I have info that states Pope started to work for Stevens May 1, 1901. Others say 1900 along with others giving earlier dates. Can anyone give me a definitive date and did he take barrels from Hartford to be finished at Stevens ? Any jnfo would be appreciated.

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I find it odd that Shooting and Fishing would publish Harry Pope joining Stevens in their April issue, but that he would say he began in May? I would assume even then that magazines took some time to put together, and an April issue would have included information that they'd gathered well before that date. So if they published he went to work for Stevens in April, then he would have had to have been there at least by April, if not a bit before.
It is possible that his reference to May might be that this indicates the first barrels built completely at Stevens, under his supervision, as I'm sure it took some time to set up, and get going. But I'd still think his employment dated to earlier than May 1901.

In the "Bullets Flight" on page 152 by Franklin W. Mann there is a description of three barrels received from Mr. Pope on January 1, 1906. One of them was a 7MM X 30" Long barrel to be made into a Woodchuck Rifle for Dr. Manns brother on the family Farm. (Page 154) The Barrel was chambered for the .25 Niedner cartridge but as a 7MM caliber. Fitted to a Winchester Single Shot Action with double Set trigger. I know the current owner of this rifle and we have lettered the Action as having been shipped with a Helm style stock in early 1906. I made a chamber cast and determined the case. We then sized down some new 30-40 brass and fire formed it and trimmed to length. I shot it out to Two Hundred Yds. It shot superbly as it still had a perfect bore. Shot with a .28 caliber cast bullet of 105 Grs as we did not want to risk Jacketed bullet wear or damage. The Stevens Forend that came with it had 7mm 30" hand written on the barrel channel inside in pencil. The Pope #
on the barrel was 1250 something I just do not remember the exact last digit as it has been nearly 10 years since this effort, but it was a low number less than 5. There has been a lot of different information on the last or highest Pope number he did at Stevens. I think? but cannot find it in Manns book he somewhere said these were the last barrels he made at Stevens but cannot find it at this time but it has to be close.
HTH Regards, FITZ.

The Stevens Pope I have is # 1750, about what year would it have been made, the action is an early four digit.  Ledball

This is out of Pope's Barrels by Ray M Smith. Hope this helps.

ledball    After talking to Gary Quinlan it appears your Stevens-Pope was built about 1912-1913. Apparently Fred Ross sent out a letter in 1913 that no more would be made.  Hope this helps.

RJM wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2016 at 10:06am:


I doubt Pope did most of the work on these barrels, regardless of what time period when he was at Stevens. But he oversaw every bit of it, and was the last person to have the OK as to whether they left the factory or not. 
I'd also doubt he was shooting matches on weekdays, as most were weekend matches. Considering how long it took to make a barrel, I also doubt any left without his approval.