Way back in 1961 I owned a very fine G&H .250 Savage 99 with a single lever mount and Goerz Certar 4.5x scope. Sold it and when it surfaced fifteen years ago at a PA dealer the scope was gone. Terry Buffum bought it, he had a single lever bracket and fitted a Zeiss Zeilklein. The rifle made its way back to me again last week, with the Zeiss. Presumably the Goerz is still out there somewhere. You gents see a lot of fancy stuff, if you see this scope/mount combo please let me know. Another possibility is that someone who had another G&H, but less scope, which he liked more than the 99, stole the scope for it. So if you see a big Goerz on a G&H rifle with a single lever mount, please tell me about it. Hope to get a photo of the rifle soon which I can post, quarter rib, express sights, 3/4 length forend, etc. Quite unusual. As you might suppose the Zeiss sits high. If there is such a thing as a low line single lever bracket, I would like to get it.
(Mark, If you are going to take some picture, please include your Fisher/Krag!
Thanks, Steve)
Michael, thanks for posting those. Pics were taken last week by G&H. Here is the story, a little lengthy I fear. Rifle is a .250-3000, 24.5" barrel, G&H ser. no. 1201, Savage ser. no. 177442 from 1916. Takedown action, but now solid frame. According to research by G&H historian Robert Beach, G&H built the rifle in 1933, for whom is not recorded. It was supplied with the big Goerz scope and with a case. By 1961 it was at Abercrombie & Fitch consigned by one Alfred Ehrenclou. A&F listed it at $225 and later in the year it was bought by my Long Island friend John M. Grant, Jr who got it for $175. A few months later I bought it from John, I think for $175 also. John is no longer with us, he would be amused that I have the rifle again. Two years later I peddled it through Shotgun News for $200, after first listing it for $250 and $225. According to Bob Beach, in 1991 and 1992 it was back at Abercrombie & Fitch twice and was bought first by Fred Brown and then by Louis Skola, no addresses available. In 1994 it reappeared at the Allentown gun show on the table of dealer Bob Gullone, without telescope, asking $2000. I examined it there. By 2000 Terry Buffum, a contributor to this forum, owned it. Terry had a single lever G&H bracket and a Zeiss Zeilklein which are now on the rifle. Recently, perhaps within the last year, he sold it to Monte Mandarino who sold it to Peter Weber who sold it to me. I paid a lot more than the $200 I got for it in 1963 !!! With its quarter rib, folding express leaves, Lyman windguage tang sight, telescope mounting and Circassian walnut, the rifle was about as sophisticated a lever action as one could buy or build in 1933. I think the long forend adds extra class. The penalty for all this splendid excess is a weight, according to the old G&H records, of 9lbs 6oz without scope. In this it is typical of many G&H rifles of the period. At least it won't kick, and this time around I intend to keep it.
For those who pondered how much $200 in 1963 is worth today, the answer is $1,422.42 according to the US governments online CPI inflation calculator.
For those who pondered how much $200 in 1963 is worth today, the answer is $1,422.42 according to the US governments online CPI inflation calculator.
And yet my personal inflation calculator reminds me that my new Chevy supercar cost $2900 in 1966 and if I bought a new one today it would be 10 times that much. In 1963 I was in high school and pumping gas after school for 50 cents per hour, much less than 10% of today's minimum wage. Machinists and welders in my area were making $2-$2.50 per hour in 1967 but wages were starting to go up by then. In 1970 I bought 2 Colt 45ACP Government Models for $100 each at a large gun show; one was a prewar commercial National Match and the other was a US Army issue, serial # 135. Yes, serial 135, made the FIRST DAY of Colt's military production. Both these guns are worth more than $3000 each today, but they had been floating around the local gun shows for more than 2 years with no takers by the time I bought them. In 1969 I bought an older hammerless H&H double rifle in 500/450 Magnum Nitro Express for $1000 and a Hubertus vierling in 5.6x35R/16/16/8x57JR for $900; what would they be worth today?
So my personal inflation calculator would estimate that $200 in 1963 would be worth closer to $2500 today; when I add for the relative rarity factor of the older rifles today compared to their relative availability back then when they were more common, why then the comparison jumps yet again.
I'd say that $4K would be closer to the REAL differential, considering today's relative rarity as well as the monetary inflation.
Mark, many thanks for sharing this interesting history.
Regards, Joe
I thought that rifle looked familliar,
I shot it in Montana last summer!
Is the single lever the reason the G&H mount is further to the rear than on a double lever?
Short eye relief on the Goerz I think. Current Zeiss is short e.r. too.
Steve who was the owner then?
Peter. As I remember... the shooting was preliminary in that he was just trying things out with ammo fron another project. I believe it was pretty good with the tang sight, have a vague memory of a "challenge" with the scope adjustment (??) but I think it was figured out(??)
This rifle gets around, I shot it in 2007, with my camera ;-).
