My Hepburn finally finished after a couple decades!

[marlinman93]

Last month at our OAC collector gun show I gave the stocks for my engraved Hepburn to my gunsmith friend so he could pass them along to an older gentleman to checker. A little back story on this gun, and the checkerer are in order.
This was the first Hepburn I ever owned, and it came to me as a barreled action in .45-70, with two blocks of wood to make stocks from. All the metal was in the white, and needed final polishing, and barrel needed to be cut and crowned. I sent the two blanks of stock wood to Dave Crossno, and had the stocks cut to a long-range pattern with cheekpiece and shotgun butttplate inletted. When the stocks came back I did the final fitting, and applied 16 coats of Wipe On Poly, and hand rubbed them with rottenstone when done.
I polished out all the metal, and had Dale Woody engrave the rifle, and color case, rust blue it also. Once it all was finished, I figured someday I'd get the stocks checkered, but someday took over 20 years to get around to!
My gunsmith friend kept showing me work his checkerer was doing, and he told me the guy was an old retired logger, who was self taught, and at 85 yrs. old was still going strong! I figured now was my chance, and if I didn't get him to do the work I might never get around to it!
So I passed the stocks to Gordy last month and this morning I saw him walk into the show with a couple packages under his arm, and knew what they were!


https://i.imgur.com/dxTs8SKl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Y93o3t6l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/z9lEFm9l.jpg

Not only did he do a wonderful job, with zero over runs, but once he'd finished the checkering he stained and sealed the raw checkering and when I got them back they were ready to install! First time I've ever seen a checkerer take the extra step of finishing his checkering, and I couldn't be happier! And when I asked what I owed, the price was half of what I expected to pay for such nice work! All around just a great experience!

[M-Tecs]

That is an outstanding piece of work. Thanks for posting.

[marlinman93]

That is an outstanding piece of work. Thanks for posting.

Thanks! I sure am pleased with what he did. Glad I let him decide what he wanted to do on it.

[Baltimoreed]

Amazing rifle. Those old rollers are a true classic.

[sukivel]

Very nice indeed!


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[marlinman93]

Amazing rifle. Those old rollers are a true classic.

Thanks. But Hepburns aren't "rollers". Hepburn actions are falling block actions, not rolling block actions.

[Jeff Michel]

Beautiful......

[old turtle]

I have a Hepburn with its original stock. These rifles are classics. The checkering on your rifle is absolutely beautiful. I am not surprised that the gentleman who did this is somewhat older. I say somewhat older as am 85. His skill is unbelievable. We are loosing these skills at a rapid rate. I think you should shoot this rifle at every chance, as I am doing with mine.

[corbinace]

Oh, Wow!!! A beautiful rifle with painstaking workmanship on both the wood and steel. Thank you for sharing your piece of artwork with us.

[gnoahhh]

Exquisitely sublime, Vall. My compliments to all involved. Time now to shoot it!

[marlinman93]

I have a Hepburn with its original stock. These rifles are classics. The checkering on your rifle is absolutely beautiful. I am not surprised that the gentleman who did this is somewhat older. I say somewhat older as am 85. His skill is unbelievable. We are loosing these skills at a rapid rate. I think you should shoot this rifle at every chance, as I am doing with mine.

I have no idea how much ammo I've put through the Hepburn over the last 20 years, but it's not been a safe queen! Lots of shooting out to 1000 yds., as that's what I originally built it for. It's a very good shooting rifle that now looks better too.
Actually just shot it at our annual long range shoot in October most recently.

[koger]

Awesome rifle and story Val, thanks for sharing both the story and pics.

[marlinman93]

Awesome rifle and story Val, thanks for sharing both the story and pics.

You bet! Thanks!

[Texas by God]

Beautiful rifle!


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[JDHasty]

That sure is nice!

[marlinman93]

Thanks!
I was at a friend's house yesterday picking up a Rolling Block 1867 pistol that he bought as a pair, and we split them. He reached into his safe and pulled out his engraved Hepburn in .45-70 and handed it to me to look at (drool over).
His has a 30" extra heavy octagon barrel that's a good 1/8" larger than the receiver on each side! Fully engraved, with buffalo on the left side, fleur de lei checkering, exotic stocks, and a set of Kelly Long Range Soule, and globe sights! Made me weak in the knees!
Then he tells me he's too old to shoot it, and is contemplating selling it! I told him I hoped he wasn't in a hurry to sell, as I'd love to own it, but timing was bad right now. He said he hadn't even decided for sure yet, but it will be up for sale sometime in the future. So he'll call me first and see if I can work out the finances once he decides when and how much he wants.

[GARD72977]

You have great taste in guns. Absolutely beautiful. I love hepburns

[marlinman93]

You have great taste in guns. Absolutely beautiful. I love hepburns

I love them too, but most are higher priced than I'd care to spend. I save a long time before I can make a big purchase, and Hepburns take a big chunk of my gun funds!
I may have to sell something I'm not quite as in love with to be able to buy this other engraved Hepburn! But it's worth a sacrifice if it happens.

[JDHasty]

I think it was CS Landis who had written in an article that he favors a Hepburn varmint rifles for shooting out the window of a vehicle with. It was a long time ago but I still remember reading that and thinking to myself: I could see that.

[marlinman93]

I think it was CS Landis who had written in an article that he favors a Hepburn varmint rifles for shooting out the window of a vehicle with. It was a long time ago but I still remember reading that and thinking to myself: I could see that.

The side lever would certainly help for that shooting method! Louis L Hepburn designed the Hepburn as a target rifle, and it wasn't supposed to be a typical Sporting Rifle. His side lever design was done to allow the gun to be loaded without changing the shooter's position. But the side lever also was a flaw if the shooter ever had a stuck case as there's not much leverage. A lot more leverage than a Rolling Block, but not like a typical underlever design has.

[Rusty Goose]

Beautiful rifle, very impressive work done there. Thank you for sharing. I have dreams of having my model 71 Winchester get such a treatment, I don't even know where to start looking.

Rusty

[uscra112]

There will come a time when that rifle passes into other hands. Make sure you write down the provenance so it won't be lost.

[marlinman93]

Beautiful rifle, very impressive work done there. Thank you for sharing. I have dreams of having my model 71 Winchester get such a treatment, I don't even know where to start looking.

Rusty


I would start by contacting Al Springer at Snowy Mountain Gun Restoration in Moore, Mt. I've used Al's service for many restorations, and they don't come much better. If you contemplate engraving also, I'm not much help now. The guy I used died well before the pandemic, and not sure who to use now?
I did my own stock work, and all the polishing on barrel and receiver, as Al will be much faster, and cheaper if it's ready when it gets to him. Prepped work goes ahead of the line, and normally done in a month.

[marlinman93]

There will come a time when that rifle passes into other hands. Make sure you write down the provenance so it won't be lost.

I really need to do this for certain guns I own. I've been lucky to get some guns that I was able to track down provenance and put together folders for them. But haven't done so on the guns I've restored and built. I keep putting it off, and I should do it so my family can make a better decision on how they want to handle them.

[Rifle 57]

Great story and nice rifle!!