I stopped by my gunsmith today to ask some questions about a German 16ga SxS I have, when we were done he asked if I had any interest in single shots. I replied that yes, I have become interested in them recently then he brought out the gun below. He had been asked to help clean out the guns from an old house and he has no interest in them so he made a gift of it to me.

I saw there was post here a while back inquiring about the way Mr. Gipson marked his work, but not much else. This gun is only marked V. Gipson on the barrel's left side, beneath the scope rail. No other marks by the caliber designation.

Michael, do you have some info you can paste here about Vernor Gipson, when he was active, what kind of work he did, etc. I'd like to know more about the man. Would he have only rebarreled this Enfield

BTW, it has a Browning Superposed buttplate and what's up with that pitch?

It has a Weaver 330 mounted on a rail and one of the crosshairs has a knot in it.













He also had some old scopes, does anyone recognize this one? It's 16" long, and 3/4"dia. It is brass under the black paint, the only mark on the scope is 5X but the fixed ring is marked Winchester and the adjustable ring has no marks other than the numbers 0-5-10-15 on the knobs. This one also has a know in one of the crosshairs, was this common in older scopes?







thanks, Rob

I have a Gipson and it is looks like it is marked with the same stamp.
Cheers,
Laurie

I know about Vernor Gipson because he went to the Niedner Rifle Corporation in the late 1930's. I was told that small towns were not his thing and Dowagiac was and is small. When he left Dowagiac (late 1940 or so)he moved to Chicago and teamed up with Hammer the barrel maker as Hammer & Gipson. After that he move to North-Salem Indiana. I saw his name now and then in the American Rifleman but never made an effort to compile any file on him. His rifles run along to the, for lack of a better word, utilitarian side of things. He did a lot of wildcat work and liked the Newton cartridges and seemed to have necked them up and down. I believe that he was the moving force behind the .400-Niedner which was nothing more then the .400-Newton with the Niedner name on them. Heck of a cartridge for a standard length action with a 300 grain bullet at 2700FPS.

The bottom scope is a Winchester scope found on rifles like the model-75 target and other inexpensive .22's. A collectors item more than a shooting item.

I've had several of the Winchester scopes like you show. Not an A5, it's a somewhat less expensive type that Winchester marketed before WW2 after selling the A5 rights to Lyman. It's basically a Wollensack with a Winchester name on it, if it's the sort that I had. A good low- to medium-priced scope for old single shot rifles IMO but not quite as clear or bright as a Lyman 5A or Unertl of the same period. It's described in Nick Stroebel's old scope book. Would be a perfect match for a low wall light sporter or light target rifle. The rings should have a pointed screw that fits into the target bases that have the small detent hole on the left side, not the ones with only the half-moon cut on the right. IMO it's more desirable than the scope on the Martini, by far.

Frequently old scopes have acquired a dust bunny on the reticle. It's possible that removing the eyepiece and blowing against the reticle with canned air will dislodge the dust particle, but please don't actually touch the reticle with anything other than possibly a camel's hair brush.

It's caveat emptor when dealing with these old scopes. Last week I bought a nice extremely early Unertl 6x 1" Target, my favorite Unertl model. I knew that it had a broken front ring-to-base clamp screw and I also knew that these early model Unertls required major disassembly for access to replace the screw and so this affected the price. The dealer hadn't spotted the broken screw and it took me a few minutes to find it, but I had been caught in the past so I thought I knew what to look for....

It ain't rocket science so I dived in and eventually replaced the broken screw after much weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth, but upon reassembly I discovered that the vertical crosshair was broken at the top. The hair had been vertical and appeared to be OK during the examination before the purchase, but apparently the dis- and re-assembly was enough to jar it sideways.

So now I need some 0.001" wire. Any sources?
Regards, Joe

Joe,
I purchased some scope wire from some one on one of the boards some time ago.
If I can find the contact information I will let you know. Not too hopeful but I may have it some place.
Cheers,
Laurie

Michael,

Thanks for the info about Gipps, you are on the money, the gun is "utilitarian". Would he have done just the metal work? I don't know much about Enfield of this type but I assume this is not standard military wood, a reworked stock perhaps?


Joe, the scope rings do not have the pointed screw you mention, rather they are clamp ons, look like they work with a rail. I'll try unscrewing the the eyepiece and using some canned air to see if it's a dust bunny but it sure does look like a knot.

I have one of those Martini-Enfields in the original military form. Gipson's stock is not a revamped military, which is a near-duplicate of the SMLE buttstock. SMLE buttstocks are completely interchangeable with that version of the Martini insofar as fit goes. There must be a hole drilled to allow the Martini lever to close completely, but that's all.

A Martini-Enfield with a decent .30-40 barrel is a NICE gift, "utilitarian" or no!

It certainly was, I'm lucky to be able to count the man who gave it to me among my friends.

Gipson was a wildcatter. He is mentioned in Fred Ness' "Practical Dope on the 22" and in Landis' books on "22 Caliber Varmint Rifles" and "Woodchucks and Woodchuck Rifles". Landis reported that Gipson was "president and co-owner of the Neidner Rifle Corporation". Is Landis correct?

About this time there were a lot of co-owners in the NRC how much Gipson had I've not been able to learn.

Joe, I used some canned air and blew some dirt out of the Winchester scope but there is definitely what looks like a knot in the vertical wire, much the same as on the Weaver. I can't believe someone could tie a knot in that wire, if they went through that trouble why not just replace the wire?

Don't know if I can get a picture but will try.

Rob

Many thanks, Laurie, it looks like maybe more than one of us will need that info!
Regards, Joe

Note the long eye relief on the 330. They could be mounted ahead of the bolt handle on 1903s and 1898s if you were a bit of a stock crawler. Ditto the first Weaver K2.5.

And all the Noskes of course.

Rob, I'm trying to figure out the pedigree of that Enfield Martini. The left side reciever markings are clear except for the date: is it 1908 or 1903?

It was a .303 artillery carbine action when converted to .30-40.

Can you show or mention the RIGHT side markings?

Mike, that's 1903, no marks at all on the right side.

The trigger guard is stamped 3 over 13, the lever has an upward pointing arrow, under that WD and under that 8 over 3.

BTW, JD was right about the scope on this one, dust bunny, not a knot. Some canned air took care of it. Still have what looks like a knot on the Winchester scope but must be some kind of dirt. Will have another look.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=139373831

Thanks, Rob. 1903 makes a lot more sense than 1908. I suspect that as the Lee Enfield became general issue all over the Empire, these Martinis became mainly the arms of colonial native paramilitary organizations: militia and police. A .303 Martini Enfield Artillery Carbine would have been a natural for a colonial police organization; many were so used, for a long time, all over the world.

Some of the Martini-Enfield AC IIs had an earlier life. Mine has right side markings dated 1893 and indicate that it was an infantry rifle, caliber unknown.

I have looked and can not find the contact for the wire. I will keep looking but it was a computer ago and hoped I had kept it.
Cheers,
Laurie

Thanks anyway, Laurie, I appreciate you trying! That's one of the finest things about this site, that is, the willingness to help without most of the bickering seen on other sites. Will try other sources.
Regards, Joe

J D, drop me a line and I can give you a phone number for a guy here in Oregon who has rebuilt a number of old external adjustment scopes for his collection of single shot target rifles. He must have a source for the wire.

tbuffum@bendbroadband.com

Did anyone come up with a source for scope wire?

Scope Reticle wire -
do a search on :
http://benchrest.com/forumdisplay.php?6-Centerfire-Benchrest


Look for posts by jackie schmidt .
I will update this when I find the posts.

Or make a new post myself on Br.com and put a link here.

Glenn

I just bought a Vernor Gipson Varmint rifle (https://www.gunbroker.com/item/743340134) on Gun Broker at a basically derisory price. Exactly what it is chambered in is a bit uncertain.

Wow. Great buy.

Probably chambered for the .22 Varminter cartridge, but not marked as such because Jerry Gebby had the nomenclature locked up. I have never seen a rifle not barreled or built by Gebby marked ".22 Varminter".

Eightbore is dead right. C.S. Landis, "Woodchucks and Woodchuck Rifles," 1951, p. 309:

"the .220-250 Gipson will use the .22 Varminter ammunition made up by the late J.B. Smith, and the rifle is chambered to much the same dimensions as the Varminter."

I assume, right now, that the J.B. Smith .22 Varminter is the same as the Gebby and therefore the same as the .22-250 Remington.

The mounts seem to be set up for a standard scope, not a long Unertl/Lyman/Fecker type scope. I wonder what would be an appropriate period Varmint-type scope.

One possibility would be a Unertl Vulture internal adjustment scope, available in 8X or 10X. A Buehler Micro-Dial mount would be most appropriate for it, since the reticle is non-centered.

I have one on my early Winchester Model 70 .220 Swift.

The bases seem to be cheap Weaver aluminum products. Are there any holes drilled in the barrel for front target bases? If so, I would guess that the rear holes in the GB pictures may be suitable for rear target bases. I have had Gebby Varminters and other pre factory 22-250 guns and have shot commercial 22-250 ammunition in all of them. I have not fired my present Gebby Varminter built by John Oberlies, but plan to fire it this year. It has had its target bases removed by some idiot and it now has a nice Leupold on it. I would like to restore it to original with a Unertl target scope but have too many irons heating up.

I won't be getting the rifle until next week, so I can't tell about base holes forward in the barrel yet.