Bill,

I read what you wrote about the rifle you made for King Carl XVI Gustaf and I was rather impressed.

I was wondering if you could go into more detail on the specifics of that rifle?

Thanks

Bill, I know you're out there....C'mon. lol

Jagermiester,

The receiver was a hand made double square bridge magnum Mauser with a 5 panel engraved bolt handle. Barrel length was 26" with full integral accoutrements, 1/4 rib, recoil lug, front ramp, front sight, 3 leaf dovetail island sight in 1/4 rib and barrel band chambered for .416 Remington Magnum. The stock was an excellent piece of English Walnut slightly warm in color with remarkable contrast, reasonably straight grained in the forearm with character beginning in the wrist and filling the buttstock. The entire stock was carved by hand and made slightly oversized. The action and barrel were 100% contact bedded. The finish consisted of about 40 coats of oil on a properly prepared surface. It was requested to be ended with a solid steel butt plate and 3 level grip cap. The bottom metal was drop style to hold 4 down. All exposed metal was to be covered 100% in highest quality scroll engraving except the barrel which was approximately 50% with minimal highlights of 24 carat gold.

I'm sure that I have left something out so I'll sleep on it and edit later.

Bill

Bill, a couple of years ago at SCI, I saw a number of your rifles (Granite Mountain barreled actions) that were stocked by Joseph Smithson. The work was absolutely beautiful in all respects. Is Smithson still doing any stockwork for you?

I'm interested in having a .416 Rigby built, but I want a non-engraved, working-grade rifle with open sights plus a pair of scopes in detachable rings. Could you give me a ballpark price for a rifle of that basic description?

AD

Thank you Bill. Interesting...

Allen,

Boy, time flies when you're having fun! It was 4 years ago when we started representing Granite Mountain and Mike Roden and 2 years ago when we had the double booth shared with Mike. We barreled the receivers while Mike had several well known stockmakers complete the projects of which Joseph Smithson was one. It was a banner year for Mike as far as sales were concerned. The following year (2000) Mike arranged to have his own booth.

Fred has always done most of his own stock work as it is something that he enjoys a great deal after working in metal so much. We have not had Joseph do any work for us but as I stated, Mike has. We will occasionally get some 2 piece stock work done by Wenig but only in semi finished form so that Fred can do the final fitting and finishing. Other than that we have some complete stocks made by Bob Szweda who is a terrific stockmaker and does wonderful checkering. He is located here in Prescott so it is very convenient for all concerned.
The rifles in Mike's part of the booth were all his projects with his Granite Mountain receivers.

For the other, I will e-mail you with some questions and information.

Thanks for asking about Joseph, he is truly a fine gentleman and craftsman.

Jagermiester,

We have a relative exact duplicate of this rifle that goes with us to SCI every year. We completed both rifles simultaneously just in case something untoward occurred in shipping. I would have e-mailed this except that you haven't listed an e-mail contact. One of these days I'll get a camera and post some photographs... There are some in Jon Speed's book about Oberndorf Mausers. For the record, Fred gets all the credit for building both rifles as I was not involved at all. Rachel, Fred's wife is a world class engraver and did all of the decorative work as well as doing the finish on the stocks.
Please feel free to e-mail me.

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Tompkins (edited 10-24-2001).]

Jagermiester,

I owe all of you an apology. I just took my own advise and checked the Speed book and find that my pea sized brain had mixed two rifles. That's what I get for getting near a computer after midnight.

Correction:
The King's rifle is a takedown cap action done in .375 H&H. The biggest difference is the cap action (photo pg. 427) which is designed to cover the edges of the stock so that it all reads as one surface. You can also see in the photo that the bolt handle inlet is integral with the receiver. All of the other information is correct. Again, I am sorry for the mistake.

Bill

Bill,

Thanks a lot for taking your time to respond to my post. I will email you though.

Thanks

"For Sweden, with the times."