In the early 1960s I belonged to a club called the Long Beach Gun Collectors. It met the first Friday of the month. It had many members and they were mostly older men.They had bought their guns when they didn't commend the high prices they do today. One gentleman would occasionally bring in his Walker Hepburn to share. Another member would bring in an original Walker Colt. I was looking at it one night at the monthly meeting and he said, "pick it up". That is usually a no-no. I asked him where he bought it and he told me he bought it in Matamoras, Mexico in 1955 and he paid a lot a of money for it. That pistol, like most of them that have surfaced had the US stamping ground off. While I have seen other Walker Colts, I have never seen another Walker Hepburn. By the way, if you want to see a fabulous gun collection as well as many other western collectables, go to Bartlesville,Ok and visit Frank Phillips Museum called Woollarock. I have never seen its equal.      

Just don't forget the other "e"

I guess the umlaut for the u got washed overboard on the Atlantic crossing - or our typewriters didn't have it - so they added the e to make it sound close to the same. The Walker could have been engraved either way but I guess the flow had gone to the e by the time it was done.

I wouldn't think so. No more than a Winchester with a Stevens barrel is a Stevens.

I don't think Marlinguy's logic is entirely valid.  That is, his example is indeed just a Winchester with presumably a Stevens-factory-replaced barrel.  But a Hepburn rifle with a Walker-marked barrel presumably left the factory that way - i.e., it's completely a Remington product.

Moreover, I have heard of both No 3 Models (the company's actual name for the since-popularly-named Hepburn) AND rolling blocks (all Creedmoors I believe) with Hepburn-stamped barrels.

In short, if a Pope-barreled Ballard can be called a Pope-Ballard, then surely those factory-produced rifles can even more legitimately be prefaced with "Walker" and "Hepburn", respectively.

Bill Lawrence

Welcome to the forum Mr. Rowe, I too appreciate your books.  I use them as a valuable resource and I'm looking forward to the next book I'm hearing about.   
Thanks,
Greg

Bill Lawrence wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2018 at 11:22pm:


I'd disagree heartily! A Pope barreled Ballard would indeed be a Pope Ballard. But putting a Walker barrel on a Hepburn, without any of the other Walker features doesn't make it a Walker Hepburn. It matters not whether it was factory installed or later swap. I seriously doubt  you'd find any aficionado of Remington single shots who'd look at a standard Hepburn with a Walker barrel and call it a Walker for that one feature. Just silly talk.
But  put a Pope barrel on any gun and it becomes a Pope...... That's accepted across the board by everyone, and not just because of the Pope barrel. Pope was not known for building complete guns, but for his fine barrels. So unlike Schoyen, Zischang, Schalk, etc... a Pope barrel makes the gun a Pope. If it was one of the other makers a person can look at the complete gun and say, "It's a Schoyen barrel, but not Schoyen rifle" or "It's a Schoyen rifle, because it has his barrel, and  is his style of rifle also."
Your example doesn't hold water.

And please tell us what a "Hepburn stamped barrel" is? I've got three Hepburns, and the rollstamps on the barrel are no different than my half dozen Rolling Block rollstamps? Hepburn barrels didn't have any different rollstamp that I'm aware of?

And please tell us what a "Hepburn stamped barrel" is? I've got three Hepburns, and the rollstamps on the barrel are no different than my half dozen Rolling Block rollstamps? Hepburn barrels didn't have any different rollstamp that I'm aware of?

What I am referring to is a stamp, I'd say a die stamp: "L. L. HEPBURN".  The first one I actually saw was decades ago on a barrel (underneath the wood) and on the inside of the lockwork of a single shot target pistol.  The last one was a double stamp (the first try was not full or clear) on the underside of a NO. 3's barrel, again hidden by the wood.

Bill Lawrence