I've been thinking a lot about the differing ethe--or aesthetics--the criteria by which rifles are judged.

The rifle I most recently posted--"Our Shop Built This Rifle"--is by the standards by which this genre--Palma Rifles--are judged, as good as they come.

It wins matches.

Still, our contribution was small compared to the kind of tours de force commonly posted by Duane, Terry, et al.

We put a great barrel on a great action and bolted it into a vee block in a great stock.

The rifle posted here doesn't look anything like the rifles that Duane and Terry, et al, post, but it's another at the top of its genre.



We imported five Popes and Pope-Stevens last year. I didn't see them all, but I presume this was the fanciest of the lot.

In terms of handwork, I presume it has much more in common with the custom rifles most often posted here than our Barnard.

But it is still a target rifle.

All of this was prompted by a link that Ken posted on the Sporterizing forum:

Harry Pope Story


Perhaps Michael Petrov can tell us whether it's a Pope or Pope-Stevens?

flaco

N.B. It looks like the person responsible for shipping has taped a small accessory to the barrel.

Please don't ever do this.

Now that is just cool, I like to see these ol history peices as much as I like the modern guns! Thanks for posting.

This is one darn nice work of art...can you post additional pictures? Close ups?

Reminds me of fine cigars and splendid brandy..

That's a pretty fancy schuetzen rifle by any standards. Can you tell me who made the stock? The first rifles made by Pope are marked "Rifled By H. M. Pope Hartford, Conn" or just "H.M. Pope Hartford Conn" when he worked for Stevens they were marked "Stevens-Pope" and his later Jersey City rifles are marked "H.M.Pope". Is the Pope name anywhere on the barrel? Pope rebarreled about every make of SS there was. The rifle pictured is built on a Stevens 44 1/2 action.

My Hartford Pope-Ballard .33-40 stocked by Albert Kessel who worked for William Schaefer in Boston as well as stocking guns for Dan Lefever.

I don't have any more images, Duane, but may be able to go back to the hi-res original, crop differently, and bring up some detail.

As I mentioned, we imported this rifle, and the others that accompanied it, for a client. They were part of a larger shipment of mainly rimfire--Anschuetz, BSA, Walther, etc.--target rifles.

I didn't spend much time looking at these, although I'm pretty certain I remember some being listed as Popes.

They're all, however, in my book as Stevens.

I loved the Harry Pope story I linked to.

What a character.

Thanks for your input, Michael.

flaco

There's a Scheutzen Park in North Bergen, New Jersey, a short distance up the Hudson from Jersey City; while working in that area I often wondered if the rifle matches and Pope were there in the same time frame.

http://www.volksfest.org/Directions.htm

I would just like to thank you for posting this and posting the link to the H.W. Pope article.
That article had a reference to a book in it that I have been trying to track down for some time.
Seems that the title was either conveyed to me incorrectly or I recalled it incorrectly But either was I can know look for a copy of the bullets flight and quit looking for flight of the bullet
I did find a e copy on google books but I want a tangible copy

quote:

Originally posted by kcstott:
I would just like to thank you for posting this and posting the link to the H.W. Pope article.
That article had a reference to a book in it that I have been trying to track down for some time.
Seems that the title was either conveyed to me incorrectly or I recalled it incorrectly But either was I can know look for a copy of the bullets flight and quit looking for flight of the bullet
I did find a e copy on google books but I want a tangible copy

I gave a copy to my father-in-law; I believe the margins have notes written by Pope in them.

..."The Shooting Gibraltar"- much simpler times.

quote:

Originally posted by tin can:..."The Shooting Gibraltar"- much simpler times.

Mr. Niedner at the Gibraltar.

For kcstott:

Not only can you find that book, you can have it for free! Google has been scanning books that are in the public domain, here is the link:

http://books.google.com/books?...ets%20Flight&f=false

Copy that whole thing into your browser address window and you should get to their page for this book. Then if you click on pdf to in the upper right corner it should download a file readable on most modern computers. If you don't already have it installed you will need the free Adobe Acrobat reader software to view the book. Enjoy!

Yeah I found that and downloaded it but I like the real deal when it's that many pages. I can only read so much on the computer screen.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Petrov:

quote:

Originally posted by tin can:..."The Shooting Gibraltar"- much simpler times.

Mr. Niedner at the Gibraltar.

IIRC, the guys even sent bullets head-on into other bullets (stationary, I presume) to see what would happen; reminded me that at heart, most of us boys will never quite grow up

Great article. Thanks for posting it.

Pope's delivery terms (from the article):

"NO DELIVERY PROMISED. TAKE YOUR WORK WHEN DONE OR TAKE IT ELSEWHERE. IF YOU MUST KNOW WHEN I WILL BE THROUGH WITH YOUR WORK THE ANSWER IS NOW. TAKE YOUR WORK AWAY. I DON'T WANT IT. I HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING WHEN I WILL BE THROUGH. I WORK ELEVEN HOURS A DAY. DAILY INTERRUPTIONS AVERAGE ONE AND ONE-HALF HOURS. DARK WEATHER SETS ME BACK STILL MORE. THERE IS BUT ONE OF ME. I'M HUMAN AND I'M TIRED. I REFUSE TO LONGER BE WORRIED BY PROMISES THAT CIRCUMSTANCES DO NOT ALLOW ME TO KEEP. YOU'RE A LONG TIME DEAD. IT IS TIME TO BEGIN TO LIVE."

If anyone is wondering what that thing in the picture is it's Dr. Mann's Chronograph. The electric motor power is from the batteries and it was found to be very accurate.

I was embarrassed to ask, Michael!!!
Best,
Steve

I built one like that years ago it was in the Popular Mechanics do it your self books
The only difference was that mine was a paper covered drum.
Same concept, hit two rotating surfaces a given distance apart you know the speed of the rotation so you can then calculate time over distance = FPS
I shortly there after acquired a Chrony

PS If they had never invented a sky screen I'd bet they would have some calibrated paper you could only get from the manufacturer

The rotary chronograph was a popular do-it-yourself project for decades. I believe that the American Rifleman published at least two articles on them.

A sporting Pope rifle (Jersey City) that's not often seen. Circa 1920's Ross King, Los Angeles rifle with Pope barrel in caliber 30-06.

googled:

"The C.W. Rowland Ballard Pope Schuetzen Rifle. This was Rowland’s favorite rifle and is considered by astute authorities on the subject, who have handled and are familiar with the rifle, to be the “32 Pope” Rowland used to shoot the 1901 Record Target."

http://www.amoskeag-auction.com/64/30.html

worth some time:

http://www.amoskeag-auction.com/64/auction64.html

Doing da bump for a worthwhile thread!