doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com V. Gipson Enfield?

I stopped by my gunsmith today to ask some questions about a German 16ga SxS I have, when we were done he asked if I had any interest in single shots. I replied that yes, I have become interested in them recently then he brought out the gun below. He had been asked to help clean out the guns from an old house and he has no interest in them so he made a gift of it to me.

I saw there was post here a while back inquiring about the way Mr. Gipson marked his work, but not much else. This gun is only marked V. Gipson on the barrel's left side, beneath the scope rail. No other marks by the caliber designation.

Michael, do you have some info you can paste here about Vernor Gipson, when he was active, what kind of work he did, etc. I'd like to know more about the man. Would he have only rebarreled this Enfield

BTW, it has a Browning Superposed buttplate and what's up with that pitch?

It has a Weaver 330 mounted on a rail and one of the crosshairs has a knot in it.













He also had some old scopes, does anyone recognize this one? It's 16" long, and 3/4"dia. It is brass under the black paint, the only mark on the scope is 5X but the fixed ring is marked Winchester and the adjustable ring has no marks other than the numbers 0-5-10-15 on the knobs. This one also has a know in one of the crosshairs, was this common in older scopes?







thanks, Rob

I have a Gipson and it is looks like it is marked with the same stamp.
Cheers,
Laurie

I know about Vernor Gipson because he went to the Niedner Rifle Corporation in the late 1930's. I was told that small towns were not his thing and Dowagiac was and is small. When he left Dowagiac (late 1940 or so)he moved to Chicago and teamed up with Hammer the barrel maker as Hammer & Gipson. After that he move to North-Salem Indiana. I saw his name now and then in the American Rifleman but never made an effort to compile any file on him. His rifles run along to the, for lack of a better word, utilitarian side of things. He did a lot of wildcat work and liked the Newton cartridges and seemed to have necked them up and down. I believe that he was the moving force behind the .400-Niedner which was nothing more then the .400-Newton with the Niedner name on them. Heck of a cartridge for a standard length action with a 300 grain bullet at 2700FPS.

The bottom scope is a Winchester scope found on rifles like the model-75 target and other inexpensive .22's. A collectors item more than a shooting item.

I've had several of the Winchester scopes like you show. Not an A5, it's a somewhat less expensive type that Winchester marketed before WW2 after selling the A5 rights to Lyman. It's basically a Wollensack with a Winchester name on it, if it's the sort that I had. A good low- to medium-priced scope for old single shot rifles IMO but not quite as clear or bright as a Lyman 5A or Unertl of the same period. It's described in Nick Stroebel's old scope book. Would be a perfect match for a low wall light sporter or light target rifle. The rings should have a pointed screw that fits into the target bases that have the small detent hole on the left side, not the ones with only the half-moon cut on the right. IMO it's more desirable than the scope on the Martini, by far.

Frequently old scopes have acquired a dust bunny on the reticle. It's possible that removing the eyepiece and blowing against the reticle with canned air will dislodge the dust particle, but please don't actually touch the reticle with anything other than possibly a camel's hair brush.

It's caveat emptor when dealing with these old scopes. Last week I bought a nice extremely early Unertl 6x 1" Target, my favorite Unertl model. I knew that it had a broken front ring-to-base clamp screw and I also knew that these early model Unertls required major disassembly for access to replace the screw and so this affected the price. The dealer hadn't spotted the broken screw and it took me a few minutes to find it, but I had been caught in the past so I thought I knew what to look for....

It ain't rocket science so I dived in and eventually replaced the broken screw after much weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth, but upon reassembly I discovered that the vertical crosshair was broken at the top. The hair had been vertical and appeared to be OK during the examination before the purchase, but apparently the dis- and re-assembly was enough to jar it sideways.

So now I need some 0.001" wire. Any sources?
Regards, Joe

Joe,
I purchased some scope wire from some one on one of the boards some time ago.
If I can find the contact information I will let you know. Not too hopeful but I may have it some place.
Cheers,
Laurie

Michael,

Thanks for the info about Gipps, you are on the money, the gun is "utilitarian". Would he have done just the metal work? I don't know much about Enfield of this type but I assume this is not standard military wood, a reworked stock perhaps?


Joe, the scope rings do not have the pointed screw you mention, rather they are clamp ons, look like they work with a rail. I'll try unscrewing the the eyepiece and using some canned air to see if it's a dust bunny but it sure does look like a knot.

I have one of those Martini-Enfields in the original military form. Gipson's stock is not a revamped military, which is a near-duplicate of the SMLE buttstock. SMLE buttstocks are completely interchangeable with that version of the Martini insofar as fit goes. There must be a hole drilled to allow the Martini lever to close completely, but that's all.

A Martini-Enfield with a decent .30-40 barrel is a NICE gift, "utilitarian" or no!

It certainly was, I'm lucky to be able to count the man who gave it to me among my friends.