doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Sukalle-Minar-O'Connor 1903

The signature is the initials visible on the wood of the stock between the trigger & magazine openings?

The initial an A centered under an M.
Both Shoemaker and Petrov's Minar have this signature.
Dan.

It will be interesting to see if this one has the same when it arrives.

David, I notice the O'Conner note reads "Sukalle Tucson" and the barrel
reads Sukalle Phoenix. Any thoughts on that?
Maybe a rebarrel at a later date? Dan.

O'Connor's own Minar-Sukalle 7x57mm was re-barreled at least once, according to several published accounts. O'Connor says he got rid of it because 139 gr. 7mm bullets left a gap for gases to wear out the barrel's throat. So if he sold it in 1940 because the throat was wearing out and it was becoming inaccurate, the new owner (Alfred Ronstadt, according to Anderson) might well have had it re-barreled yet again.

Ya, makes a lot of sense!!! Thank you!
After a second look it appears that Tucson address was penciled in at a later date anyway. Dan.

The Internet is pretty handy. Last night, I found exactly what that missing buttplate looked like.

Phil Shoemaker has Jack O'Connor Sukalle-Minar .30-06, more photos here .


Jack O'Connor's .30-06's Buttplate

How do we know this is the same? Just compare:

O'Connor .30-06 Pistol Grip Cap with trap

Just purchased Sukalle-Minar Pistol Grip cap with trap

Great bit of detective work. This is turning out to be one of the best threads in a long time.

More data.

Here's Jack O'Connor describing his 7x57 Mauser Sukalle-Minar:

http://www.gundigest.com/ammunition-reviews-articles/forty-years-little-7mm

I got my first 7�57 rifle in 1934. I saw it at Bill Sukalle�s shop in Tucson. Bill had put a 7�57 barrel on a remodeled action from a World War I German Model 98 Mauser sniper�s rifle. It had been magnificently stocked in handsome French walnut by Adolph G. Minar of Fountain, Colorado, one of the finest classic stackers [sic] that ever lived. The stock had a German trap buttplate and a trap grip cap. It had as iron sights a Lyman 1-A peep on the cocking piece and a ramp front sight with gold bead. With iron sights, the rifle weighed slightly less than 7 pounds. However, it was equipped with a big German Gerard scope on claw mounts, which outfit added about two pounds. The scope was good optically, but because of the soft mount, it would not hold a constant point of impact. I traded the scope off. However, the rifle with iron sights was an astounding bargain at $75. That�s right-$75! I took off the Lyman 1-A and had a 4x Noske scope put on with the Noske mount. The outfit then weighed less than 8 pounds.

The 7�57 is loaded all over the world. Here is some of the good RWS (German) ammo.

I shot my first desert ram with that rifle, one of the best Rocky Mountain mule deer I have ever knocked off, and various other game � all with the Western factory 139-gr. open point bullet load. With one exception, everything I shot at with a 7�57 was a one-shot kill. That was a desert mule deer which I shot in one ham as he ran directly away and on which I used two cartridges. Then about 1952, I caught up. Hunting on Idaho�s Snake River with another 7�57, I picked out a nice fat doe and took a crack at her. Down the hill she rolled � and also a forkhorn buck that had been standing behind her.

Sadly enough, I traded off that lovely little Sukalle-Minar 7�57, along about 1940, for an equally handsome 2-R Lovell on a Sharps-Borchardt action. Like the 7�57, it had been barreled by Sukalle and stocked by Minar.

So, his was a Mauser action with a Lyman cocking piece sight. The one on Gun Broker is a Springfield action with regular Lyman aperture sight.

But the two rifles are extremely similar. The must have been built very close together in time. They both have the same furniture otherwise, and the Gun Broker rifle has a written description apparently by Jack O'Connor, giving it some kind of mysterious connection to O'Connor.