My friend and former business partner, Harry Creighton, of Nashville, TN did the metal work on these rifles, and Hal Hartley of Lenoir, NC did the stocks. Harry used Douglas barrels and reamers he purchased from F.K. Elliot of Ramona, CA. Shilen, Hart and Buhmiller barrels were optional.

All but one of the rifles are built on Winchester Model 1886 High Wall actions. The 6mm/.225 uses a coil hammer spring, as opposed to the flat springs in the other rifles. The other action is taken from a Sharps Borschardt .45-70 musket. All feature bushed firing springs, with the pin portion of the striker made from heavy piano wire and virtually unbreakable.

All but two are stocked in maple, which Hal harvested himself from the North Carolina mountains, and are torched to bring out the contrast in the grain. The other two are walnut, from blanks purchased from Flaig's, Millvale, PA. All are made with Niedner steel checkered buttplates and pistol grip caps.

They are shown in the order in which acquired, the first obtained in 1958 and the last shortly before Hal Hartley's death, in the early 1980's. Hal died in 1984 of a stroke and Harry Creighton died a year later, in 1985, of a heart attack.

.219 Ackley Improved Zipper



.218 Bee



.250-3000R



.25 Ackley Improved Krag



6mm/.225 Winchester



.30-40 Krag



7X57 R

Nice guns.

What is the process where the "maple is torched to bring out the grain?"

Jerry

A way of darkening Maple and at the same time brings out contrast in the fiddleback figure.
IIRC he used to coat the wood with linseed before toasting it lightly with the torch,,carefull of the edges!

Just one persons way of doing something.
Most people just stain maple with alcohol based stain,, or ferric (iron) nitrate & heat was an early way to color it.

Roy Dunlap describes the process in his book "Gunsmithing" on page 537. He refers to it as the Japanese Suigi process, in which a careful application of the flame of a blow torch brings out the "fiddleback" in the wood. It was a process also described by Alvin Linden in his book on stockmaking.

Nice-looking guns, please stick around, we need more folks that can answer questions about post-World War II custom makers.

You have a wonderful group of custom single shots! I especially like the .218 Bee, but the .30-40 is a very close second in eye appeal.

The wood must be dry and free of oil. Generally the finish sanded stock is dampened and quickly dried to raise the grain (aka "whiskering"). The torch is applied to the wood, scorching the end grain and leaving the flat grain only slightly darkened. If done correctly, this process results in a depth of figure that is unobtainable with any other method. The only thing that I have found that comes close is aqua fortis heated with a heat gun.

I knew both Hal Hartley and Harry Creighton well. Both were extremely fine men that I am proud to have known. Harry was a fine baseball player and photographer, while Hal was an occasional writer and former boxer. I do not know whether Xausa is aware that Hal was the former amateur boxing champion in North Carolina before WWII (I think probably middle-weight).

Hal cut a lot of sugar maple in the Blue Ridge mountains surrounding his home in Lenoir, NC. Some of the maple found there is superb, and Hal found some of the best. He was not adverse to using maple and other woods from other sources, often purchasing product from suppliers in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Found on another forum:

"The original owner of (one of Hal's) gun was doing electrical work at Hal's shop. There is a wood stove. Hal is working on a stock. The customer comes in and complains "What's taking so long with that stock". Hal tosses it in the wood stove " Just finished it".

It reminded me of the famous sign in Harry Pope's shop, "If you want to know when your job will be finished, the answer is NOW!"

Beautiful guns; thanks for sharing. Maple makes sense to me on varmint rifles with some "reach" but not so much on guns that have to be toted a piece--the maple stocked ones I've handled were kind of heavy.

Any details on how the ".250-3000R" was formed? Parent case?

And I DO especially like the .30-40 (but it is hard to choose among these!).

At the time I built it, the only rimmed Mauser type cases available were Norma 8X57R, so that's what I used, employing a set of RCBS forming dies made to form .250-3000 from .30-'06. Today I might use 7X57R.

I have seen High Walls with rimless extractors, but they didn't appear very effective to me, and cases are sometimes hard to extract from a High Wall varmint rifle.

Makes sense; a neat choice for a 'wall, especially if it's easier to make than a .25 Krag Short.

I have made several rimless wall extractors, with mixed success. One problem is the weak side-loaded extractor spring and another problem is lack of primary extraction camming. Worked OK for 30-06 but got stuck brass with both 223 Rem and 243 Win. Sometimes worked fine, other times they stuck, all with the same loads. Nowadays I stick with rimmed cases.
Regards, Joe

I have a Springfield 1903 sporter stocked in walnut by Hal Hartley of North Carolina. It is dated 1981.

JERRY GOLDSTEIN

Just as a matter of interest, if anybody has a Hal Hartley High Wall in 6mm/303 John Pell supplied the barrel for it.
John did one for me as well. A really nice guy.

Here's one of three almost identical Springfields made for me by Harry and Hal in calibers 7mm Remington Magnum, .375/.338 Winchester Magnum (.375 Taylor) and .458 Winchester Magnum. This one is the .375 Taylor.



I don't know why Hal made the fore end so long, unless it was to protect the left hand from getting hit by the sling swivel during recoil. This was 1964 and the idea of a barrel mounted sling swivel had not yet gained a following in this country.

I saw nothing wrong with it at the time. It looks a bit bizarre now.

Hi Folks!

I recently purchased a customized Remington 37 that I'm _told_ was built by Harry Creighton ...



That may or may not be true, but it does live up to the Creighton reputation for accuracy …



Any insight anyone here could offer would be very welcome.

Thanks!
Dave Buffington

My late friend and shooting partner, Tom Shacklett, was an avid small bore shooter and had a number of Remington 37's. His relationship with Harry dated back even further than mine, so he could well have barreled the rifle for Tom. I was tasked with liquidating Tom's collection after his untimely death in an auto accident, and I don't recall that rifle specifically, but I was never a Model 37 shooter, being an Anschutz fan,

Harry usually stamped "CP" for "Creighton proofed" on the barrels he fitted, at least for the center fire calibers. I don't know if he did the same for rimfires.

Many thanks for the info! I'm dreading doing it -- for fear of messing up whatever voodoo makes the gun such a good shooter -- but I'm going to remove the stock from the barreled action some evening soon to see what, if any, markings are on the barrel.

Thanks again!
Dave

In the meantime, I did find some markings on the upper side of the barrel under the existing Weaver rail and scope mount:

C.R.HART
22 L.R.

For those who might be unfamiliar, Hart Rifle Barrels was founded by Charles and Clyde Hart in the 1950s, and the company remains a leading barrel maker. This, of course, helps explain the accuracy of the gun.

Enjoy!
Dave

For your enjoyment, from the June 27, 1947 edition of the Nashville Banner ...