doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Rifle Identification or Conjecture......

I came across this picture of my uncle that I've had for a few years, and was curious about the guns he and his partner were using.

My uncle (the lad behind the animals) hunted in Montana with the other man in the picture the fall of 1942. He returned to Wisconsin the following Spring and enlisted in the Navy. He died in a logging accident in the 80's, and I don't have the opportunity to ask him about the hunt or the gun he used.

Not sure how unusual it would have been for these guys to be using bolt-action sporters out West, and I was also curious what they might be.

Not looking for exact identification.......the pictures likely won't allow that.......but maybe some conjecture of what might have been available at the time. These would have been farm/ranching people.........not people of any extraordinary means to be sure. My uncle would have borrowed the gun.......he didn't have one at the time.

Looks German or Austrian to me,maybe Mausers. What ever they were they did the job. Rich

The distance that the bolt handles stick out as well as the curvature leads me to believe that they may be 1903s; the dark spots ahead of the trigger guard bows are almost certainly the holes for a bullet nose to release the floorplates on some sort of military rifles. Too bad the details are blurred.
Regards, Joe

I saw the spot on the magazine cover and also thought it was probably a Springfield.

The car, with proper chains, looks like a 1935 Chevy. Do you suppose they brought the moose and elk back on it?

The rifle on the right looks a LOT like an early Model 54 Winchester. Thin forend with Schnabel tip, bedding screw in the bottom of the forend with the bottom tip of the "up side down triangle" checkering pattern almost touching it from each side and sling hook eye(in the right place, BTW). The solid floorplate, bolt handle and the treatment of the bottom of the pistol grip(not flat, but slightly rounded) all look right.

The rifle on the left may be a sporterized '03, but it's much harder to tell.

I appreciate you folks chiming in. I recognize it's not an exact science from the photo.



You've a good eye, Terry. And no, he didn't bring back the meat in that car.

He (Uncle G.) had a younger brother....Uncle R., who graduated from high school in the spring of '42. They both (with a third friend) traveled to Montana from Wisconsin in a Model T roadster. They had a box in the truck.....sort of a home made pickup. (The trip has been chronicled, and it's hilarious)

They returned to Wisconsin in the summer, but Uncle G. had the bug about Montana hunting. He bought the Chevy and went back out in the fall. Both he and Uncle R. were drafted, and he returned in the spring to enlist in the Navy with his brother.



My brother had thought the same thing, Don. I was wondering if that's a receiver sight on the bolt side......which might preclude it from being a Model 54?

Maybe, but because the picture is not that clear, is it possible that(as the rifle is slightly turned to the left) what may appear to be a bolt side sight is the windage adjustment knob of a left side mounted sight?

It's really hard to tell just what they are shooting but, if they are factory rifles, then the very slim lines of the stock, especially the forend, make me think of the Savage Model 1920.

Jerry Liles

Rifle on the right poped right out of the pictue as a M54 Winchester. No firm identification of the parts it just looks like one. I owned a M 54 mounted with a Lyman 48 for years.

Boats

I must agree. Everything is right to be a M 54.
It looks just like the my Model 54, .30 Govt '06.