Beautiful rifle. Now that inletting is interesting. A cousin has a war trophy 1895 Steyer 8x50r sporter with exactly the same style and kind of inletting. The action fits solidly in the stock but I always considered the inletting rather crude. Perhaps I need to re-evaluate.
How do you rate the handling of the Whelen rifle to the other Wundhammer's you've handled?
I like the idea of the rifle as a finely made tool meant to be used. These old timers with good wood, good metal, clean lines, and checkering and minimal embellishment strike me as the most handsome of firearms.
Since you mentioned him, how about some words on Adolph? Another name I've read of whose work I've seldom seen.
Jerry Liles
The inletting may look crude but there is no room for anything but the metal. I'm working on a restoration project with a Wundhammer stock and have had to take out and replace the bottom metal a couple hundred times, it's just as tight and when I started.
Whelen was a tall person as I am so the rifle fits me very well.
I also like the clean lines of a rifle with nothing fancy, those are the rifles I use to judge the work of the maker by.
There are a couple of Adolph stocked rifles in a thread below. I'll just stick to Wundhammer on this thread and do Adolph later.
