doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com A couple questions on a Sedgley.

DanLH, the Remington repair could have been anything. The "3" designates "received in repair shop" or some such.

There could be many reasons. Perhaps he had a personal connection with someone at Sedgley. Maybe he wanted a nice but less expensive rifle to use as a beater or a loaner. Maybe he wanted a .35 Whelen, but the wait time at G&H was too long and the Sedgley was available. Maybe he took it to settle a debt and had someone engrave the plate. Maybe he was just a gun nut....

That is a great photo by the way! Its really funny, seeing the different expressions and attitudes on display. Looks like the gentleman, second from the right, is being propped up or steadied. Wonder what's up with that?

Maybe it was a gift. Having a gift engraved is nothing unusual, and maybe the person who gave it to him knew nothing about guns.

In the early 1970's I once toured the Mossberg factory and was proudly shown a highly engraved and gold inlayed Mossberg 810 rifle which had been made for President Nixon to present to Premier Leonid Brezhnev of Russia. The engraving was gaudy and underneath it was a Mossberg rifle. Clearly the person who ordered it had no concept of what constituted a desirable firearm.

Maybe Mr. Carpenter lived in Philadelphia at the time and Sedgley was more convenient.

He doesn't look like the kind of man who would know the difference between a Sedgley and a Griffin & Howe, or for that matter who was capable of firing a rifle in the prone position.

Maybe the person that ordered it knew EXACTLY what he was doing. After all, it was for Brezhnev in the 1970s...

You know, he was pretty bulky for a 31 year old man at that time.

That rifle was made up by & marked 'Pedersen Custom Gun Co.',,which was a sub of Mossberg in North haven Ct.

The rifle was made up to present to Nixon,,to present to Brezhnev upon his visit to the WH.
All to garner publicity for Pedersen as the NSGA Show (Later to be the SHOT Show)in Chicago was coming up.
Pedersen was showing it's guns for the first time there (Early 1972 I think it was,,but it was a long time ago now)

Their hi-power rifles were made on the Mossberg 810.
Seems like the Brezhnev rifle was in 7mmMag, but maybe 338. Can't remember now.
It was engraved by Ralph Alpen. Typical 70's look. The stock(s) were done in the shop,,precarved first by Wysowski Bros (sp),,a local CT supplier. I think I even still have a reject still in the rafters, beautiful figure,,but what to do with it.
Rosewood tip and grip cap originally,,those were band sawed off,,must have been mighty valuable wood back then for some reason!.

Pantographed Pedersen logo 'P' in the cap (on the catalog models,,maybe Leonid's had brass initials in it. M/C cheekpiece was standard.

Finishing, checkering done in the shop. I think Mildred Arthur did the checkering,,maybe her husband Harold did.
They worked together there doing checkering and carving. They had a freelanse business doing the same for the gun industry and had done so since WW2. Harold had worked for Winchester in the 'wood room' prior to that.

Alpen worked 'in house' by then along with Engraver Geo. B. Spring (the elder) and a few engraving apprentices. One was the very young niece of the Kusmit Bros. of the Winchester Custom Shop.

Polishing & fitting done in the Pederson shop,,Mossberg factory hot blue tanks were taken advantage of to do the hot blue. Rust blue was done in the Pedersen shop which was in a separate building on the Mossberg factory grounds behind the main plant.

More than you ever wanted to know about Leo Brezhnev's rifle and Pedersen Custom Gun

...still wouldn't trade my Sedgley for it...

You're exactly right about the 'Pedersen Custom Gun Co' moniker. I had forgotten all about that experiment. The classic attempt at making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Brezhnev, as I recall, was a passionate hunter and probably knew a thing or two about quality guns. I imagine that one was relegated to the back of the gun case. I wouldn't trade my Sedgley for it, either, and my Sedgley is not a particularly nice one.

"...I wouldn't trade my Sedgley for it, either, and my Sedgley is not a particularly nice one."

Looks better than mine..


The Pedersen idea was a classic case of big factory thinking trying to make (semi) custom firearms.
Looking back, it was a fun experience there though. Made many friends.

I often wondered how you say 'Ahhhh,gee,,thanks a lot' in Russian

The rifle was in .338 for the Russian.

From a 1961 LIFE magazine issue, he was a sport fisherman - maybe it was his shark rifle? ;-)

http://books.google.com/books?id=-FEEAAA...TER&f=false