doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Pig on Rifle

j0e...do you think some of these guys have a box of Kleenex in their gun cabinet?

Very few talented engravers have the luxury of studying exotic animals and birds in the wild in order to duplicate their features in steel and precious metals. Most work from stuffers or photographs. Even stuffers can give off incorrect images, so, I assume most engravers do their best and most accurate work from good photographs. That is the situation with Ken Hurst. I have watched him work, and he does not claim to travel to Africa to study for his next commission to engrave an African animal. He sits a photograph or other good image next to his vise. Oddly, the image in steel is a wonderful rendering of the photographic image. End of story, except to say that "I like the pig."

I take a Ken Pig over a valted Lindner Diamond Quaility Dog anyday.Hopefully a hundred years from now folks will be talking guns and someone will say it looks like Hurst work,is it signed anywhere.

I have a Hurst engraved Martini .22. It's signed. It's also a permanent part of my firearms inventory. My kids can argue about it when I'm gone. Ken Hurst does very nice work indeed.

FWIW (not much, I know!), I liked the pig. And the meerkats. Although I do have to ask "Why?" on the meerkats. But then, it's not my gun, so if meerkats make the gun's owner happy, I'm happy for him.

I've watched this thread since its inception and have watched as some truly fine work has been trashed. I don't get pissed off easily but I'm pissed! Ken and I are very good friends and talk on the phone at least once a week and sometimes more. Glenn is one of my closest friends, we shoot together, work on projects together, drink beer together and just do stuff together. We also yank each others chain, however, just like brothers, we might do that but don't you do that.

If anyone might want to know the inspiration for the Warthog all they have to have is one of Glenn's business cards and it will become obvious. As to the Meerkats - well you can probably put the blame for that choice on me, when Glenn and I were discussing the engraving and he said he wanted a Warthog on one side I said why not have Meerkats on the other. So there you have it.

I don't know if Glenn will post any finished pictures of the rifle when it's done or not. The board will be poorer for it if he doesn't. But just in case he doesn't here is a picture of the damascus steel skeleton butt plate installed on the rifle and if you look close you will see an out of focus damascus steel skeleton grip cap.

Wow! That's the only thing I can think of. Inadequate - for sure. But that is just amazing stuff.

Thanks,
Brent

Steven,

I like the .25 Krag as well. This rifle was made for Dr. Baker by A.O. Niedner in 1911in caliber .25-Krag. The rifle was restocked in the early 1950’s by Keith Stegall. Dr. Henry A. Baker was a good friend of Niedner, Mann and Leopold. The Sharps Borchardt action that was used for this rifle was an original Long-Range Creedmoor one. When installing the DST’s the Borchardt safety was removed. Niedner made a cocking knob so the rifle could be carried in the filed loaded then cocked before firing, the firing pin does not rest on the primer.

MP, that particular piece of English is not characteristic of Stegall's usual wood selection in my experience, but it is the kind of straight grain wood that I prefer on understated fine guns, both shotguns and rifles. To be honest, I guess it could be American Walnut, but I doubt it.

Few would use wood like this today, for my Zischang project I had to look all over for a blank that most would call plain. When Steagall made this rifle I'm not sure how long he had been stocking at that time. If his name was not stamped into the barrel channel I would not have been able to attribute the stock to him.

Here is a picture of Dr. Baker with the rifle and the original stock which looks like the Sharps buttstock and small forend.

Very Cool Michael! You continue to amaze me with good taste, historic context and accuracy, each and all very important to my notion of fine guns. Of course I like the original stock better, even though I spent a day in Keith Stegal's shop in Gunnison in 1976. I also had the good fortune to be a helper sorting three pallets of Tessier walnut Stegal imported for the school at Trinidad.

Here's a pic captured earlier this summer of a similarly styled rifle (.22lr) out gopher shooting. I built this one for myself but sold in during the great years of Clinton cash flow. The scope is one of two I talked Gil Parsons into custom building for me from the remainder of the original Lyman A5 parts he had purchased (4x 3/4" 2-moa dot reticle, Lyman mounts.)

Your good buddy Terry generously offered to help rectify my 25 kraglessness. Maybe we can work something out one of these days, what a guy! There might yet be a .25K in my future!