I awoke this morning to seven emails of congratulations so I guess more people were watching this than I thought. The rifle first showed up over a month ago, bidding went way beyond what I thought the rifle was worth but the high bidder did not pay for it. The owner quickly tripled his starting price and got no bids, I kept watching and after he got more realistic, I bid. I also wish to thank all the folks who wrote me about the rifle and did not bid
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http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=147223751
Sweet rifle and congrats.
Art
Michael, it will be interesting to find out where those actions came from ..... did Hoffman make them or were they imported? Have always wondered.
According to all information I have they were made by Hoffman. It will be a week or two before it makes it way to Alaska so I might learn more then. This rifle needs a lot of work, both the front and rear sights are missing, the stock is broken and possible the lower tang is bent, and the lever is bent in the middle. I guess this will be my next restoration project.
Michael, great find, and a very neat project rifle! Keep us posted as the restoration progresses.
Greg
Congratulations on a rare find! This rifle is certainly worth restoring and seems an ideal candidate for your efforts. When you get the thing I would like to see more pictures of the action bits, it is a new one to me.
Zowie! I thought I was up on American single shots, but I find I have never even heard of a single shot by Hoffman. Please tell us more.
Zowie! I thought I was up on American single shots, but I find I have never even heard of a single shot by Hoffman. Please tell us more.
Well it will take some more research, and a article, to try to get to the bottom of these. When I wrote my first Hoffman article I had a lot of folks ask if any of these were made or if it was an idea that never got off the ground. One of the problems is that the ads for them in the magazines and the catalog looked more like drawings than a photo it was hard to tell. I think I have information on three of these but until this one surfaced I had never seen one. About the time Hoffman was bought and moved to Oklahoma is when these were introduced.
They were advertised in several calibers from .22LR to 32-40.
Another interesting thing about this rifle is the early Fecker-Cleveland scope which would date to the rifle but I believe that the mounts are a little later. If I write about the rifle I'll also write about the early years of Fecker and his dad in Cleveland. Does anyone have a Cleveland-Fecker scope?
Looks like the same rifle to me.
While we are at it I would also like to hear from anyone who has a Parker-Hale "TARGETSCOPE" made by Fecker.
Michael as you are going to do a article.It might be interesting to also cover the restoration. At least to a novice like me. It would be. Whitey
Like to hear how it shoots after you finish!
Nice!
Craig
Looks like a Ruger # 1 action to me, with a few extre holes in the side and a funny lever,
S T
The rifle arrived here in Anchorage today and I will keep it. Lots of problems for sure, the lever is bent in the middle, the top tang is bent and the through bolt is also bent.. Looks like it took a heck of a fall. On the plus side one of the glued pieces of the stock fell out when the butt was removed and I'll try to un-glue or bust apart the other side. Also on the the plus side the bore is mint and the Cleveland-Fecker scope was never made with end caps so I don't have to make them. A very unique action which I will report on at a later date. No pictures until some of the problems are corrected. It's an interesting rifle but not presentable just yet.
A couple more observations, the scope mounting blocks are not for the more modern Fecker mounts that are on the scope but the early Winchester (grasshopper) ones they used, they will have to be replaced. This rifle may not be the one pictured, there has never been a front sling swivel and there is only a hole on top of the barrel for a barrel band sight? I guess it could have just been a little artistic license. However it does have the same Rodgers stock and the UGLY forearm. The rear sight holes are for a Lyman 48 one with a parallel side and round top, Savage 99?
Michael could this possibly be a. Restoring type article with pictures.?? Smile Whitey
I do plan to write an article on restoration, someday.
When I write about this rifle I will want to present the history on a little-known American single-shot with possible the early years of Fecker.
Trust me, by the time you guys read about it here and all the work & pictures you will not want to read that part again. In other words the restoration w/pictures will be published here. Click on the auction link for the "Before" pictures
Michael sounds great. Whitey
Could there have been a very short fore end cap at one time? The square nose on the fore end seems very odd for a classic stock maker!
What parts do you need? Just the Winchester scope blocks and the Lyman 48?
I don't remember if you photographed the little Hoffman, Cleveland marked 44 1/2 .22 that I have. I think it also has a rather strange fore end.
Don't think that Lyman made 48 for Savage 99 .... certainly not in last 50-60 years.
Terry & Mark, The forend is just like in the one in the picture and no evidence that anything was modified. Not only odd but ugly as well. I have the proper blocks and a Lyman 48 base that looks like it will need to be milled flat on the side to fit. I think your right Mark I can't find any early Lyman 48's from 1925 that have a flat side.
The through bolt and the top tang are now straightened time to pull up the wood and see what's next. Back to work!
Terry I remember one with I thought was a Rodgers stock is that the one?
You sure don't waste any time Michael.
Did you get my e-mail yesterday RE: Niedner?
John
John, I'm just now tending to email ;-), busy two days getting started, I just can't stand to look at the rifle all busted up! If your home give me a call.
Day three report: Milled off a Lyman 48 base for a 1903 to fit the Hoffman and opened up the radius where it's not touching and beveled the corner at the breech end. Looks like it was always on there ;-). Needs more polish then into to "Blue" pile with the lever which I just finished. I had a spare base but could use a "125" slide,would buy the whole sight if need be.
OLD GUNSIGHTS show's no Lyman 48's for the Savage 99, only the various tang sights and the 57's, one for the tang and the other for rear scope holes when the tang safety was introduced.
Day four worked on the stock, I've gone about a far as I can and I'm not please with the progress. If the person had straightened the bolt and tang before gluing the wood back would have made a big difference. The tang area will have to be bedded, when did they stop making "Microbed"?
Spent today rust bluing the lever and remodeled Lyman-48 sight base.
I may stop after I bed the tang and see how it shoots (warm weather) before I do anything else. Maybe some pictures in a day or two.
Stopped making MicroBed about 2-3 years ago.
It looks great in the photos! Maybe you should go out and shovel snow for a while and get away from the Hoffman; it will look much better to you when you come back inside.
Marvelous!! We need to know lots more about the Hoffman. Are those scope blocks for a Unertl? Is the action numbered? Or were all Hoffmans numbered consecutively, no matter what they were? I wondered if there is any clue as to how many were made.
You might be right Terry, I think I've spent too much time with it over the last week. I need to bed the tang and figure out a front sight. John W. and I were talking this morning and I have Lyman 77 that mounts on a scope base I'm thinking of using for a front sight. That way no dovetail in the barrel and can use the single hole for one of the screws. Anyone think this is a bad idea?
Marvelous!! We need to know lots more about the Hoffman. Are those scope blocks for a Unertl? Is the action numbered? Or were all Hoffmans numbered consecutively, no matter what they were? I wondered if there is any clue as to how many were made.
The new scope blocks I put on are for Unertl-Fecker type mounts, The ones that were on when I got the rifle were Winchester type and the Fecker mounts were just jammed on. As you can see in the drawing the Winchester mounts would have been correct at the time the drawing was made.There is no number or markings of any kind on the action. The barrel has the Hoffman number "334". Counting this one I know of two Hoffman falling blocks. This is the first one anyone that I know has seen.
I may have spoken too soon on how many I know about. I went back to the 1938 ad I had for one of these that was for sale and it could be this rifle, 28" barrel, scope block only and 11 pounds.
Michael, an overdue comment, the only flatside Lyman 48 I know of is for the Stevens 417 Walnut Hill, have never seen one for sale anywhere off the rifle.
Mark, Thanks, after doing some checking it looked like they used a modified 1903 sight so went that way. I don't think I have ever seen one for the 417 for sale.
Michael I know a guy who has a junk walnut hill 417 receiver with a Sight on it.Can't promise but if you need it I wili try and talk him out of it. Whitey
Whitey, Well the rifle has a sight on it now but I would like to see a picture of the one from a 417 to see what they were like.
Michael if someone on site does not have one. Next time I go to the big city. 135.miles I will see if he still has it. And can get it.I will just send it to you to look at. Whitey
I'm working my way through the 1925 American Rifleman (24 issues) magazines and have found Eric Johnson, the barrel maker at Hoffman Arms Company who was a world class small-bore shooter competing with a "Hoffman". He started the year shooting a Hoffman-Martini and in some matches a Hoffman-Ballard. Luckily they list the equipment. On to 1926.
Was there more than one Eric Johnson, barrel maker & noted small-bore shooter? I thought he lived in New Haven, CT and worked for Winchester as his day job. His shop records are in the ASSRA archives. IIRC, C.S. Landis mentions Eric Johnson & New Haven in his 1932 book on smallbore rifle shooting.
I shoot an Eric Johnson Ballard as my smallbore offhand rifle. It's a dandy.
Was there more than one Eric Johnson, barrel maker & noted small-bore shooter? I thought he lived in New Haven, CT and worked for Winchester as his day job. His shop records are in the ASSRA archives. IIRC, C.S. Landis mentions Eric Johnson & New Haven in his 1932 book on smallbore rifle shooting.
I shoot an Eric Johnson Ballard as my smallbore offhand rifle. It's a dandy.
Eric Johnson:
Eric Johnson is best remembered today for the .22 caliber target rifle barrels he made as well as for his shooting abilities with them. Eric was the 1926 National Gallery Champion and the 1929 National Small Bore Champion. Eric also wrote an interesting article about .22 rifles in the March 1st 1925 American Rifleman titled “The Peculiar “22”.
Eric Johnson grew up in Orebro, Sweden a short distance from Stockholm. At the urging of a close friend he moved to America in 1904 and joined that friend at Fyrberg & Son at Worcester, Massachusetts making cheap revolvers and break open shotguns. Sears Roebuck & Co. bought the company in 1905 and moved it to Meriden, Connecticut and renamed the company Meriden Firearms Company. By 1907 Eric was the assistant foreman in the barrel shop and by 1908 he was the foreman. Meriden was bought by New England Westinghouse Company in 1915 for the production of 900,000 Mosin-Nagant rifles for the Russian government. Next Johnson worked on Colt barrels for the BAR (Browning automatic rifle) and after WWI Thompson machine gun barrels. In May of 1923 Frank Hoffman offered Johnson a job as barrel maker for the Hoffman Arms Company (PS February, 1998). Eric Johnson took the job and brought his friend John Dubiel with him to Cleveland, Ohio.
When the Hoffman Arms Company was bought in 1925 and moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Ardmore, Oklahoma both Eric Johnson and John Dubiel moved with the company. Eric Johnson left Hoffmans in early 1928 before it went out of business. He moved to New Haven, Connecticut, got married and went to work for Winchester as a barrel- straightening specialist. He returned to Ardmore, Oklahoma on April 15th, 1932 as “Eric Johnson” advertising: “Barrels are fitted in any caliber & stocks made to order.” The stockmaker would have been John Dubiel. An announcement in July, 1932 American Rifleman reads the “Dubiel Arms Co. Dubiel & Johnson Proprietors”. This made a lot of sense, business wise, because John Dubiel’s name was well known as a maker of fine gunstocks at Hoffman’s as well as his having his name on the .280 Dubiel cartridge. The illustrated Eric Johnson rifle is marked with a die.
ERIC JOHNSON
ARDMORE, OKLA
I now understand why after over twenty years of collecting information this is the ONLY rifle I have ever encountered marked “Eric Johnson Ardmore, Okla”. There could be more out there marked this way; I would like to hear from anyone who has ever seen another one.
This partnership with Dubiel did not last long, Eric Johnson returned to his family in Connecticut April, 1933. He was first located at 168 Liberty Street Meriden, Connecticut. By December, 1933 he was at 169 Lombard St. New Haven, Conn. and by January, 1935 Hamden, Conn. He specialized in .22 caliber target barrels, beginning in 1933. I was told by his son Carl that Eric worked for the High-Standard company as a barrel maker and made his rifle barrels in his spare time. I am not sure how long he worked for High-Standard before he had enough business to go out on his own. The last barrel he made was for his own Ballard rifle which he made in 1965.
I've spent a great deal of time tracking the workmen who left Hoffman Arms Company and went out on their own. I'm not sure Frank Hoffman ever made a rifle so I've not spent a lot of time looking for his work. The last one that I know of, and one I'm missing is John Wright. I have one of his rifles cornered but not captured.
Men who worked at Hoffmans and made rifles later were,
James V. Howe
John Dubiel
Eric Johnson
Harvey Rodgers
John Wright
It looks great in the photos! Maybe you should go out and shovel snow for a while and get away from the Hoffman; it will look much better to you when you come back inside.
You were right terry, I put it away for a couple weeks . Today I took it up to John's and he mounted a Lyman 77 on the front for me. Looks more like a rifle now and the repair work looks better. All I need is some warm weather to test it out.
Ya done good Michael. What is your guess on when this rifle might have been built?
John
Ya done good Michael. What is your guess on when this rifle might have been built? John
January of 1925 give or take a few months would be a good guess.
We are now getting into shooting season so I took the Hoffman out a week or so ago and had some ignition problems. Found a firing pin that was a little on the fat side so it was slimmed down and seems to work better now.
A little breeze at the rang this AM but managed to fire ten five shot groups at 50 yards with an average of .475" with Remington EPS @$16 a box. We are very limited on match ammo here in the state so will have to try some other brands.
Nothing to write home about but I need to work with the rifle and use my wind-flags next time. Got the trigger adjusted to a nice light pull. A neat rifle that I think will do a lot better over time.
