I picked up this rifle sometime back and due to work it has slipped through the cracks. Enough work has been done so it is not a standard Winchester model. A Winchester 54 with Griffin and Howe scope mount, Hensoldt-Weizlar Ziel-Dialyt 2 3/4X scope, Lyman receiver sight and two-leaf folding barrel sight. Front sight is a pinned post. Serial number places it as 1929 and with an A suffix indicating it has the improved extractor. Barrel is nickel steel. Fore end cap is ebony. Stock is very dark walnut with a trapdoor butt plate with storage for cleaning rods. No markings other then the standard Winchester barrel markings. The emaciated deer carving on the right butt is a more recent work and I wish it wasn't there.
Any ideas who, when or where this work was done? Any help would be appreciated.
[img]https://www.flickr.com/photos/141602111@N08/45037334332/in/dateposted-public/[/img] [img]https://www.flickr.com/photos/141602111@N08/44365320804/in/dateposted-public/[/img]
I could not get your link to work. Sounds interesting though, I have always like 54's.
SKB, if you copy and paste the address into google it will go to the pics. Nice gun until to lokk at the right side of the buttstock. I don't like carving which looks like it was added later.
The emaciated deer carving on the right butt is a more recent work and I wish it wasn't there.
I second this quote.
Bummer on the deer carving....cool gun though. The metal has a ton going for it. I might be tempted to mill off that right side of the stock and glue new wood in place. you can hide the seems in the finish making a very hard to see repair. I am currently repairing what was a leather covered cheek piece in a similar manner.
I wish I could say that I've seen a well carved stock like this, but I haven't. Or maybe I should say, I haven't seen one that I personally liked at all, though maybe they were all "well executed". I do like folk art on firearms, but it is so rare to find something interesting and this not one of them.
On the other side of the stock what's the deal with the squared off side panel back by the bolt shroud and safety. That looks equally out of place, as if they stocker just didn't know what to do there. Yet on the other side, he had no problem blending it underneath the bolt handle. Maybe I'm just looking at it wrong but it looks really odd to me.
For TN Longhunter
Looks like the carving work is very freshly done, and recent? Wonder why someone chose to do it after all these years of the gun being the way it was?
Vall, I think it safe to say, one person's dream is another person's nightmare.
Skeettx,
Thanks for fixing the photo. Not sure why they won't show.
Vall, the carving is relatively recent compared to the stocking but still has some age to it when you can handle the wood. Thought about looking for a new stock as a stock maker friend died last year that we were thinking about how to restock.
It looks to me like a Griffin & Howe job all the way around. The stock design, the trap butt plate, the fore end tip all shout G&H to me. This is a G&H Springfield of roughly the same vintage which passed through my hands a while back,
That is a G&H stock. Too bad about the carving. I'd be inclined to follow SKB's advice and cover it with a layer of new wood. Look carefully; the forearm tip should be horn.
I agree, this is an instance where a wood graft is called for. The rest of the stock is too cool to throw away.
That is a G&H stock. Too bad about the carving. Look carefully; the forearm tip should be horn.
That was what I was hoping to hear. That it was a G&H stock. I have looked closely at the forearm and it might be horn. I'm use to very black solid horn while this has a slight "grain" that does look like ebony but is almost too straight. Will pull the stock off and look.
Very nice, I have always liked the model 54 with the schnabel forearm, never saw a G&H before. If it was me, I would try to stain the carving so that it does not stand out as much, and leave it alone.
I'll just add that I too would plane off or cut off the carving, and find a piece of walnut to laminate to the side of that stock to build it back.
I've done this type of repair when someone proudly carved their initials or other crude art into a decent stock, and if done properly the repair is invisible, or close to invisible. Either way, it will look much better, and save a very cool stock and gun.
I don't think the carving was finished. It would look a lot better if the border of the carving were blended into the stock and some finish added. I would buy that gun.
