doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Swivel base ID? on Oberlies 95 Winchester

I picked up a '95 Winchester. cal 30-06. Obviously restocked, but marked by J(ohn) Oberlies. American walnut wood with figure done in the factory style, checkering, forend tip insert etc.
There's what appears to be Winchester (Super Grade?) sling swivels fitted. The inside of the loops measure just over 1 1/4".
The front is fitted on the barrel to the base shown,,the rear on a small base screwed into the wood.

My question is,,are the bases something the gunsmith made up to fit and use on this rifle,,or are they of commercial mfg?

The rifle (stock) is marked by Oberlies under the Winchester checkered steel butt plate.
The rifle has been polished and rust blued at some point. Not a real bad job as the markings are still visable and the corners are still there but it will definetly benefit from a do-over. Someone has replaced the front site with a glow-bead front sight demanding the rear sight be filed lower(!) to sight it in. I will take care of that also.

Bore is perfect and nothing else was done/damaged on the rifle thankfully. I bought it for very reasonable price as an orphaned reblued, restocked 95.

I'm very happy with a John Oberlies marked rifle that needs a bit of work to the metal.
I'll get an over all pic as soon as I can, daylite and weather permitting.

Remove the front base and see if there is a name stamped on the bottom.

Looks very well done.

IMO both bases are bench-made, perhaps altered from another style. The key in my mind is the barrel-shaped tunnel addition where the SG swivel rod goes through. The rear base appears to be identical to some others on prewar rifles having non-detachable swivels, with the original tunnel cut away and the new SG-size tunnel then being attached, probably via silver-solder.

The front base's tunnel appears to also be an addition although the base itself is not familiar to me like the rear base.

However it appears that these SG swivels were made and sold by folks other than Winchester and so these could be bases that were supplied by the swivel makers themselves.
Regards, Joe

These swivel bases look like ones I've seen on other Oberlies rifles. I'm pretty sure he made them.On rifles of his I've owned I recall scope bases, sight blades,and swivel bases like these.

I took the front base off,,no name or #'s on the back. Screws are tightly fitted to the countersinks.

The front is deffinetly a one piece affair. The barrel outside diameter is even with the lower side edge of the base. Making it with 2 pieces would have shown on the inside radius of the base if it were.

The rear swivel is a two piece assembly,,but the portion seen in the pic,,the barrel/sleeve and it's tapered base are all one piece.

That was then silver soldered to the screw with a like diameter flat top. The assembly was turned after soldering to trim the two parts together.
Assembled in the stock the joint never shows as it's just below the surface. Even out of the wood it's hard to see.

Thanks for the info R/M Bill on the other Oberlies rifle hardware. This is the first one I've had and haven't ever examined others closely enough to catch these details..

That front base might be a piece of the same tube soldered to bar stock as well?
Are you going to show us the rifle?

As Bill states, John Oberlies made his own hardware. However, studs like the rear one were commercially available "back when", but I don't remember the manufacturer's name. I happened to see a set in the original box, but the owner would not sell them. They apparently were compatible with Winchester Super Grade swivels which were available "back when". Oberlies obviously made your front base. His handmade bases were usually compatible with the Winchester swivels. Yeah, we would like to see a picture of the whole rifle.

You have wetted our whistle's with your swivel base pics...how about getting us to drooling with some full length pics.

Well here are a few picture trys from this morning. The unheated back porch turned out to be a better spot than out in the snow, but neither complimented my meager photomaking abilitys. Kinda dark even with the flash..
Maybe a camera that doesn't still use a floppy disc would help..

Nice wood in the butt stock. I don't think it's ever been redone since it was stocked. Has that look to it. It'll be a nice project to redo the metalwork and bring it back up to where it belongs.

Oberlies was a frugal guy, used the Winchester buttplates unless you were willing to pay for one of his handmade butts. We're missing a few shots that you could post. The front swivel base with swivel installed, a shot of the front sight, maybe a shot of the initial plate on the bottom of the stock. Do you have any provenance on your gun? Thanks for the nice pictures.