Hello, everyone.  Several years back, there was quite a debate going on in the Journal about competing with original as opposed to modern-made single shots.  Some advocated putting away the old one..except for rare special occasions...just to show the newbies what it was all about.  Now I run into this..from people who are considered experts in the field of classic/historical arms:  I have a Pope barreled 6 1/2 Rigby Ballard action, custom stocked 1930's prone match rifle.  Brl. date is April 1930, Pope #746.  The brl. has scope blks.  The tang is of course drilled & tapped, but shows no evidence of a tang sight base mounted since the circa 1930's re-case was applied.  The stock comb is much too high to allow folding anyway.  About 1/2" back from muzzle on top of brl. is a #8 filler screw.  light scuffing in blueing, suggests some type of band, with sight mounted on this.  I have always purchased rifles with iron sights, and have a soft spot for them.  In order to use them on this rifle, a front would have to be mounted..either by said band..or some sort of block using exisisting screw & drilling another...Or..using one of the tube sights with front appa. built in..like the old Buckeye sight.
   The last single-shot gunsmith I spoke with said he recommended cutting a dovetail & mounting block..I would have windage adjustment that way. 
   Now I am confused..here we had a great debate over even using these rifles..I know it is only a 30's position rifle..and Pope made alot of .22 barrels..But still..it is a Pope?  If anything, drilling another hole would be the least intrusive...But a dovetail..I don't think so.  I really don't want to do any machining on this rifle at all..I can easily live with scope use only..I purchased a nice little Malcom of about 6X..I think I can live with this for prone shooting if I have to.   What do you guy's think...Alter a Pope to meet your needs, or preserve for future generations ?

You could pull the Pope barrel off and tuck it safely away, then start with a new blank and do whatever you want with a clear conscience.

My opinion only...I would make up a band for the barrel, secured by the single screw, and cut a dovetail in the band for a windage adjustable front sight, or else drill & tap the band for a sight block, and use a good windage adjustable tang sight, like a Soule type, with a non-adjustable front sight on the block with the sights at scope height.  Or, go with a tube sight, either a full length tube or a short one using a standard front globe sight.   

If your rifle was an abused/varmint-ized example, I would say go ahead and do your dovetail cutting and stock alterations, but it's an example of a specialized target rifle by a known (and to some, revered) barrel maker.  I would shoot the heck out of it, with good grades of standard velocity ammo.  Carefully cared for, you won't hurt it's value at all!

David

I will start by saying I would never hesitate to shoot a good barrel. Pope wouldn't even build a barrel for anyone who he considered was not an avid shooter, so they all got shot a lot.
I would never do alterations to a Pope barrel that would not be reversible. If the irons can't be installed without modifying the barrel, then I wouldn't use them.

Okay, so now you cant be confused anymore.  You got some good answers from the sharpest guys on here.   

What will you do?   


                  Joe. 

IMHO, and just and only that; Pope stopped making barrels in the late 1940's if memory serves me correctly.  I would have RKS rebarrel it in the exact configuration you want, and leave it to your heirs to mess with it.

Rich