Arms, Armor and Militaria

.270 Winchester. 24" barrel length. SN: 1161. Blued metal finish with color case hardened safety flag and rear sight bracket mount, polished bolt, and semi-pistol grip Circassian walnut stock with horn forend cap, double bordered multipoint checkering to wrist and forend, and Griffin & Howe engraving to the metal parts. Bolt action repeating rifle fed by an internal box magazine that belonged to Colonel Townsend Whelen, former director of Frankford Arsenal, prolific outdoorsman, and the author of multiple volumes about hunting, marksmanship, and firearms instruction. Rifle is fitted with pinned front brass bead sight, folding notch rear sight, Lyman rear sight bracket, and a Carl Zeiss telescopic sight on a Griffin & Howe two-lever mount. The mount displays the two-line address and patent marking GRIFFIN & HOWE INC. N.Y./PAT. # 231,055 OCT 13 '31 with the mounted sight marked CARL ZEISS/JENA Zielklein/Nr. 27617. In order to accommodate the scope, the bolt was turned down and a slide safety fitted. The magazine floorplate is marked GRIFFIN & HOWE, INC./NEW YORK within an engraved wave pattern border and above a diamond pattern engraved Arabesque flourish. The semi pistol grip cap, trigger guard, buttplate, all the stock screws, and the sling swivel studs feature additional spiral scroll and floral patterns. A silver oval plate in the toe bears the initials T.W. The rifle mounts a steel buttplate with widow's peak and a trapdoor. Standard Winchester make and model markings appear elsewhere. The barrel is marked -MODEL 54-WINCHESTER-NICKEL STEEL-/-TRADE MARK-. Winchester monogram proof stamps appear at the left receiver and barrel, the latter below caliber marking .270 W.C.F. The serial number has been marked into the bolt with electropen. Comes with the Lyman rear aperture sight detached in order to make space for the scope, an additional blued rear sight bracket contained in box with a handwritten note reading "Original sight base to Townsend Whelen Winchester M54 .270".

The rifle was described in Mister Rifleman by Bradford Angier and Townsend Whelen, (Petersen Publishing Company, Los Angeles, Calif, 1965) on page 318 with this rifle matching the description precisely, though the book does not specify the serial number. Co-author Bradford Angier related, "In a letter to me Colonel Whelen stated: 'Winchester gave me this rifle about 1926. It was one of the first .270's they made!'" The book then quotes an article that Whelen wrote for American Rifleman in August, 1941 reading "My favorite big-game rifle for the past 15 years has been a .270 Winchester Model 54, fitted with a 2 1/2-power Zeiss Zielklein scope with Griffin and Howe mount. Five years ago I had the bolt handle turned down, mount lowered, and a slide safety fitted, thus practically turning it into a model 70. I also had John Hutton restock it with very tight bedding and a high Monte Carlo comb. It is a very fine rifle under practically any conditions. At boulders in my pasture at unknown distances I find that I can make surer hits at longer ranges than with any other rifle I own. If I were off to the wilderness tomorrow I would take this rifle with me."

In addition to the notes provided by Whelen, Mister Rifleman goes on to further describe the alterations to the rifle. According to the book, the stock was modified later and the high comb cut down, "From articles Colonel Whelen wrote I am sure that the scope was originally mounted high enough to clear the unaltered bolt and that there was a Monte Carlo comb so the nose of the cocking piece barely cleared it. When this comb was lowered at the time the bolt was altered and the scope remounted lower, the stock was not refinished and the section where the Monte Carlo was removed, and that portion refinished can be plainly seen."

Included with the rifle are 67 scoring cards and note cards ranging from 1925 to 1946. The earliest hand written card reports the results of tests performed in May and July of 1925 of a Winchester Model 54 Number 17. After grouping poorly in the first series of tests, the rifle was returned to Winchester to have its .280 groove depth barrel replaced with a standard .278 resulting in substantially improved groups in the later tests. An inauspicious beginning for what would become Whelen's favorite rifle and caliber combination. The remaining cards specify rifle number 1161, and report the performance observed by Colonel Whelen with numerous different loads at assorted ranges in all manner of conditions.

Born on March 6, 1877 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Townsend Whelen's early life in America's densely populated East contrasted starkly with the tremendous love for the Great Outdoors that would characterize most of his life. As a youth, Whelen took up target shooting, and soon began competing in that sport prior to joining the National Guard in 1895. Thus began a long military career that would see him join the army in 1902, perform reconnaissance duties to protect the Panama Canal during its construction, and even serve as the director of Frankford Arsenal. While working at Frankford Arsenal, he introduced stockmaker Seymour Griffin to machinist James V. Howe, thus setting in motion the foundation of one of America's most respected gunsmithing houses. After retiring from the army in 1935 as a full Colonel, Whelen wrote prolifically about "roughing it" in the West, hunting game throughout the Americas, and even suggested new cartridge designs that he considered ideally suited to hunting and survival. The notecards included with this rifle speak to the calculating manner in which Colonel Whelen approached rifles and shooting. And this rifle, one of his favorites, was a companion on numerous journeys through the wild places of America. On December 23, 1961, Colonel Whelen died, leaving behind a legacy as one of America's most respected outdoorsmen.