Naming a firearm...

4

4T4MAG

New member
I have met with a few rifle makers in the last few weeks and the question came up in my mind, when can/should a firearm (rifle) be named after the person/company who made it?

My reasoning for this question is that some of the rifle makers that I met with will buy the action and trigger already made, buy a barrel that has been threaded and contoured, then screw them all together and attach them to a stock then slap their name the barrel. It seems the only amount of actual work they put into it is glass bedding and drilling out for scope rings.

So, if someone buys a barrel blank from somewhere like Wilson Arms (threading, reaming, crowning, contour done by the maker), then buys a pre-built action/trigger and spends time hand crafting a stock, then bedding. Would this example carry naming rights from the maker? Or would/should it be named after the barrel make or other component?

Can anyone shed some light on this?
 
Factory-made firearms are often referred to by the name of the maker, Remington, Colt, etc., and by model number if one wants to be more specific. (I for one hate silly abbreviations like "Remmy", "Winny", "Springer", and the like.)

Custom rifles generically are usually just called "custom rifles" unless the maker is well known, like P.O. Ackley ("I have an Ackley in .300 Ackley Improved..."). If a maker, even a lesser known one, marks the gun with his name or trade name, I would refer to it that way.

Of course, there have been many occasions when a firearm did not work as I thought it should - failed to feed, failed to fire, or wouldn't hit a washtub at 50 feet. Then I called it something like &%*$#$^%(*) POS!!!

Jim
 
Interesting. Should the "new custom" rifle be named after the maker of the barrel, trigger group, stock, etc.??? Carried to the extreme would we name the rifle after the mine which furnished the ore? the foundry? the machinist? Where would it stop?

Then we have the problem of the major companies perhaps not wanting to be associated with something assembled by ye ol custom smith (jackleg) in his utility room.

I would think a custom shop, worth their salt, would tell the interested customer what is in the product; unless, they are using cheapo components.
 
Well, "assembly" of rifles from components is nothing new. Many of the famed makers of "Kentucky" rifles actually used barrels, locks and stocks sold semi-finished by workshops large enough to be called small factories. By the mid 19th century, most makers of "long rifles" actually made almost nothing, only assembling and fitting factory made parts.

At one time, a few custom rifle makers were large enough that they had parts marked with their own name or trademark, even items like buttplates and grip caps moulded to their own specifications. They marked the product with their own name, usually removing any markings that were there, even the serial number, and adding their own. They were custom only in the sense that they would follow a customer's specifications, especially in the stock, rather than the "take it or leave it" attitude of the factories.

Jim
 
Although not about rifles, but aarondhgraham names all of his handguns after females, and I think one of the CZ-75 guys gives his pistols Czech names.
 
I know about "Olde Betsy" and all the other romance about naming weapons (e.g. Excalibur), but I consider a gun a tool. I don't name my power drill or pop rivet tool, so I don't see any reason for naming a gun.

Not to mention that if I told my wife I was going to take "My Winnie" out for the afternoon, I might not make it out the door.

Jim
 
I was not necessarily meaning "name" a rifle after "Ol'yeller" or "Good God, That Hurt" (as I say just BEFORE I pull the trigger on my .500 nitro).

The question came up when a custom rifle maker makes the stock, then buys all the rest of the components, he will ream out the bbl and contour then stamp his name on it. The bbl was bought from a very large blank bbl maker.
 
The question came up when a custom rifle maker makes the stock, then buys all the rest of the components, he will ream out the bbl and contour then stamp his name on it.
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Most rifle builders stamp the barrel with the cartridge it is chambered for, possibly their name or company name, and may also have a separate stamp for inside the stock if they are primarily stockmakers.
 
Well, "assembly" of rifles from components is nothing new. Many of the famed makers of "Kentucky" rifles actually used barrels, locks and stocks sold semi-finished by workshops large enough to be called small factories. By the mid 19th century, most makers of "long rifles" actually made almost nothing, only assembling and fitting factory made parts.
Click to expand...

Even Sam and JS Hawken were assemblers for the most part. Their main income was supplying traps and other fur trade items and doing smith work and gun repair. They did make their own stocks tho.
 
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