doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Ray Morgan rifle maker?

I have a client who inherited his father's Ray Morgan left hand .22 single shot rifle with 24x Fecker, Eric Johnson 5 star barrel. He is trying to find out if Ray Morgan built these rifles specifically for individuals like his father or whether he produced the same rifle for everyone. I've been told by another person they have a the same rifle and scope but right handed. I would like to find any information on Ray Morgan and his rifles other than what can be googled. Thank you for any replies.

That's a pretty interesting rifle. Never heard of the maker, but I can see he had pretty strong ideas about what he wanted. I'm trying to figure out that comb though. Why 2-piece? It doesn't appear, from the photos that it is adjustable in and of itself. But maybe there is a second comb that would bolt on for shooting iron sights?

I love the color of that wood. Almost looks like rosewood to me. Maybe it is, but a nice rifle no matter what.

Brent

PS. That scope is worth a pretty penny by itself. Not many Feckers over 20x

The comb is removable so you can get a cleaning rod in from the breech. A nice touch for rifles with very high combs.

Of course... I'm simply not firing on all eight this morning.

Thanks.

I had never heard of a Ray Morgan rifle until this was posted. There was a thread on the ASSRA Forum back in 2010. I found the following on the Cast Boolits Forum:

Ray Morgan was a Winchester engineer who figured he could design a better .22 rimfire mouse trap. Designed for smallbore prone during the golden years of competition after WWII the Morgan rifle has the flavor of both the Remington 37 and the Winchester 52. A cult item amoung smallbore prone shooters, owning and competing with one even to the day gives a shooter star status. These rifles are prized that much.

Morgan tried to make 100 actions, story goes that one batch got "burned" during heat treat so the number of Morgan rifles actually produced is obviously less than 100. There were stories years ago that 85 were actually produced but many of us have noticed that no serial numbers in the 60's or above have been seen. The actual number of known Morgan rifles is much less.

In the beginning Morgan worked with Karl Kenyon and Eric Johnson as well as Creighton Audette. Of course Johnson did the barrels and Kenyon did the triggers and many of the known examples have Audette stocks but some do not. Story goes Kenyon did the triggers for 15 Morgans and then withdrew citing that since Morgan was a hand made action and each one was a little different he had to reinvent his trigger for each action. Morgan made his own triggers after that.

Morgan rifles have won all levels of competition over the decades including the National Championship at Camp Perry. ::

That is the end of the info from the other forum. My guess as to time period would be either late 30s or postwar, extending into the 50s. With the comments about detail changes in the trigger as "production" progressed, the entire design would seem to be a work in progress.

Brent and I are serious smallbore shooters. Perhaps Terry Buffum can add something to this thread. I think I'll put a Ray Morgan rifle on my bucket list. Tuesday is smallbore day for me. Right now, I'm headed out the door with my Farrow. Thanks for a very interesting post.


Richard

Brittany Man hit the nail on the head. It's not adjustable and the inside rail has a maker's name that started with J. but I couldn't read it because it was so small. I weighed the rifle and it came in at 14 1/2 pounds. The wood work and choice of wood is phenomenal. I would love to own a right handed version just like this one.

Looks like Creighton Audette's stock design. See page 280 of More Single Shot Rifles for Ballard with his stock. I have also seen Hauck action with this style of stock made by Creighton.

I have nothing to add. I'd heard of the rifles, and stock does appear to be Audette's work. Nice piece, and I hope you will treasure it not only for the family connection but also its competitive excellence!