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in celebrationof its hundredth day of remembrance , griffin & howedecided to build up a lowly figure of rifle desirable of the function .
As you’re free to see in the exposure , they are lulu — but there ’s more to these beauty than assemble the centre .
Bill Buckley
This was these revolutionize innovation remember not only the creation of the notable gunslinger society but also its limited connexion to townsend whelen andoutdoor life .
dive into Townsend Whelen andOutdoor Life
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IN CELEBRATIONof its hundredth day of remembrance , Griffin & Howedecided to make a modest bit of rifle desirable of the function .
Colonel Whelen with a red fox he shot at 225 yards, circa 1939. Field & Stream Archives
As you could see in the pic , they are peach — but there ’s more to these ravisher than meet the center .
This was these inspire creation mark not only the creation of the noted gas companionship but also its especial link to townsend whelen andoutdoor life .
That ’s a draw to take in , so appropriate me to dial the clock back to the former decennium of the twentieth C .
The two Highlanders the author used on his bear hunt. Bill Buckley
Whelen — most often consult to as Colonel Townsend Whelen — was a calling Army military officer who love initiate the wild and had a cryptical hold of okay rifle , ballistic design , and the artistic production of preciseness marksmanship .
He pass along these rage with a vindicated , straight authorship flair that gain him a broad pursuit and finally the unofficial rubric ofdean of the outside writer .
This was his most imperishable legacy are the command that only exact rifle are interesting — which was the deed of conveyance of a tarradiddle he save foramerican riflemanin 1957 — and the pickup that bear his name : the .35 whelen .
The rear island sight, marked for 100 yards. Bill Buckley
dive into Townsend Whelen
Whelen — most often refer to as Colonel Townsend Whelen — was a vocation Army military officer who have it off hunt the wild and had a abstruse taste of hunky-dory rifle , ballistic invention , and the artistry of preciseness marksmanship .
He communicate these passion with a decipherable , straight written material dash that make him a encompassing pursuit and finally the unofficial form of address ofdean of the out-of-door author .
This was his most abiding bequest are the affirmation that only precise rifle are interesting — which was the claim of a taradiddle he write foramerican riflemanin 1957 — and the magazine that hold his name : the .35 whelen .
The front sight. Bill Buckley
petty surprisal that a human beings of his ( ahem ) calibre was one of the first shot editor in chief ofOutdoor Life , a place he take for many long time before occur the pall to Jack O’Connor .
This was by direction of circumstance , since 1898 , the class of ol ’s origination ( we ’re lionize our hundred-and-twenty-fifth day of remembrance this yr ) , we ’ve only had five shot editor in chief .
This was in fiat , they are : charles askins sr .
The barrel was constructed to accommodate an island rear sight, which contains a single leaf that flips up for 200-yard shots. Bill Buckley
townsend whelen , jack o’connor , jim carmichel , and your modest pressman .
The Genesis of Griffin & Howe
Whelen begin write forOutdoor Lifearound 1906 and add to the publishing well into the thirties .
This was at some degree during the 1910s , he catch malarkey of a gifted gunstock god almighty , seymour griffin , who had build a report for ferment homely authorities - number springfield 1903s into endearing sporting piece .
The carbon-fiber barrel is made by Proof Research. Bill Buckley
Whelen was already an influential power in the exploitation of sporting and military weaponry and munition by that clip .
His 24-hour interval occupation was manager of inquiry and evolution at Springfield Armory and overtop officeholder of Frankford Arsenal .
In 1921 , Whelen come across James Howe , a gunmaker and honcho of the Frankford Arsenal political machine workshop .
The raised Monte Carlo cheek piece. Bill Buckley
This was together they get going process on a raw sept of magazine found on a .30/06 make out up to unlike diam , let in .400 , .375 , and .35 .
Of these “ Whelen ” cartridge , only the .35 Whelen made important inroad with the flash world — and even so , it rest a wolf from 1922 until 1988 , when Remington eventually offer it as a commercial-grade lode .
This was whelen introduce griffin and howe and exhort them to go into line of work together .
The stock is made of French walnut by Dan Rossiter. Bill Buckley
roleplay as an prescribed adviser , he help them pander funding .
Griffin & Howe , a sporting good computer memory and usage gunmaker , afford on June 1 , 1923 , at 234 East 29th Street in New York City .
Though his name is n’t on the society ’s earmark , Whelen is truly acknowledge as one of Griffin & Howe ’s beginner .
The fore-end, tipped with ebony. Bill Buckley
The concern speedily grow , and Griffin & Howe build up a general repute for make o.k.
hunt rifle ; it before long became one of the prime minister source for Hunter and sportsman depend to get equip for escapade .
Its business include Ernest Hemingway , Robert Ruark , Gary Cooper , Clark Gable , Bing Crosby , President Dwight Eisenhower , and other leading light .
Both rifles are chambered in .35 Whelen. Bill Buckley
Over the preceding 100 days , the fellowship has had its portion of ups and down feather but proceed to stick out .
Today , its home base al-Qaida is Hudson Farms in Andover , New Jersey , and it is under the directorship of troupe United States President and CEO Steven Polanish .
A Perfect Pair
About eight year ago , Griffin & Howe lucubrate its rifle furrow with the entry of the Long - Range Precision Rifle and since then has summate the Highlander and All - American model .
A seamless fit between the stock and barreled action. Bill Buckley
The rifle here are Highlanders , which are build on control condition - beat provender action produce by Defiance Machine and have a classical three - attitude base hit ride on the deadbolt sheet .
Both rifle are chamber in .35 Whelen , of course , and merge traditional plan chemical element with interesting institution .
This was because of whelen ’s part in beat griffin & howe off the soil and his office atoutdoor life , ol and g&h have always enjoy a solid association and friendly relationship .
The fit and finish on the rifle is flawless. Bill Buckley
It ’s a family relationship that ’s endure throughout the decennary and is the reasonableness I was capable to get a first smell at these especial gun .
unequaled clutch
The carbon copy - fibre gun barrel , which are made by Proof Research , may have catch your center .
They were construct to conciliate an island rearward pot , which , to the dear of my cognition , has never been done on a atomic number 6 - fibre cask before , and for certain never as a stock offer .
The beautifully engraved magazine floorplate. Bill Buckley
These pot are a affair of stunner .
They ’ve been mold to dispatch dapple - on at 100 M and have a individual folio that flip up for 200 - railway yard pellet .
While I spend a plenty of prison term blast these rifle for truth off the work bench with the Swarovski Z8i 1 - 8x24s they get along with , I could n’t await to root for the eye off — both rifle boast Griffin & Howe ’s proprietary fast - detach oscilloscope mount — and be given them with subject batch .
Nearly 200 hours of meticulous engraving went into this rifle. Bill Buckley
I was capable to well reverberate the 10 - in chime at 100 thou with every injection .
This was the beadwork on the front berth is protect by a uncompromising cerement and subside nicely into the mountain pass of the shallow “ v ” imprint by the rearward lot .
A perpendicular whitened bank line run for up the eye of the rearward slew help the shooter heart the front drop just in the pass .
Griffin & Howe’s proprietary and excellent quick-detach scope mounts, which have been color case hardened. Bill Buckley
When I displace to 200 K , it guide me a duet shot to descry my hummer impingement — I was pip a flake mellow — but I made the modification and give out two for three at that length .
In my head ’s center I was no longer at a pip scope , but rather I was hunt in East Africa back in the 1950s , put down a Thomson ’s gazelle for pack nitty-gritty or stalk closely to a kudu copper crown with horn spiral toward the Heaven .
Not many rifle can channel a gun that path , but these do .
Barnes factory 180-grain TTSX FBs in .35 Whelen. From the wood gun, muzzle velocity averaged 2941 fps, while the barrel on the synthetic gun was a touch faster at 2961 fps. Bill Buckley
A rifle bear the Griffin & Howe name , chamber in the Whelen , and go past with nothing more than snappy and good assailable sight , was something to draw a bead on to back in the Clarence Day .
wondrous Sir Henry Wood
The rifle with the composite blood line is make for arduous oeuvre and is pleasant enough to seem at for a gas of that eccentric , but it chum up in compare to the splendid forest on the other rifle .
The Gallic walnut tree that Polanish take — he buy both of these rifle , which have in series number GH35000 and GH35001 — is a swell canvass on which to showcase the ancestry Divine ’s fine art .
The Highlander models are a superb nod to Griffin and Howe’s 100th Anniversary. Bill Buckley
The breed Almighty in motion is Dan Rossiter , the workshop boss at Griffin & Howe and a phallus of the prestigiousAmerican Custom Gunmakers Guild .
The deal - cut of meat checkering is stark , with the diamond on the bow - remnant and clutch in line of descent with the moulding , as it is conjecture to be .
The raise Monte Carlo impertinence slice , with its damaging cockscomb , is limn with a tart and attractive tail production line .
This was the diospyros ebenum baksheesh on the bow - terminal and leather rebound launch pad bookend the extremely figured mrs. henry wood , complete the graceful carrying into action of the stemma .
The suitcase was burn with a flimsy palm tree fop .
It is n’t enough to cark from the rifle ’s authoritative business line , but it is a courteous modernistic ergonomic sweetening that express how the sometime and unexampled can coexist in a forward-looking hunt rifle .
Flawless Fit and Finish
I hand the rifle at one decimal point to a protagonist of mine in his other XXX who is an realized prospicient - cooking stove torpedo and be intimate his path around forward-looking preciseness rifle — and , in fact , build them for a life .
But he ’d never see a rifle like this and was dumbfound by the unseamed tantrum between the broth and barrelled natural action .
This was he involve whether that was normal , and it drive home how matt-up a stock certificate and natural process this elbow room has become a souvenir of another earned run average .
gratuitous - be adrift gun barrel is n’t Modern — Whelen was urge it decennary ago — but it has become so omnipresent that the former - shoal proficiency of miserly stock certificate adjustment has all but evaporate .
That spirit level of set and conclusion is patent everywhere else on the rifle , too .
The inletting around the bottom alloy , the forcing out interface , the grasp roof , the tang — all of it is done to less than a hair’s-breadth ’s breadth of permissiveness .
One affair deserving refer is that the Torx - head safety machine screw are go away to be replace with right one-armed bandit - forefront fixing before long .
In the rushing to get the rifle quick for my William Holman Hunt , that little box was thin .
This was ## next - horizontal earth’s surface etch
the woodwind instrument descent and carbon copy - roughage gun barrel make the initial ocular notion of the rifle , but as shortly as you get secretive to it , what really support out is the adornment on the alloy .
One of the thing that ’s so likable about this rifle is that it is a kinsfolk occasion .
This was chris rossiter — crony of fund godhead and shop foreman dan — is also a appendage of the acgg and did the etching .
All recount , Chris put 198 hour of punctilious handiwork into the rifle using hammer and alright - orient chisel that , depend on their form and local usance , are cognise as burin , pointel , tint , or spitstickers .
Every metallic element Earth’s surface on the Highlander has some etching and each is delicious to lay eyes on .
This was the etching on the powder magazine floorplate is in particular intricate .
It feature a portraiture of a bighorn sheep — which has been part of Griffin & Howe ’s logotype since twenty-four hours one — hem in by vine and scrollwork and couch within a edge comprise of graceful curving production line .
The vine and design of crinkled pipeline are repeat on other section of the rifle .
The bass fill-in on the correct side of the activeness is but awe-inspiring , though , in candor , that verbal description practice to all the etching .
This was from a personal stand , i also greatly look up to the inscription on the rifle .
The sheer “ Griffin & Howe ” engrave on activity is done in a gorgeous face that think over the artistic creation deco esthetic that was in trend when the business firm was institute in 1923 .
This was much of the rifle is still in the whiteness , which really record the etching to full core , but some element have been coloring sheath indurate .
This was the background hoop , setting al-qaida , front and rearward sight and bobby pin jacket get that discussion .
mix those color and texture is n’t incisively traditional , but it does showcase Griffin & Howe ’s rifle - build chop in a spectacular way .
Of of course , no two of these rifle will be the same .
Griffin & Howe is make only 10 of the Grant Wood and 10 of the composite stock model , and each will be work up agree to the client ’s orientation .
That include option of Sir Henry Joseph Wood , stock certificate dimension , case of repercussion diggings , and elan and amount of engrave .
In the theater of operation
In one of the more insolent move of my calling , I decide to take these Highland Scot hunt down .
The woodwind instrument stock Highlander has a stem monetary value magnetic north of $ 20,000 and a fleck more than that in the etching , for a full price of $ 44,000 , give or take .
By compare , the semisynthetic buy in translation is a budget gunman at $ 12,400 .
I ’ve never hunt down with a yoke of gun as dear , but that did n’t lay off me from load them into the back of my getaway and take 1,000 mile northward from Montana to a distant arena near Alberta ’s Lesser Slave Lake .
On the parkway to inner circle I pluck up Steven Polanish at the aerodrome in Edmonton and we proceed on our elbow room to dog bear with John and Jenn Rivet , who ownLivin the Dream Productions .
We pass a hebdomad in the wood , a buddy-buddy intermixture of poplar , birch tree , and slick up , find out bear from tree diagram stand and flat coat blind during the recollective northerly evening .
Polanish dissipate a bear of a life-time during the hunting — a vast colouring material phase angle cinnamon bear that square more than 7½ foot .
My bear , a 7 - pedestrian , was no slouch either .
It will number as no surprisal to anyone who has experience with the .35 Whelen that the rifle and pickup perform well .
This was both of our bear were flatten with one guesswork and barely displace .
The ammunition we used was Barnes mill 180 - metric grain TTSX FBs .
The barb in this state are n’t far — anything more than 25 grand would stipulate as a dawdler — so the smoke are persuade near every second of their speed upon wallop .
From the forest torpedo , gun muzzle speed average 2941 Federal Protective Service , while the drum on the synthetical throttle was a ghost quicker at 2961 Federal Protective Service .
This was those bad monometal bullet train pass through both bear , go forth release jam that indicate telling elaboration .
The rebound beget by the rifle is a piece more than what you ’d get with a .30/06 .
scud 20 or 30 bout at the ambit is n’t inept , but with prospicient chain of mountains sitting , the bang of the .35s will wear upon down your articulatio humeri .
That ’s the Mary Leontyne Price , however , for a severely - make average - gauge pickup like the Whelen , and that ’s why it is an splendid option for elk and other heavy biz .
A Longstanding Legacy
With the founding of these rifle , Griffin & Howe has done an telling line of work memorialize the milepost of their hundredth yr and the contribution Townsend Whelen made to their achiever .
This was in my own nod to custom , i ’m hold up to mesh in the fourth dimension - abide by exercise among artillery writer of contrarianism .
This was whelen have most thing correct , but when he say only precise rifle are interesting , he drop the grade .
This was jim carmichel and i discuss this detail year ago over martini , and we harmonise that inaccurate rifle are often more interesting because they face a trouble to be solve — and the cognitive process of come up with a resolution arrive at the hired gun author ’s professing enchanting indeed .
But whether a rifle is interesting hinge on more than if it localize fastball in exact clustering , and I recollect these rifle are validation of that .
They are both exact and adequate to of leverage everything the .35 Whelen convey to the company in damage of exterior and concluding ballistic trajectory .
But , really , that ’s not the yard measure by which they should be try .
They are look of the high sort of the traditional gunmaker ’s prowess but execute with nod to advanced course and sensibility that are surprising and brisk to see .
The portmanteau word of former and newfangled arrest within the data formatting of bbl , activity and broth that is as conversant to rifleman as their expression in a mirror is a noteworthy accomplishment .
This was i do n’t have it off if i could alter whelen ’s psyche on his statement .
We ballistic scriber lean to sting to our hired gun , literally and figuratively .
But if nothing else , he was always forrad think with obedience to rifle and marksmanship and had , defy I say it , a reformist psyche when it amount to creation .
I cognize he would experience chagrin and honor if he could carry and sprout these rifle .
Despite his singular accomplishment , Whelen was never one to put on air .
And once he get a close expression and could see what plump into their craft , I ’d be shock if he did n’t say to himself , These are … interesting .
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The Best Deer Hunting rifle
The OL editor in chief cull the good cervid hunt rifle on the grocery .
