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[Brett Hoop]

Originally Posted by Kevin McCormack

.505 Gibbs bolt gun. Somebody from WI or MI had one at the Southern SxS last year that was the best one I've ever seen.

Interesting, I hope it comes back around this year. Barie Duckworth ( legendary Zimbabwe PH, and former Parks Ranger) has the only original 505 Gibbs rifle I have held. I know he bought it from Marshall Fields rep at SCI back in the 70’s. Barie’s friend and fellow former Parks Ranger/ Hunter Richard Harlan also has another Gibbs in 505, with there being just one serial number between those rifles. Those fellas both did a lot of cull work back in their Parks ,days, but they did most of that with MS in .458 Win. Today Neil, Barie’s son, carry’s his dads .505 daily.

When that 505 goes off, if your in the same concession you know it, and you know the $hit hit the fan.

[stumpstalker]

Here is a favorite from my small collection of rifles, and used for my semi-purposeful walks in the woods during Deer season. It is a 1906-era Model 1894 octagonal-barreled 30.30 cal. Winchester; and it was once owned by Robert Bumford, of Concord, Massachusetts, a hunting and fishing buddy of my father’s, and a friend who died of cancer in his mid-30s.

I retain the original buckhorn sights, but replaced them and added the Skinner aperture sights, without having to make any permanent alterations.

Another photo below shows "Bobby” on the left and my father on the right (an unidentified man is in the middle) after a day Blue-fishing in Nantucket Sound.

The rifle was inherited by my father, and then by me.

It is heavy, but carries easily, when straight-armed pendantly, and without a sling, due to its convenient balance-point and rounded forearm.

For years I puzzled over what had crudely been scratched, probably with a pocket knife, into the forearm: “L. Allen Scott/ Phantom Valley Ranch”. It sounded to me like a name right out of a Hollywood Western. It is he who probably carved a horse’s head on one side of the stock, and a daisy on the other.

Such carvings surely do nothing but diminish any residual collector value to what is a prosaic 1894 Winchester, to begin with. But for me, they invest the gun with a unique intrigue.

Due to the internet, I now know that it was probably owned by Lester Allen Scott, who ran a dude ranch, in Colorado, at one time, named Phantom Valley Ranch. It existed from early in the 20th to the mid-20th Century.

I attach a link below.

It is one of those firearms of a category where the monetary value is slight, but the story is meaningful.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Brett Hoop

When that 505 goes off, if your in the same concession you know it, and you know the $hit hit the fan.

I’ve shot a CZ 550 Safari in 505 quite a bit , but the only other I’ve ever held was a Granite Arms I was appraising for someone . The 505 is not as violent recoil wise as one would assume . It does move you when it goes off but it’s more of a big push rather than a violent sharp recoil .