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Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 2
Boxlock
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Boxlock

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Some years ago I was asked to give a deceased family members wife some guidance concerning the value of her husbands gun collection. The items were pretty easy to assess, although I stumbled with one. I told her that it was a Sako but the stock made it special, that it "is pretty, don't let it go cheap". Some years later my parents pulled in the drive and handed me the gun. They indicated that The relative held onto the gun because she thought I should have it, and that they had reached and agreement with her for me to have it.
I reloaded a few rounds to see if this pretty thing would shoot. Much to my dismay the bullets were key holing. I felt the barrel had been shot out. Lucky my friend pointed out that the sako has a slower twist and may not stabilize the bullets that I had success with in a .22-250. I picked up some 40 gr. bullets found a powder that didn't give me a compressed load, and now this pretty rifle prints 1/2" all day long.
I'm now retired and have time to look at things a little closer. That is the reason that I've sought out this forum. The workmanship in this stock is as good as I've ever seen,
I'm interested to see if anyone may be able to help me determine what I have and if it has more than simple rifle value.
The stock is heavy laminated walnut with schlaub forend and Monte-Carlo cheek piece, the checkering is as good as I've seen the skeleton butt plate executed perfectly,the die in the stock on the wood where the recoil block makes contact indicates that great pains where taken to insure that full contact was attained,as good as glass bedding. The stock is marked with OWEN and the number 1954 stamped into the wood under the barrel. Brass medallion bottom of stock behind pistol grip.
The rifle is a Sako .222 rem. heavy barreled removable magazine,,,stith mount for Sako and Lyman wolverine 1100 10 power scope.
I'm interested to know if the Owen marking could be R G Owen of Saquoit NY as that's not to far from home, and if there is added value here, because of the stock.
It of course it means more to me because it's a gift from my now decreases parents and a family member that I believe put it together in the 1950's as his initials are in the brass medallion.

Thank you Steve miller

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Last edited by Steve miller; 04/17/16 02:55 PM.
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If you google RG Owens rifle images you will see a pretty good sample of his work. I don't see anything that has either cheekpiece, comb or checkering like yours although I think most were produced in his early years. According to Petrov he went to Port Clinton, OH during the war and remained there until he died in 1959. I don't think I have ever seen any references to him doing custom work in the 1950's, but he could have. I remember when the heavy bbl L46 Sako was imported and I think it was post-1955, but I could be remembering wrong. I found a list of mfg. dates on this site - http://thehunterslife.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14777 so you should be able to determine when your rifle was made.

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Sidelock
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I've seen one signed "R.G.Owen" Mauser rifle dated from the late '40s and it looked nothing like this rifle.
As for the quality, I'd suggest you compare to pictures of more custom rifles by doing a search on this site. You might even compare to Parker skeleton buttplates.
"Perfectly" is not a word I would use to describe this work.

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Sidelock
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As I understand from Michael Petrov's books, all R G Owen custom rifle stocks are pre World War 2. Therefor, the 1954 date (as well as style) would indicate a different Owen as the stock maker.

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Sidelock
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This RG Owen mark looks a lot like earlier barrel marks, maybe the same stamp or roll mark? The B in a circle is Tom Burgess' mark and he was known to be just starting his career in Spokane in 1949.
The rifle is a 7x57 Mauser and at least one person on this board has owned it. In my opinion, it is a delightful rifle in every way and I was pleased to handle it and have the opportunity to photograph it









Last edited by SDH-MT; 04/18/16 02:33 PM.
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Sidelock
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Here's my lightweight brld .222 Sako stocked Sako that shoots near 1/2" groups. It is from about 1951, like me.

Last edited by SDH-MT; 04/18/16 02:43 PM. Reason: edit
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Sidelock
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The skeleton buttplate is not a Parker buttplate.

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Sidelock
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[quote=SDH-MT]This RG Owen mark looks a lot like earlier barrel marks, maybe the same stamp or roll mark? The B in a circle is Tom Burgess' mark and he was known to be just starting his career in Spokane in 1949.
The rifle is a 7x57 Mauser and at least one person on this board has owned it. In my opinion, it is a delightful rifle in every way and I was pleased to handle it and have the opportunity to photograph it


In the interest of full disclosure. When I owned this rifle I had the metal rust blued and the old redfield SR mount and zeiss scope removed and this later redfield JR installed. The RG Owen stamp was very light, nearly unreadable when I got the rifle, so I had the gunsmith recut it before he blued it. While it is in the same place, and roughly the same style, it is not the original marking.

Dunlops gunsmithing book has many examples of these later post-war, Port Clinton era Owen stocks. Many with Burgess metal work. They all have a very similar style that varies quite a bit from his pre-war work.

I agree with the others that the sako in the original post in this thread is not an R G Owen stock. But that does not take away from it being a fine varmint rifle, just stick with the lighter bullets in those old Sako's. Mine really like the 50 gr Hornady SX.

John

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Nice little Sako. I also have one that my family bought back in the 1950's. It was scoped with a Kollmorgen Bear Cub 4X scope, which I still have but the rifle currently sports a Leopold. The stock is Maple. Neat rifle, light and the 222 the best Fox rifle cartridge maybe ever made. We used the rifle to hunt fox in the 50's and 60's and has killed many many fox. Maybe a 70 or 80 of them. Hard to say so many years later. Back in those days in Iowa we hunted the Fox for its ears. We got a $2 bounty for their ears from the county. That was before the long hair fur price went thru the roof in the late 60's. Those were the days. Still fondle the old rifle from time to time.

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Sidelock
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Thanks for ringing in John, I knew it had been blued but did not know about refreshing the marks, nice rifle, great cartridge!


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