doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Hal Hartley

While this is definately open to anybody it is primarily for Michael. After owning this for a while, I finnaly discovered that a lovely high wall done by CC Johnson was stocked by Hal. I know CC did do some stocks but I'd say nothing like this, this is as nice a high wall stock job as I've seen, just lovely. I know his history, etc. but never really saw any walnut work and have no sense how prolific he might have been. Any thoughts?

Hal was a North Carolina boy and lived in the Lenoir Rhyne area. He was a prolific stockmaker & prefered working with fiddleback maple which he quite often cut & aged himself. I can't remember quite when Mr. Hal died but think it was probably about 30 years ago --

Thanks Ken, I've seen some of his highly flamed maple, never his walnut. I cannot find a single pore on this wood, essentially a French polish. I'd not heard anything about his walnut work or the level of checkering which is superb as well.
Now if only this had your engraving as well.

Tim,
Hi, I've seen some of Hal Hartley's work over the years and read an article he wrote on flame maple work with a torch. I can't remember where the article was but suspect it was one of the Gun Digest gunsmithng books. There will also be a lot on him in Kennedy's Book on checkering and carving of gunstocks. Although I collect information on Custom American Gunmakers my research files and work stop at 1940. I'll do a check and see what if anything I have on him. A quick check of my American Rifleman index shows the following articles by Hartley.
"Making a Revolver Grip" Feb, 1955
"Making a Maple Stock" Jan, 1954
"Make your own checkering Tools" Aug, 1955
"For Better Scores" Jan, 1957
"Stocking the Shotgun" Jan 1963
"Updating a Single Shot" Feb, 1968.

I believe Mr. Hartley passed in the early 80's as he did a stock on a friends M2 Springfield sometime before that. My friend went to school with Mr. Hartleys daughter and knew him well. I sold him the M2 and he had Mr. Hartley stock it in world record time as I recall,in fiddleback maple and it was very nice ,if a bit heavy.He was a very tough and resourceful guy from what my friend told me and wasn't afraid of some hard and /or tedious work.

RHD45 ---- perhaps your friend could get a photo of Mr. Hal for this board & Michael P.

I am lucky enough to have three Hartleys, a maple Winchester 63, a maple flintlock long rifle, and a walnut Winchester 61. The two Winchesters were made for me in 1967, the FL was picked up at auction. HH charged $75 each for the work on the two Winchesters. The walnut came from Shotgun News where sets of stock blanks for the Iver Johnson Skeeter were being sold off for $5 each. I bought a few sets but only used the one, peddled off the others. Also at one time I owned a factory engraved Remington 81, stocked in maple by HH, which I later sold to the gent who wrote the little book about 8s and 81s. Then I think in the late 1970s I went back to HH for more stockwork but he said his eyes were giving trouble and he was not accepting orders. IMO his two piece stocks are splendid but I never liked his bolt actions as much.

Should add that the 63 is serial no. 285 and came from Remington. Circa 1955 Remington sold the older models from their sample room to a pawn shop on Third Avenue and about 28th Street in Manhattan. I bought a whole bunch of rifles including as I recall a couple of brand new Ballards, I had an FFL at that time and was busy buying and selling. The 63 was in new condition with a busted buttstock and I had read an article about Hartley so had him restock it.

Should add that the 63 is serial no. 285 and came from Remington. Circa 1955 Remington sold the older models from their sample room to a pawn shop on Third Avenue and about 28th Street in Manhattan. I bought a whole bunch of rifles including as I recall a couple of brand new Ballards, I had an FFL at that time and was busy buying and selling. The 63 was in new condition with a busted buttstock and I had read an article about Hartley so had him restock it.

Mark, why is it that the guns that are sold out of the Remington sample room never seem to reach the "market"? How have they handled that situation in the last ten years or so? I have toured the sample room and sure would like to own a few I have seen there.