Arms, Armor and Militaria

7x57mm. 20.25" barrel length. SN: 26. Blued metal restored finish with polished bolt set in a walnut semi pistol grip stock with Mannlicher full length forend and checkering to wrist and forend. Bolt action internal magazine fed repeating rifle with three lug bolt, and a safety catch to the right wrist. Rifle mounts an octagonal barrel with full length vented rib mounting no iron sights. Scope fitted to receiver dovetail is a Leupold 2.5-8X VARI-X III. Maker marking on the left receiver reads Champlin-Haskins, Inc. Right barrel maker mark reads Champlin-Haskins, Inc. Enid, Oklahoma. Rifle mounts blued and checkered buttplate and semi pistol grip caps, a trapdoor with three compartment storage to butt, checkered bolt knob, and front and rear sling swivel studs. Metalwork has been expertly refinished, and the item fitted with a scope after its initial production.

The serial number indicates this to be a very early Champlin-Haskins sporting rifle, produced before Jerry Haskins' interest in the company was bought out by Doug Champlin. Haskins and Champlin arrived in the gunmaking world from very different avenues. Jerry Haskins had initially struggled to find his lot in life until 1962. That year, he set up shop in an old gas station in Enid, Oklahoma, selling a broad assortment of equipment from horse trailers to custom jeeps to firearms. It was in this latter area that Haskins found his calling. Initially, he refurbished Mauser actions into custom rifles as Thunder Bird Arms. When he sought to expand the business, he was introduced to Doug Champlin, the heir of Champlin Oil. The company name was changed to Champlin & Haskins Custom Rifles, a partnership that would only last from 1966 until 1969 when Champlin bought Haskins' interest in the business. The root of their disagreement was rifles like this very lot. Haskins recommended that, rather than merely produce Mauser rifles, the company instead introduce an action of its own. These would then be finished exclusively as custom rifles according to the buyer's needs. A bevy of prototypes followed, which proved costly and time consuming, so much so that it ended the partnership. Nevertheless, the bold decision to produce an in-house action resulted in a sturdy new three-lug action fit to handle a wide variety of chamberings suited to even the largest game. To this day, rifles of this pattern are built to order, and not to a standard production model, making this one of the most modern examples of a bespoke action. {MODERN}