doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Single shot actions

Craig, If you think Pope had a concept of marketing, you need to go back and bone up on Pope. My only point here is that if Pope thinks the Winchester action is the most accurate, and if Whelen thinks it's the strongest ever, then I say it's the best vintage American action for a hunting rifle.

What??? My comment was making a joke about what Pope said calling Stevens guns junk. He and Stevens did not have a good relationship at all and I was making fun of that. Haven't you ever heard anyone say "tell us how you really feel" after someone makes a pointed comment about someone else or something???? My post I assure you had nothing to do with you.

LRF, My misunderstanding. No ruffeled feathers here.

Anything Pope said about Stevens has to be tainted by his bad repoir with the company he worked for. He left on very poor terms and never had anything good to say about them.
As for his comments on Winchester, they too are slightly tainted by his wonderful relationship with Winchester, and their willingness to sell him just about anything he ordered in any configuration he wanted. One of the only companies who would sell Pope bored and unrifled barrels, and even complete guns with nothing but a hole down the bore for Harry to finish later.
But although Pope did indeed switch to Winchester 1885, evidence shows he built far more barrels for Ballard rifles than he did for all the others combined. So Harry may have chosen Winchester 1885's, but his customers greatly favored the Marlin Ballard.

A comment about HW actions: I think the best of the best might be what I assume were the ones Sedgley bought from Winchester when production of them ended. These were thick wall, center fire, coil spring receivers. I've been lucky to find a couple of them. One is now a 30-06R and the other 7x65R.

Bill, I've always preferred flat spring actions. And I greatly prefer scalloped or "thin side" highwalls. I also prefer scalloped lowwalls for appearances sake and better balance. But scalloped low walls are not "thin" of course. I'm not alone in that, though both types are common on the line. My best '85s use both flat and coil.

I can't think of why the last ones would be better than any of the others.

My current 85s are .45-70, 40-65, 38-72, and .22 rf (lowwall)

Bill, I've always preferred flat spring actions. And I greatly prefer scalloped or "thin side" highwalls. I also prefer scalloped lowwalls for appearances sake and much better balance and handling. But scalloped low walls are not "thin" of course. I'm not alone in those preferences, although all types are common on the line. My best '85s use both flat and coil.

I can't think of why the last ones would be better than any of the others.

My current 85s are .45-70, 40-65, 38-72, and .22 rf (lowwall)

Brent, The latest HWs had a smaller diameter firing pin, and the thick wall actions are stronger ,not that strength is an issue. Since I wanted to build some modern caliber rifles, these actions just seemed the best I could use. As for the others, I like them just fine and have several. My calibers include 22 LR(2) , 219 Zipper. 219 DW, 30 krag (2), 30-06, 7x65R, 405 WCF, and 45-70. As for mainsprings, I don't know where the advantage lies, if there is one. The coil spring actions had the lightened hammer but I don't know how much difference that makes.

Since my SC shooting has been shut down due to the plague, I've been doing a little shooting out the back door. Target frame is about 20 feet short of a 100 yds... but at least I'm pulling the trigger.



Original M/D in .32 Miller Short....traditional? Not so much but great for punching paper.




A bit more traditional... HiWall .32-40 and equally adept dependent on the operator.
http://

10 shot groups.
http://