doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com George Gibbs .577 Nitro stocked by Jerry Fisher

Great work!
Does it look like original George Gibbs now?

oh, as to hours I keep very close track, so I can accurately state it took a coon's age. Actually , it was about 120 hours as I recall without going to my records, perhaps a few more with the prep I did...
And Geno it looks EXACTLY like an original with the exception of the standing leaf mentioned later... This brings up an interesting point in that his is the third Large Gibbs I have worked on and they have all had similar, but slightly different engraving patterns.
On this Rifle the top and bottom tangs were replaced by Fisher because the original hole had been drilled slightly off angle/center,and the trigger guard tang had been broken (by jumbo?) and repaired with solder and rivet at one point, and I added a warthog ivory triangle to the standing leaf at Fishers direction for easy target aquisition as this gun will be getting much heavy use in the field quite soon and we did not want the aforementioned jumbo getting another go at it. It is a joy to shoulder this rifle, it comes up quite smartly and gives one a distinct feeling of omnipitonce as the front bead finds the target.

Did Turnbull put his mark on this rifle to show this rifle been complitely redone?

I would not think so. In this profect Fisher is the Gunmaker, Turnbull applied the case colors. I have not noticed any marks on anything Doug has done for me and would presume that if he does apply a mark it would be on his "in house" projects, but you would have to ask Doug about that.

You see I'd say this the gun made by Fisher & Co now, not by Gibbs. In future this information could be lost and our descendants could trade it as original piece, which is wrong, thou gun looks great.

Great work. Send it to Calitz's camp, so he can use it for legal elephant "poaching" in Botswana. Barry, think of word of mouth advertisement value. I hate to see them use that stupid blackpowder 8-bore hammer rifle.
PS. In Montana that rifle is only useful as "log cabin" (ok, probably celeb castle) wall adnornment, no?
Now, Jerry Fisher mountain bike would be good item for early am Montana workout! Perhaps it's Garry Fisher, I forget now, and I'm a Pugeot hombre.

Barry:

Yes, same pattern, but there's always a slight difference that you have to look for to notice. The pattern is Webley's, not Gibbs'.

This rifle is a Webley A & W C 1st Quality model, built for Gibbs. Webley built many double rifles for various retailers, and these rifles were almost always "bought in" complete, as opposed to being stocked and finished by the retailers. You'll find the same pattern on the same model rifle from other retailers like William Evans, Army & Navy, etc., as well as 1st quality models that Webley & Scott retailed themselves. It's Webley's standard engraving pattern for that model.

Congratulations to you and Jerry. It's beautiful work.

Work like this creats good American jobs and I feel should increase the value of the gun. Great to see. John

I agree with you Geno but not in the way that you might think. It seems that Mr. Fisher does not mark much of his work. I believe that he should mark all his work for folks in future generations. IMO a Jerry Fisher stocked Gibbs would be more desirable and valuable than if it were original. It would not surprise me to learn that the owner of the rifle paid more for the stocking than for the rifle. A fine rifle that I would be proud to own, but then I would have had Mr. Fisher put his name on it.

Not for me, Michael. Gibbs and especially Webley sounds for me. Fisher, sorry, for me and I guess for the rest millions of Europian hunters and collectors this name brings zero information. This is not simple question and we allready discussed it and as I remember Doug told he put his mark on all guns he re-case-colored.