Gary Cooper rifle

[eviioiive]

swab that thing for dna

[Bhauer]

swab that thing for dna

Crossed my mind. Wish there was a way to do that.

[ar15barrels]

Wait... The dude from Different Strokes?

That was Gary Coleman.

[SonofWWIIDI]

Nice rifle, nice story.

Once you get the info from the manufacturer, you should have it appraised and insured!

[Bhauer]

Nice rifle, nice story.

Once you get the info from the manufacturer, you should have it appraised and insured!

Who would do appraisals on something like that? I probably should get it insurred.

[Bhauer]

Beautiful gun and very cool story! Makes me even more jealous. <-- green with envy. Also jealous of Gary Cooper's collection. I have often wondered what stories so many old firearms could tell if they could talk.

I would love to hear all the stories this rifle could tell and all the conversations it overheard. Cooper had a lot of famous friends and a lot of famous lovers. He had a lot of romances with Hollywood starlets back in the day.

[SonofWWIIDI]

Who would do appraisals on something like that? I probably should get it insurred.

Auction house, antique/collectible gun appraiser, museum (?), Hollywood memorabilia expert.

That's where I'd start.

[vtrigger77]

Pawn stars. He has a buddy lol beautiful rifle OP congrats

[Bhauer]

Ok. Thanks for the tips.

[Pally]

Cool Rifle, Cool Dude!

[Bhauer]

KMore Photos of Gary Cooper with the same rifle and a bobcat! I found a book on eBay a few days ago called Hemingway High On The Wild by Lloyd Arnold. In it is another photo of Gary Cooper with the same rifle again positively identified by features and the patterns in the wood grain! The photos below were taken in January 1948 by the author Lloyd Arnold when Gary Cooper was visiting Earnest Hemingway in Idaho. The second photo below is published in the Book High On The Wild published in 1969. In the Limited Addition version of the book it says: "January, 1948. A memorable occasion was hatched from this picture-requested by Cooper, possibly with the hint in it. In any event, this was the sort of "skiing" that Mr. Cooper liked best".
I did a quick google search and found another similar photo that was taken at the same time. This photo, (first one pictured below), is owned by the library at Southern Utah University. I called a very nice lady by the name of Paula. She was nice enough to send me the full size file of the photo today which I've attached below. This is very interesting for me since it proves Gary used the rifle for hunting and it wasn't a safe queen. I have also included some text from the book Hemingway High On The Wild describing how the author was asked by Gary Cooper to take the photos of him with the bobcat. [IMG][/IMG]

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[Bhauer]

http://Sorry the photo above from the book is not very clear. It's not a scan. I just took a photo of the photo in the book with my IPhone. The book photo is really good.

[CSACANNONEER]

Awesome find and awesome story. I have a gun from Gene Autry's collection but, Remington doesn't have info on the purchaser and, even if they did, they won't give out any info due to privacy issues.

[Bhauer]

I'm having trouble getting the Griffin & Howe staff to send me a copy of their record. Bob Beach refused to send it to me. I called Paul Chapman who is the VP there. He asked me if I would send him the photos I had found while researching this rifle. I said I would if he would send me a copy of their record. He agreed. I sent Paul a lot of photos including photos of Cooper with another Griffin & Howe rifle. He never did keep his word and send me a simple copy of the record they have from 1936. Pretty dissapointed. I may call him again after the first of the year.

[GMG]

A beautiful rifle with major history. I'm a big fan of Gary Cooper, in 1952 at the age of 12 took my grandmother to see "High Noon" at a local theater. She was a big fan of his also.

Thanks for sharing the photos and the story.