I was there, Tom had many buckets and boxes of action castings, parts, barrels, etc. and was sending small batches of actions out to the original heat treating company to have them treated. He also had a local gunsmith who was threading, chambering, and installing barrels. They made a few complete rifles, and he was selling the rest as kits.
I wish I had bought more than one because they were very reasonably priced, $215.00 for .45-70 as I recall, and even less for calibers like .270, 7 m/m Mag., or .30-06. He had already sold much of the OEM stock when I was there, and he told me he had contacted the company that originally investment cast the actions, and he planned to resume production. He was also going to produce a version with action tangs so target shooters could install vernier tang sights. As I recall, there were only about 2400 complete rifles built by Triple S Development before they went out of business. I won't swear to it, but I seem to remember that he had acquired unfinished parts for another 300-400 rifles. There was very little wood, and he told me he was negotiating with Bishop to make new stocks. I know Bishop made stocks for the original rifles, and I think he said Fajen also made some as well.
I'm not sure what transpired after that. I know Tom Ondrus got very sick, and the last time I saw him was at a gun show, and he was in a wheelchair. For years, he was a fixture at PGCA shows. He also had a sideline of parts like ribs, barrel blanks, stock blanks, quarter-rib sight bases, etc. for double rifle conversions. I've heard there were disputes over rights to the Wickliffe 76 name, and problems with being licensed to manufacture firearms. Last I heard, some gunsmith in Southwestern Pennsylvania bought up what Tom Ondrus had when he died, and he was hoping to resume production, but that was about 8-10 years ago.
