doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Fred Adolph

I hunted for info on custom guns for years as a kid growing up in Maryland in the late 50's and early 60's and now I go to this and other sites on the internet and learn and see more than I did in 10 years as a young man.Wonderful,wonderful.

If you are anywhere near my age, there was no good information on custom guns except for the odd article in very old American Rifleman and maybe the odd Gun Report. Maybe Michael and Daryl will tell us where else we could have looked. Of course, some of the old masters were still around and we could have visited them. Kids today could be visiting the "New Masters" but they had better bring their Daddy's checkbooks. Murphy

I think it is hit or miss. I am 19, so I am probably the youngest member of the forum. Some guys like to see younger people getting into doubles, and treat me with all the respect and enthusiasm I could ask for. Others see me as just another college student without the big checkbook, and treat me accordingly. I am fortunate to have some great mentors.

Thanks folks, for the comments and replies to my question on the Adolph Springfield rifle "comb flute".
I was referring to the M1903 Springfield pic posted my Michael Petrov 21 Dec at 02:56PM.
Yeti: the "comb flute" on my H&R SxS 10GA Damascus is virtually identical to the Adolph rendition as seen in Mike Petrov's pic. I'm very taken with it, as it strikes me as so "neat" and understated. This paticular little feature seems to have fallen out of use in the early 20th century - otherwise we would have more examples and at least one or two "collector" names for it. There was probably a word for it "back then", similar in vintage to the collector's term "widow's peak".
Thanks for the input.

I could never find the information I wanted on custom makers so I did the research myself and I'm still learning something new everyday. I no sooner think I have things figured out then it's back to the drawing board. A man I did research on and published info I'll have to redo because of a letter now for sale on eBay with a lot of good information in it.

I believe that the majority of early G&H rifles were engraved by Kornbrath. Fugger worked with him for a couple years then started doing G&H stuff, I'm not sure when he relocated to NY from Hartford and started working for G&H full time.

I don't want to embarrass my friend, who owns the G&H so I'll leave it up to him to either log on here or let me know it's OK to give info on the engraving.

It's a neat feature, I'll post a picture looking at it from the top.

Two quick ones.

And an overall picture of the Adolph.


Seems Santa had to bring his slay into Anchorage for a pre-flight and he called this evening to say that as long as he was in town he might as well drop of my Christmas present which is a Adolph rifle. If all goes well I'll go over to the hanger in the AM and get it, pictures to follow.

Eightbore, you asked about getting info on these old guns. For me, when I was in Alaska for 30 years, no local supply of information on guns was available. Since the early 70s I had an interest and appreciation of nice shotguns { doubles and traps from earlier makers }. Being that distance from the mainstream of used shotgun commerce, I had to put ads in Shotgun News, later Gun List, and sometimes magazines. Early replies were 3/4 from the NY area. I started collecting old original catalogs when they were $5-10 and , at one time had over 1000. Baker shotguns were my main interest, so the engravers of the same were, too. Probably in the 70s, we had a small gun show in Anchorage and on tables next to mine were Sam Welch, the wonderful engraver, and Mike Petrov. I had a few Baker Guns for sale and had found a few Brochures from Rudolph Kornbrath. Sam Welch saw these and we talked. Kornbrath was his engraving Hero. Mike Petrov , too, had knowledge of Kornbrath from his interest in the custom rifles, I suspect. We talked and the conversations validated my thought that Kornbrath was of some high value. Over the years , I too, did research on these engravers and makers, surely not a persistent as Mr. Petrov, though. Just kept my eyes and ears open for stuff of interest and viewed hundreds of auction catalogs. Also developed a "trapline" of friends with the same interests. Finally there is some information coming forward . The internet is a huge step forward, too. A case in point the wonderful French catalogs on line discovered by JayCee [I think} I know there are guys out there who have seriously good gun stuff to share---the trick is how to attract them. Hopefully we will.

One time I figured that some in depth Kornbrath research was needed to try to get a better understanding of the man and his work. I was telling my good friend here in Anchorage about my lack of progress when he asked if I had talked to Kornbrath's grandson. Grandson? what grandson? John said "he lives here in Anchorage and I was just in a meeting with him". Yep, there he was right in the phone book, who would have thought. After several phone calls and meetings I was able to get some copies of what little paperwork they had plus some pictures and background information from the family.

They told me that no family member had any Kornbrath engraving and he, the grandson, had never seen any. One Sunday I put a Kornbrath engraved rifle in the car and drove over to show them. While we were talking I ask about a double barrel shotgun that I was trying to find that Kornbrath had given his son, this fellows father, for his birthday as a teenager. Tom Shelhamer the stockmaker had traded work with Kornbrath by stocking this shotgun for the son and in return Kornbrath had engraved a Winchester 52 for Tom. So the grandson goes and comes back with a Leg-o-Mutton guncase and I dump out the most complete coverage Kornbrath gun I have ever seen. It was a no-name (guild) Austrian double that was Kornbrath's journeyman's piece.