Beautiful start for your great stock work! That's a pretty nifty scope and rings on it too!

marlinguy wrote on Oct 15^th, 2026 at 1:27pm:


The scope is a modern Malcolm.  The barrel is cut for Pope rings and the rings are Dave Arawinko reproduction Popes. Apparently Dennis Hrusosky and Warren Greatbatch had a couple dozen sets made up years ago by Dave.

I didn't show them but the barreled action also comes with a Walker buttplate and a non-walker palm rest.
Bob

KFW wrote on Oct 15^th, 2026 at 2:42pm:


Once I have it in hand, I sure will.  I’m curious too.
Bob

I've always been infatuated with the Walker Hepburns, but never cared for their buttstock style. The Singer is a much improved variation over the factory Walker stock.

Whomever did your barreled action did an outstanding job. A little beyond my capabilities. Some people just have a touch for such details. I can build something and make it work but the finer stuff not so much. Those guns are mechanical works of art. Truly amazing....



JMH

There isn't any disputing the attractive appearance of the Walker version of the Hepburn rifles. What I need to ask is why were they done in the first place; is an operating advantage to be gained from a big ol' lever compared to the tidy one on the side? I get the idea of a place for offhand shooters to put a hand on for trigger control, but that needn't be a whole redesign of the operation of the gun. Curious, if anyone has some ideas here.

calledflyer wrote on Oct 16^th, 2026 at 1:49pm:


You bring up a good question on why the Walkers were made!  Tom Rowe would probably the be the best source to answer this question, but I will give my thoughts as to what happened.  I have read Tom’s book and not sure I ever saw an answer in it for you.  

First, he does mention that the Walker was not called a Walker  in Remington ads of the day.  The were called Remington Schuetzen Rifles.  So this was probably an attempt at getting into the Schuetzen game and supplying the traditional equipment used.

There are other things that do nothing to support the under lever feature versus the standard Hepburn.  The special barrel being one of them, along with addition equipment being available with the rifle.

Lastly, and this is referring to what you bring up, is the action. The original patent for these rifles called for a breech block that tipped on opening.  This patented called for a screw on the side of the frame to guide the breech block.  It also called for a special radius cut inside the frame, on each side for the breech block to travel against.  I know this because I had to incorporated this radius in the patent version rifle I built. See my build thread.  Tom’s book states that all the W marked Walkers have the guide screw on the left side, but does not mention this radius on the inside.  On page 296 of his book is shown a Walker frame that Dick Binger disassembled. It looks like the frame is cut for this radius which would be required if it were a tipping block action. 

If they are all cut with this radius, it looks to me that Remington originally intended to make the Walker to the original patent, but for some reason changed their mind and just made it a straight action breech block, just like a Standard Hepburn.  This probably would have required the guide screw being used to keep the breech block stable in closing and from tipping back, even slightly, into the radius cut when the action was open.
Bob