Browning T-Bolt .22 with Maple stock

Help Support Ruger Forum:

mm6mm6

Blackhawk
Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Messages
511
Location
Illinois
When I was a kid, my dad had a birdseye maple stocked Winchester Model 62 .22 pump. It had been custom ordered at Marshall Field & Company on State Street in Chicago when my Grandfather was the gun buyer there in the mid-1950s. The buyer put half down but never picked up the gun. My dad asked his father what would happen to the gun. My Grandfather told my Dad that whoever wanted to buy it would only have to pay half since the original purchaser was unreachable and had disappeared. My Dad bought the gun...including a 20% employee discount from my Grandpa. My Dad shot that little .22 but my memories are of its golden stock and polished blue receiver and barrel resting in my father's wood and glass gun cabinet.

In 1986 my father decided to sell the Winchester. He asked me if I wanted him to keep so that I would inherit it one day. My Dad really wanted a Colt 150th Anniversary Engraved Sampler SAA .45 so we took the Winchester pump to a CADA Gun Show. My Dad showed it to Jeff Faintich who offered $3000 for it. He said he would sell it to a collector in Las Vegas a month later for $3500. My Dad asked me what I thought. I told him that I had no idea what in the world I would do with a $3000 .22 pump except ding the gorgeous wood stock on a tree shooting squirrels with it. My Dad used the money from the Model 62's sale to buy that Colt he wanted.

I've always had a thing for maple ever since and I've fulfilled my desires with several sets of birdseye maple handgun grips.

A little over a month and a half ago I walked into my local Bass Pro Shops with a friend. Usually BPS doesn't have anything unusual for sale, but I saw a maple stocked rifle in their rack behind the sales desk. I asked to see it and the salesman acted surprised. He handed it to me and I was stunned at the handsome grain in the bright golden wood. It was a Browning T-Bolt .22 with a 10-shot detachable magazine. The magazine is unique in that it includes a little built-in sprocket wheel that you turn to load each round. The cartridges load in a bizarre manner and can be viewed through the semi-clear plastic body and you can see they form a letter "s" as they stack up. This keeps the profile of the magazine rather thin and allows a 10-shot magazine that doesn't stick out below the bottom of the rifle for a clean appearance.

I need another .22 like a hole in the head from the little rimfire. But the blue on the barrel of this Browning was as bright and beautiful as the stock. The price tag was $759 and the salesman laughed and said he didn't think this gun would ever sell. "Who would pay that kind of money for a .22?" I kept my thought in my head, but it was saying, "I would. Maybe. I'm thinking about it."

The cost of a custom maple stock would be easily double, triple, maybe even quadruple the cost of this rifle. For a couple weeks that maple stock kept entering the forefront of my brain. I thought about how good it's yellow stock would look in my Dad's old wood and glass gun cabinet that is now in my basement after his passing more than a decade ago.

Two weeks ago I stopped in Bass Pro again. I wandered over to the gun sale area. Secretly hoping the rifle would be gone. I had checked prices on Gunbroker and I would save maybe $80-$100 by buying one online. But the wood either didn't look as nice or I would be taking a risk bidding on a rifle that only had a picture off Browning's website that wasn't of the actual gun for sale. The one at BPS that I held in my hands weeks before was the one I would want.

Thank goodness the Browning was gone when I got to the gun counter. I wouldn't have to worry about buying it anymore. Phew!

Then I saw a new section around the corner that was deemed "Clearance." And there I saw a gleam of gold.

Uh-oh. There it was, the same maple stocked Browning T-Bolt .22 rifle. Now the price was $529. And I had a $50 BPS gift card from Christmas. And I had $13 on my BPS Rewards card. So my price would be $466 ($293 off the original price).

So here it is:











I had a Leupold 3-9x40 gloss black scope which I mounted with Talley/Browning rings I bought off the internet. I was excited to try the rifle out and once I had it sighted in, I shot this ten shot group standing offhand at 75 feet at my local indoor range. I used cheap Winchester 36-grain hollow point ammo. Squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits would be in big trouble if I decided to aim this maple stocked beauty in their direction!



But for now, I'm super happy to have a maple stocked rifle back in my Dad's gun cabinet!

 

RSIno1

Hunter
Joined
Sep 17, 2013
Messages
2,858
Location
Southern California
Many years ago I ended up with a highly figured birdseye maple stock blank. I've always kept my eyes open for something interesting to put in it.
 

Joe S.

Hunter
Joined
Feb 4, 2011
Messages
4,801
Location
Central MS
Looks good. Is that a maple stocked Single Six hanging to the left?

Looks like my Single Seven. I love maple!!

irZ8yk.jpg
 

Joe S.

Hunter
Joined
Feb 4, 2011
Messages
4,801
Location
Central MS
You can slide a wooden dowel or cleaning rod into that short rifle to allow it to be supported by the gun rack. Keeps it from sliding.
 

mm6mm6

Blackhawk
Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Messages
511
Location
Illinois
Joes S, yep that's a set of birdseye maple stocks on my Super Single Six!



I do love maple, birdseye is my favorite of course!

 

Del J

Single-Sixer
Joined
Feb 17, 2007
Messages
488
Location
Delaware
Great looking T-bolt. What is the single shot on the left of the cabinet. Interesting.
 

mm6mm6

Blackhawk
Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Messages
511
Location
Illinois
Del J, that's the gun my Dad bought for me when I was born. He had a co-worker say she wanted to sell it. It a three digit serial number, very old Stevens Favorite single shot youth rifle. It's in incredibly good shape with a Lyman tang peep sight.

Since my name is Steven, my Dad figured it'd be my Favorite. He was right, as usual!

 

Latest posts

Top