Ross King is in Vol II and one of his rifles with a Pope barrel will be in Vol III.
Here is a preview of Vol II, not to be confused with the King people of King-Sight fame.
Roscoe Charles King:
Roscoe Charles (Ross) King was born in Ohio on June 22nd 1872, to Daniel R. Ross and Sarah (Perry) Ross. It took me a while to learn his real name since he used both “Ross King” & “Charles R. King”. As far I know he never used the name Roscoe. By 1880 he and the family were located in Fort Dodge, Iowa. In 1888 at the age of sixteen he apprenticed to a gunsmith by the name of W.L. Pray, at Fort Dodge and worked for him for about four years. In 1893 Ross King spent a hitch in the 1st US Cavalry and went to Fort Grant, Arizona. After that he did gunsmithing until the outbreak of the Spanish American War when enlisted in the 52nd Iowa. After the war he traveled around a lot, ran a shop in Oregon and later at San Bernardino, California. His last shop which he sold out to go to work for Wundhammer was located at Alhambra, CA. He worked for Ludwig Wundhammer in Los Angeles, for five years (circa 1910-1915) then started his own shop and when Wundhammer died in 1919 Ross King bought the Wundhammer shop and continued to make custom rifles in the Wundhammer style.
Edward C. Crossman has this to say about King,
“It may be of interest to your readers to know that my old friend Ludwig Wundhammer left a worthy successor in the person of Ross C. King, who worked with him and who bought out the business from Mrs. Wundhammer.
I am familiar with Mr. King’s work, and believe that he’s got both the skill and the good taste of Wundhammer put into his rifle stocks and other work for the discriminating sportsman.”
Townsend Whelen says about King,
“Mr. Ludwig Wundhammer of Los Angeles was perhaps the most celebrated of all the remodellers of rifles on the American type. When he died two years ago, Mr. King, formerly his assistant, took over his work, and is continuing it on the same lines with the great satisfaction to all his customers.”
Although Wundhammer’s name is remembered today for the palm or “Wundhammer Swell” found on some modern guns, Ross King has all but been forgotten. Ross King is not even a footnote in the history of gunmaking, he is not listed in any book on American gunsmiths. Ross King did move to Oregon for a while, sold his shop there and moved back to California but I have no firm information on the dates.
Ross King had this to say about the development of the Wundhammer stock in a letter to Major General F. C. Ainsworth.
“I started to work for Mr. Wundhammer at the time that he first began to make sporting rifles from Springfields. I saw the first rifle he made, and it was very unlike the ones he turned out later on. Captain Crossman used to come into his shop nearly every day, and put in from an hour to two or three hours giving Mr. Wundhammer the benefit of his experience. He suggested many improvements in the shape of the stock. Mr. Wundhammer followed out these suggestions, and being a fine and painstaking workman, he turned out the best shaped and best fitting stock of all the gunsmiths.
“All this is for the purpose of placing the credit for a ‘Wundhammer Sporter’ where it belongs. Captain Crossman has never received the credit for it, and I do not believe that he really cared just so he could get some gunsmith to build it right so that the American rifleman could have the best rifle in the world. I think that Captain Crossman deserves a lot of praise for the wonderful work that he is accomplishing.”
Identifying A Ross King:
As Wundhammer did before him, Ross King did not mark his early work. I have a report of a circa 1930’s Springfield stamped “Ross C. King” under the buttplate. King reshaped the rear tang identical to Wundhammer but did not bevel the front receiver ring. King checkered the trigger, the underside of the bolt and the safety but with a much coarser checkering than Wundhammer. The checkering layout and design are the same as Wundhammer used with the same schnabel. He also used Ross Rifle Company barrel band sling swivels. The rifle pictured has a Ross band and Winchester swivel bases. The pistol grip checkering follows the contour of the grip as did Wundhammer’s. Please keep in mind that I have looked at pictures of two Ross King rifles and examined one. I’m at the same place with King research as I was twelve years ago with Wundhammer. If you think that you have found a Wundhammer rifle and the rifle is from after 1919, congratulations, you have found a Ross King.
