Jack Haugh is a topclass smith with who does not suffer fools gladly. He has built two rifles for me and worked on others. One rifle was a failure through my own fault in not being clear on what I wanted. It was a 44 1/2 Stevens with a loop lever and single trigger. Years back I bought a tapered octagon barrel with matted top flat, .30 1-12 twist, and had it installed as a 26" .30-30. I no longer recall who made the barrel, may have been from Flaig's, or who fitted it. I had a Lyman 144 windage tang sight and the front ramp, with a Sourdough, was integral with the barrel. I had been introduce to Jack by New Jersey gun conoisseur Emil McConnell. I told Jack I wanted a deer rifle and that is all I said. This was a mistake. Jack produced a typical Brit Farquharson which by magic had a Stevens action in the middle of it. Tiny forend, very open pistol grip, lots of drop, absolutely first class workmanship, I didn't like it and soon sold the rifle, the buyer was happy. This did not sour me on Jack and he made a new extractor for a prewar Mauser .22 and reworked a Harry Luft 52 sporter, installing a Mannlicher Schoenauer buttplate with space under the trap for a ten shot .22 clip. His last job was a .30-40 on a Westley Richards 1897 tang safety ejector action which I had purchased from Weller and Dufty in the UK as a shot out .303. The action was plain but the wood was nice, so we retained the buttstock and Jack, demonstrating his versatility, put openwork scroll panels on the receiver sides. He described himself as a "first class second rate engraver" but he is a sight better than that. The barrel is round, 26", 1-10, front sight is the complex deluxe W/R with folding hood and popup ivory bead, there is a quarter rib with single folding Lyman open sight - I didn't care for the usual parade of vari-ranged leaves and the Lyman has elevation adjustment. The 'scope is an Alaskan in the very rare G&H separated top rings. I felt the rib was too high and sent it back to Jack who lowered it to my liking. The forend is of decent size and the whole outfit is, more or less, a perfect single shot for anything up to elk, if you use the 220 grain. I still have the last three rifles and have not sent anything to Jack in years simply out of feeling that one rifle per top smith is enough ..... unless they are G&H.
