Tingle Frontstuffers???

[FloridaFialaFan]

In the late'50s I became acquainted with Bob Tingle who had a small gun shop in Shelbyville, Indiana specializing in charcoal burners of his own design and hand craftsmanship. I got one of Bob's great .44 single-shot pistols. A huge brass framed hand cannon that was a great shooter. I also got one of his Walnut buttstocks for it with matching serial number. I believe that outfit was numbered 25.

Over the ensuing decades I collected and sold hundreds of guns both here and in Canada. In all those years I never saw another Tingle made gun.

A year or so ago Dan Shideler wrote an article about Tingle and his guns in The Gun List (now Gun Digest the Magazine). That started me on a quest to find more Tingles.

Here's a photo of one I found at an online auction recently. It's the same type of pistol I had decades before, but serial number 51.



I would like to hear from anyone with experience in handling any of Bob's guns. I've seen pics of a couple of his massive rifles and they went for equally BIG prices. Bob died in a snowstorm decades ago so there will be no more.

Anyone here familiar with his guns? I'd like to hear from you. I would also like to find one of his original buttstocks for this gun, but I'm afraid that's nigh impossible.

Best regards ~ ~ ~ FFF

[Kuato]

Now THATS a hogleg!! I love it! That squareback trigger guard is great! Shame he aint around anymore...

[FloridaFialaFan]

You're right about that, Kuato. He was just a young guy, walking from his house to his workshop in one of Indiana's worst snowstorms. Died of a heart attack I was told. One of the nicest gun nuts I've ever met. He was HEAVY into the BP stuff there in Shelbyville. That was the original home of the NMLRA before they moved to Freedom.

You should have seen the range they used just outside of Shelbyville. Unbelievable place.

Best regards ~ ~ ~ FFL

[Boz330]

You're right about that, Kuato. He was just a young guy, walking from his house to his workshop in one of Indiana's worst snowstorms. Died of a heart attack I was told. One of the nicest gun nuts I've ever met. He was HEAVY into the BP stuff there in Shelbyville. That was the original home of the NMLRA before they moved to Freedom.

You should have seen the range they used just outside of Shelbyville. Unbelievable place.

Best regards ~ ~ ~ FFL

Actually it is Friendship. I never saw the range at Shelbyville but they have a pretty nice range at Friendship, EXCEPT when it rains real hard.

Bob

[FloridaFialaFan]

Boz330, you're correct, it is Friendship NOT Freedom. At my age it's difficult to remember your


- - - mmm what were we talking about?

[cagey1]

Howdy gentlemen, I know I'm a late-comer in all of this ,but I had owned several of Bob's guns in the past. My first rifle was a half-stocked rifle with a 15/16"AF barrel 30" long in .45 calibre. Finish is blued, hardware is brass, with a poured pewter fore-end cap - no double-entry thimble. It looks very much like the Lyman Trade Gun. The lock was his own design in that it is a coil spring lock - before Thompson Center had one ! It uses a drum and nipple ignition system. The barrel is held to the stock by a heavy (3/16") pin through a heavy wire loop under the barrel. My stock appears to be maple - straight grained with no figure and is finished natural. Triggers are single-lever double-set,and adjustable. There is no toe-plate. This rifle has the serial number of #125, and is completely left-handed. This was the only south-paw front-stuffer available at that time (1965?). I still have it. It's going to my great-grandson soon. I hope he will hang on to it.
I also have one of his mule-ear rifles in .45 calibre. I don't recall that Bob made any straight-line rifles.
There was one of his pistols on the web-site of www.thegunworks.com just last week, but I didn't see it on there today. Those pistols don't last long.
Thanks for listening.

[couleeflyfisher]

Howdy gentlemen, I know I'm a late-comer in all of this ,but I had owned several of Bob's guns in the past. My first rifle was a half-stocked rifle with a 15/16"AF barrel 30" long in .45 calibre. Finish is blued, hardware is brass, with a poured pewter fore-end cap - no double-entry thimble. It looks very much like the Lyman Trade Gun. The lock was his own design in that it is a coil spring lock - before Thompson Center had one ! It uses a drum and nipple ignition system. The barrel is held to the stock by a heavy (3/16") pin through a heavy wire loop under the barrel. My stock appears to be maple - straight grained with no figure and is finished natural. Triggers are single-lever double-set,and adjustable. There is no toe-plate. This rifle has the serial number of #125, and is completely left-handed. This was the only south-paw front-stuffer available at that time (1965?). I still have it. It's going to my great-grandson soon. I hope he will hang on to it.
I also have one of his mule-ear rifles in .45 calibre. I don't recall that Bob made any straight-line rifles.
There was one of his pistols on the web-site of www.thegunworks.com just last week, but I didn't see it on there today. Those pistols don't last long.
Thanks for listening.

I have a .45 cal. Tingle rifle I bought in the 60's, Ser.#1517. Price if I remember right was approx. $145., shortly after I bought the Tingle, Thompson Center started selling front loaders. The Tingle is a great rifle, his own design which wasn't a copy or similar to the other Hawken styles. Has a heavy barrel and accurate. I purchased mine direct from Tingle in Shelbyville, but do remember the pistols listed by Dixie Arms.

[FloridaFialaFan]

Hey, Guys!!! There are TWO original Tingle guns up for sale on that auction site on the Web that brokers guns. Pistol is SERIAL NUMBER 2, other is one of his standard rifles.

Best regards ~ ~ ~ FFF

[Boerrancher]

The first front stuffer I ever had my hands on was a 45cal Tingle that a friend of my dad owned. I have no clue what happened to that gun when he died. It was one of the many guns in his collection that I would have loved to own. That gun was a shooter for sure. As long as you did your part it would toss those PRB's into one hole at 60 yards all day long. One of these days I will find a Tingle that I can afford.

Best wishes,

Joe

[725]

Kind of reminds me of the T/C Scout.

[Coffeecup]

Tingle's are still showing up once in a while. An acquaintance picked one up at a garage sale a couple weeks ago. The seller held him up for almost $250, and then made him take all the shooting accessories and supplies. I only heard about it because I got a call asking if I had any empty powder cans, he said it was too awkward to fill his flask from the KEG. (That's why he's an "acquaintance" and not a "friend"--a friend would have called immediately to gloat.)

Caliber is a fast-twist .45, I'm not sure of the source of the barrel. When Tingle was working, it wasn't uncommon to make pistol barrels from .45-70 barrels, due to the desire for a faster twist. The barrel on this pistol may have come from a new .45 rifle blank, or have been custom; it isn't marked either way.

[DIRT Farmer]

I shot a Tingle 41 pistol at Friendship many years and made it into the master class with it. He was one of the first to start the small bore guns (at the time) for compitation. They were the race guns of the time.

[Merwinman]

Hello,
I am new here and came to this site while searching for information on a new find. I recently found a Tingle Mfg. Co. Shelbyville In. .44 revolver with serial number 9 and my research brought me here.
Bringing back to life this thread (07-12).
I understand there were a limited number of 25 of these made. I will try to post a picture.


Does anyone have one of these?

Thanks!
Terry

[KCSO]

I had the single shot just like that one and it shot like a house a fire. I was sorry to ever let it go but I was into more traditional stuff.

[Bob Maerdian]

For a while when I was in college I sold some of those pistols for a friend who lived in Los Altos Hills, CA. The one I had was marked #1 or #10. I was victimized by a burgular. I sold a few of them to Nate Posner who owned the San Francisco Gun exchange till he died several years ago.

Mine shot like a house afire!!

[ColonelBob]

I own several of the Tingle singles shot magnums from one of the preproduction prototypes to several low serial number models if any one is still interested in them.

[ColonelBob]

I own several of these pistols including a prototype.

[koger]

I have had a .45 and two .50s, both half stocks, and great shooters!

[BPSharps]

Has anyone seen one of the Tingle mule ear shotguns in person?

[SeabeeAl]

BPSharps, what do you want to know about Bob Tingle’s mule ear shotgun?