A lot of letters in the initial shield and what do you think CSS3 might mean? The owner will be watching this and can answer questions.

Original owner looks like W K DuP

I can't think of a barrel maker or gunsmith with the CSS initials, but I'll bet someone can. The 3 is a further mystery to me.

I think the initials are WK du PC; Could this be William Kemble DuPont Carpenter (1919 -1987)? He was the son of R.R.M. Carpenter and Margaretta Lamont DuPont and the nephew of Pierre S. DuPont.

Terry,
The barrel is a NRA Sporter barrel that was rebored to 35 Whelen and still retains the star guage mark on the muzzle. I wonder if the CSS3 has a connection to the reboring.
Dan

Carpetsahib,
Thanks for the idea on a name for the shield, there can't be many people with those initials.
Dan

Wow...yeah, that has to be right. How did you know that? Did he have other rifles monogramed, or are you just familiar with the DuPont family?

A DuPont could easily have the privilege to send a personal gun to Remington for repair, since they owned the company. CSS3 is the Remington repair code for April of 1947. How am I doing? Not as well as the poster who identified the owner of the gun, obviously. Good work.

Its just simple logic: the "du P" suggests DuPont. The "C" suggests the initial of the last name - Cooper, Cox, Carpenter, etc. It isn't far fetched to believe that someone connected to the DuPont family would indicate the fact by using a composite family name.

So, I simply googled "WK DuPont" and looked for a likely candidate with a "C" surname. The party chosen fit the initials and the time period, so voila.

Eightbore,
Does the quarter rib and sight look like Rem work from 1947? Could they have rebored the barrel to 35 at Rem and used the CSS3 mark for the rib and rebore?
This was a great idea of Michaels to post this on the forum, getting lots of good info.
Thanks,Dan

I am a little surprised to find Mr. Carpenter used a "Poor Man's Griffin and Howe". I Googled his name out of curosity as to his gun interests and found the following entry, in the family history blog:
"William Kemble Du Pont CARPENTER-11802 was born 27 May 1919 in DE. He died in FL in 1987.
He retired to Florida where he was concidered the richest man there with 333 million. Unknown which date the dollar figure figured."
Maybe he had the money because he didn't buy G&H's...of course he probably had more than 1 rifle!!!!
Here is a 1950 photo at a family reunion, he is on left and the lady in the dark gown is his wife Frances.

DanLH, the Remington repair could have been anything. The "3" designates "received in repair shop" or some such.

There could be many reasons. Perhaps he had a personal connection with someone at Sedgley. Maybe he wanted a nice but less expensive rifle to use as a beater or a loaner. Maybe he wanted a .35 Whelen, but the wait time at G&H was too long and the Sedgley was available. Maybe he took it to settle a debt and had someone engrave the plate. Maybe he was just a gun nut....

That is a great photo by the way! Its really funny, seeing the different expressions and attitudes on display. Looks like the gentleman, second from the right, is being propped up or steadied. Wonder what's up with that?

Maybe it was a gift. Having a gift engraved is nothing unusual, and maybe the person who gave it to him knew nothing about guns.

In the early 1970's I once toured the Mossberg factory and was proudly shown a highly engraved and gold inlayed Mossberg 810 rifle which had been made for President Nixon to present to Premier Leonid Brezhnev of Russia. The engraving was gaudy and underneath it was a Mossberg rifle. Clearly the person who ordered it had no concept of what constituted a desirable firearm.

Maybe Mr. Carpenter lived in Philadelphia at the time and Sedgley was more convenient.

He doesn't look like the kind of man who would know the difference between a Sedgley and a Griffin & Howe, or for that matter who was capable of firing a rifle in the prone position.

Maybe the person that ordered it knew EXACTLY what he was doing. After all, it was for Brezhnev in the 1970s...

You know, he was pretty bulky for a 31 year old man at that time.

That rifle was made up by & marked 'Pedersen Custom Gun Co.',,which was a sub of Mossberg in North haven Ct.

The rifle was made up to present to Nixon,,to present to Brezhnev upon his visit to the WH.
All to garner publicity for Pedersen as the NSGA Show (Later to be the SHOT Show)in Chicago was coming up.
Pedersen was showing it's guns for the first time there (Early 1972 I think it was,,but it was a long time ago now)

Their hi-power rifles were made on the Mossberg 810.
Seems like the Brezhnev rifle was in 7mmMag, but maybe 338. Can't remember now.
It was engraved by Ralph Alpen. Typical 70's look. The stock(s) were done in the shop,,precarved first by Wysowski Bros (sp),,a local CT supplier. I think I even still have a reject still in the rafters, beautiful figure,,but what to do with it.
Rosewood tip and grip cap originally,,those were band sawed off,,must have been mighty valuable wood back then for some reason!.

Pantographed Pedersen logo 'P' in the cap (on the catalog models,,maybe Leonid's had brass initials in it. M/C cheekpiece was standard.

Finishing, checkering done in the shop. I think Mildred Arthur did the checkering,,maybe her husband Harold did.
They worked together there doing checkering and carving. They had a freelanse business doing the same for the gun industry and had done so since WW2. Harold had worked for Winchester in the 'wood room' prior to that.

Alpen worked 'in house' by then along with Engraver Geo. B. Spring (the elder) and a few engraving apprentices. One was the very young niece of the Kusmit Bros. of the Winchester Custom Shop.

Polishing & fitting done in the Pederson shop,,Mossberg factory hot blue tanks were taken advantage of to do the hot blue. Rust blue was done in the Pedersen shop which was in a separate building on the Mossberg factory grounds behind the main plant.

More than you ever wanted to know about Leo Brezhnev's rifle and Pedersen Custom Gun

...still wouldn't trade my Sedgley for it...

You're exactly right about the 'Pedersen Custom Gun Co' moniker. I had forgotten all about that experiment. The classic attempt at making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Brezhnev, as I recall, was a passionate hunter and probably knew a thing or two about quality guns. I imagine that one was relegated to the back of the gun case. I wouldn't trade my Sedgley for it, either, and my Sedgley is not a particularly nice one.

"...I wouldn't trade my Sedgley for it, either, and my Sedgley is not a particularly nice one."

Looks better than mine..


The Pedersen idea was a classic case of big factory thinking trying to make (semi) custom firearms.
Looking back, it was a fun experience there though. Made many friends.

I often wondered how you say 'Ahhhh,gee,,thanks a lot' in Russian

The rifle was in .338 for the Russian.

From a 1961 LIFE magazine issue, he was a sport fisherman - maybe it was his shark rifle? ;-)

http://books.google.com/books?id=-FEEAAA...TER&f=false

This may be a red-herring, or another clue, but look at what Robert Ruliph Morgan Carpenter is holding in his right hand

http://www.ansp.org/research/systematics...rgan-carpenter/

That man looks more likely to have owned a Sedgley, perhaps it was a gift from one Carpenter to another?

Gentlemen,
I give you the missing link.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Game_trails_from_Alaska_to_Africa.html?id=FbzPAAAAMAAJ


Game trails from Alaska to Africa
Robert Ruliph Morgan Carpenter, William K. du Pont Carpenter, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

You guys are amazing for what you can uncover. What a Sherlockian trail of deductions this has been. Nice work.

Brent,
Glad you like that, but it can only mean... the guilty party was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a monkey wrench.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw

Also, the book is still available from a multiplicity of sources on the 'web.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/game-tra...nter/1104218718

Game Trails from Alaska to Africa by R.R.M. Carpenter Copyright, 1938, By R.R.M. Carpenter, Printed in the United States of America Some years ago when Harry Whitney and I were about to start north on one of my early trips in the Morrissey we were tended a farewell luncheon at the St. Anthony Club in New York by my old friends Charlie Levey. Among the guests were Ruly Carpenter and his son Billy, who at that time was a very young lad. Thus began an acquaintance which soon ripened into a warm and lasting friendship