I have followed the interesting threads about C.C. Johnson barreled rifles and it perked my interest in investigating further my own custom Winchester Highwall that I have had for almost 40 years.  It is currently a .218 Bee but the barrel is marked 22 K Hornet.  The gunsmisth I got it from had two of the them and the other one was a 17/218 Bee.  They were both apparatenly built by a gunsmith named J. Upperman in Chicago in the '40s.  It is interesting to note that the build of the gun follows almost exactly the discussions on converting highwalls that appeared in James Howe's book "The Modern Gunsmith" published in the '40s (i.e. use of Springfield .22 barrels, converting to pistol grip, etc).  It also appears to be a combination of more than one rifle as the gun uses a coil spring breach block but retains the flat spring for lever tension.  There are no marking on the breachblock.  The marking on the on barrel under the forearm are "J.UPPERMAN 002  2 48  24  K".  I can assume the K refers to the original .22K Hornet chambering and the 24 is most likely barrel length.  I can also guess that the 2 48 refers to Feb 48 manufacture date but the 002 is not clear.  Could it be a reference to headspace?  It's got a rather week extractor and I've had to have it built us and recut a couple times but other than that it works very well on jack rabbits with it's 2 3/4 power Hensholdt scope.  Has anyone else ever run across anything by J. Upperman?

again

Thanks for the reply Bert.  The pair of these rifles sat in the corner of Ray Price's gunshop in Sierra Vista, AZ for several years before I talked him out of the one in the picture.  As I said earlier it is marked 22K Hornet but someone had rechambered it for 218 Bee.  I misstated earlier when I said its mate was a 17/218 Bee.  It was actually a 17K Hornet and was identical except for a straight grip tang and stock.  Being the young kid that I was then, I was totally mesmerized by both of these rifles.  It isn't much by the standards of some of the conversions I've seen since but at the time (1974) it was a jewel.  Thanks again for your input on my Winder.  THOP