Pennsylvania Ground Hog Rifle

[stephen perry 1]

AWR
I worked a mom/pop shop for 25 yrs as a second job. Bought lots of guns there 3 Model 12's, several Model 70's, .45 Gold Cup, and many others. One rifle really caught my eyes when it came in. Boss bought it from some young guy claiming it was his grandfathers in Pennsylvania but not knowing much about rifles he couldn't name the caliber.

My bud the good smith he was set out to claim the caliber without removing the barrel, I said sure. He did all the measurements he could. On the way back from a quail hunt in Eastern Arizona his dad stopped his Suburban, we all had Suburbans back then. The kid my smith jumped out of the truck pumped two shots through the barrel. He kept the brass. Next day he checked for headspace. Made his final measurements and declared 6 Rem standard.

Bought the rifle. The rifle is on a 03A3 action HV barrel blued assuming a Douglass barrel was 26" now 20 1/2" .934 at the muzzle. Birdseye Maple rollover cheek Varmint stock with checkered steel buttpiece. Canjar set trigger. Barrel/action came with scope blocks. To me this was 50/60's chuck rifle.

I put a 2" Unertl on it, now a Leupold 6.5x20 scope. I make 6 Rem brass sizing down GI 30-06 brass so as to have thick enough brass to turn, barrel has a .267 neck bullet in. Accuracy is ok shot a 10 shot 200M group measured .9".

Stephen Perry

[ARW]

Sounds like you found a winner there Stephen!

I have seen several older custom rifles in my day that were absolutely awesome and with woodwork that had to be seen to be believed. The rifle you described sounds exactly like one of those.

Alan

[TinMan]

Sounds like it might have come from Flaigg's Gunsnhop in Millvale, PA (suburban Pittsburgh area). Their rifles were usually engraved or stamped with their name on the barrel. They did a lot of post WWII conversions from military rifles, M1903, M1917 and M98 Mausers. Very well known.

[ray h]

Tinman, if you remember Flaig's, I bet you wish you had bought a bunch of the G33/40 actions they use to sell for under 50.00. Somewhere I have one of their catalogs from he late 50's.

[stephen perry 1]

tinman
Like to know if Flaig did the work on the 6mm I bought. But engraved on the barrel this rifle is not engraved where you can see. If engraved it would have to be on the bottom side. I'll pull the barreled action out and look.

Stephen Perry

[TinMan]

All of the Flaig's rifles I have seen have been labelled on barrel, just above the stock line like a factory rifle. A 6 or 7 years years ago I saw a pair of pre-64 M70 target rifles, one in 30-06 and one in 300 H&H, they were rebarreled by Flaig's and they were engraved as described. Had no mad money at the time, so after drooling for a few minutes, had to walk away.

I visited Flaig's a few times. A good friend who lived near there told about it. It was a very interesting place, and not too far away from John Unertl's establishment.

[stephen perry 1]

I only knew Flaig's from the trigger shoes they sold. My barrel has no ID marks. But I know PA is a rock solid shooting/gunsmithing State.

Stephen Perry