rifle which had been made for President Nixon to present to Premier Leonid Brezhnev of Russia. The engraving was gaudy and underneath it was a Mossberg rifle. Clearly the person who ordered it had no concept of what constituted a desirable firearm.
Maybe the person that ordered it knew EXACTLY what he was doing. After all, it was for Brezhnev in the 1970s...
That rifle was made up by & marked 'Pedersen Custom Gun Co.',,which was a sub of Mossberg in North haven Ct.
The rifle was made up to present to Nixon,,to present to Brezhnev upon his visit to the WH.
All to garner publicity for Pedersen as the NSGA Show (Later to be the SHOT Show)in Chicago was coming up.
Pedersen was showing it's guns for the first time there (Early 1972 I think it was,,but it was a long time ago now)
Their hi-power rifles were made on the Mossberg 810.
Seems like the Brezhnev rifle was in 7mmMag, but maybe 338. Can't remember now.
It was engraved by Ralph Alpen. Typical 70's look. The stock(s) were done in the shop,,precarved first by Wysowski Bros (sp),,a local CT supplier. I think I even still have a reject still in the rafters, beautiful figure,,but what to do with it.
Rosewood tip and grip cap originally,,those were band sawed off,,must have been mighty valuable wood back then for some reason!.
Pantographed Pedersen logo 'P' in the cap (on the catalog models,,maybe Leonid's had brass initials in it. M/C cheekpiece was standard.
Finishing, checkering done in the shop. I think Mildred Arthur did the checkering,,maybe her husband Harold did.
They worked together there doing checkering and carving. They had a freelanse business doing the same for the gun industry and had done so since WW2. Harold had worked for Winchester in the 'wood room' prior to that.
Alpen worked 'in house' by then along with Engraver Geo. B. Spring (the elder) and a few engraving apprentices. One was the very young niece of the Kusmit Bros. of the Winchester Custom Shop.
Polishing & fitting done in the Pederson shop,,Mossberg factory hot blue tanks were taken advantage of to do the hot blue. Rust blue was done in the Pedersen shop which was in a separate building on the Mossberg factory grounds behind the main plant.
More than you ever wanted to know about Leo Brezhnev's rifle and Pedersen Custom Gun
...still wouldn't trade my Sedgley for it...
