Sterling Davenport Rifle For Sale

[chris275]

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but as I am a custom rifle guy and own many. Most of you know me here trading high end stuff. I see Chris275 is a New Member, and I am very familiar with Sterling Davenport guns as they are affiliated with the American Gun Guild. So, no question on quality.

But after reviewing your pictures you are displaying 2 different guns.

1st photos in the string is a different rifle than the last photos.

- The Bridge on the 1st photos looks machined to accept Sako style rings, Tapered dovetail with center lug in the front base.

- Second set of photos show EAW German swing mounts (Which clearly would not work on a bridged mount, only Recknagels would. And the action is rounded not bridged.

- Third - The Recoil pads are completely different, 1st photos show an English rounded Pachmayer pad and second photos show decelerator.

- Lastly - the checkering on the grip is completely different from the 1st pics to the second. Second pics show a 3-panel checkering on the grip sweeping round, 1st pics show wrap around checkering sweeping back sharp. Plus, the wood grain is completely different on the stocks.

So maybe you accidentally put 2 different guns on, or maybe you could be a scammer since your new.. I think you owe the forum followers and explanation. Hopefully it is just a mistake..

Either way, Buyers need to perform their due diligence on this one.

Good afternoon,
To clear this up. The first series of photos (with the red backdrop) is the rifle I am selling. The second series is from member RR314 showing his fine Davenport rifle. I apologize for the confusion. I am new here but come with the utmost respect and would never try to deceive anyone. I would happily post more pictures if anyone would like.
Respectfully,
Chris

 

[Jager Waffen74]

Ok, I hope you understand there has been a tremendous amount of scammers on here over the past year, and I had to call what I had seen. However the photos were in your original post, thread.

Good Luck

 

[chris275]

Ok, I hope you understand there has been a tremendous amount of scammers on here over the past year, and I had to call what I had seen. However the photos were in your original post, thread.

Good Luck

I completely understand, no hard feelings here. I am a cautious buyer/seller myself and am pleased to see someone call out what they think is BS. Especially when it’s in the interest of protecting others. I have no ill intentions and am thankful for finding this forum. If anyone has questions regarding this sale, I’d be happy to pm you my phone number to discuss.
Respectfully,
Chris
Cheers!

 

[RR 314]

Apologies boys. I didn't log on this weekend to clean up the mess.. The screw-up was all mine! As stated, I defiled the post with the subsequent pictures--not @chris275 Mea culpa!

 

[One Day...]

Hello Aaron,
It did come with unnamed QD rings for the integral mounts, but I could not get them to stay tight and I discarded them. The irons worked very well for my hunt. And yes, it is drilled and tapped but I am not sure what base it was designed for.
Respectfully,
Chris

I believe this is a Dumoulin action. The bases, taps, and front notch looks exactly like others I have seen.

I can confirm that this is a Dumoulin action. It was sold in the US by Sarco for $350 up until the mid 2010's, which even then was inexpensive considering the tremendous value it represented. These actions were rough but diamonds in the rough, and turned out quite nicely in the hands of qualified gunsmiths.

It was represented as being manufactured in Belgium. Since it requires considerable and expensive machinery to manufacture M98 actions, and no individual gunshop could possibly to so profitably and competitively (see how much Granite or Prechtl must sell their action to stay in business, and with modern CNC machines allowing for short production runs to boot), and since Dumoulin has never been known to actually produce actions - they typically used actions from FN, military M98, Sako, etc. - they likely contracted to have actions built to their specs and branded with their name. To the best of my knowledge, it was never disclosed who the manufacturer was.

It had a standard length / standard bolt head in the original condition.

The front and rear square bridges do NOT have a recoil shoulder, in keeping with the original Mauser flat top square bridges designed for the addition of claw mounts, but they are machined (dovetailed) for integral scope mounting, and the front flat top has a recoil notch inside which a front ring recoil pin can nest. With proper rings, this is recoil proof.

I do not know which rings fit on this action but if I considered purchasing this rifle I would:

1) Contact Sarco at (610) 250-3960 or info@sarcoinc.com to see if they have some institutional memory of what rings were adapted and who supplied them.

2) Ask chris275 to carefully measure the width between the two dovetails with a caliper to see if Talley or Warnes ring would fit. It would then be quite simple to install a recoil pin at the bottom of the front ring.

3) Ask FlowHamed18 who owns two rifles based on this action what rings he uses.

From memory (?), the dovetails were 14 mm on these actions, which is wider than the 1/2" (12.7 mm) Talley rings. This means that it would be really easy to mill Talley-specs dovetails, including a recoil shoulder on each bridge. This would likely be my favorite option as the cost of milling and touching up the blueing would be minimal compared to the cost of the rifle.

 

[chris275]

Good morning everyone,
After some conversations, I have lowered the price on my Davenport rifle to $5500- delivered. I understand some hesitation due to me being a new member. I would gladly pm my number to any potential buyers to talk or facetime with the rifle to answer any questions.
Respectfully,
Chris

 

[sniper7]

Sent you a PM to discuss

 

[HunterX]

Regarding the ring question, Sunny Hill makes Dumoulin integral rings.

 

[HunterX]

Regarding the ring question, Sunny Hill makes Dumoulin integral rings.

Good luck with the sale, it’s a beautiful rifle.

 

[Green Chile]

I can only remember 2 other Davenports sold here…one was my 500J. Every Davenport is special. This one needs to be owned by another forum member. I’ve talked to this seller before the listing.

 

[chris275]

Sold pending funds.

 

[Green Chile]

Excellent. I look forward to hunt reports with it.

 

[gprippers]

NOOOOOOOO! I have been feeling cruddy lately and have not been on computer much so did not see this til just now! I dont need another 375HH as i have a Brown Custom AK special, a Beautiful Empire (that im thinking of listing), a couple Ruger Magnums with great wood on them and a couple others but this rifle struck me to the cord when i saw it...AS ALL Sterling Davenports do! THEN i read the extra info posted on it and got even more enthusiastic...and then the price reduction!!!!....and then...CRUSHED WITH "SOLD PENDING FUNDS"! Crud!

My grandfather, who raised me and passed along the "fine firearms bug" to me, had a few Sterling Davenport's over the years in his collection. He had a 404J that was just incredible. All of his builds are fantastic but that 404J had everything just right. Got my first from the Big Reno Show in the early 2000's and have been looking and missing others ever since. He is definitely one of my favorite builders of all time.

I wish the buyer and seller well, BUT....if something doesnt work out please give me a shout or if new buyer decides to part ways with it down the road, remember me as im sure ill still be enthusiastic when it comes to this rifle! There are a lot of very, very nice rifles out there but this one is top tier, doesn't get any better than this as far as im concerned. Ive never seen a SD i was not enamored by.