Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Old school custom by Lenard Brownell

It was my good fortune to spot a rifle on gunbroker over Thanksgiving week that was being mis-marketed--the seller (a gunshop in Florida) was selling a gun on consignment and really did not know what they had.

The rifle was made by Lenard Brownell,on a LH Remington 700 action in .270 Win. Lenard was one of the influential rifle smiths in the 1960-70s; he died in 1982 from cancer in his late 50's. He spent much of his life in Wyoming, in and around Sheridan. He was employed by Bill Ruger for a time and was a designer of the M77 and Number 1. It was his experience with investment casting at Ruger that became the basis for Brownell's own line of rifle parts (grip caps, scope rings, etc.) Kimber of Oregon also used Lenard as a designer. The Talley vertically split rings began as a Brownell product.



The Brownell serial number of 80 dates it to 1975, and Remington had only released the left handed 700 about 1974. I would not be surprised if this was the first lefty 700 Lenard made. And given that his serial number sequence stopped at 127, I doubt there are more than about a half dozen left handed Brownell rifles.

So the stock is made of Tessier French walnut. It is not hugely figured, but has a touch of fiddleback and is quite small grained. Most likely cut by hand from a blank; the chisel marks are still evident in action inletting. The checkering is extremely well executed. All of the fleurs look exactly alike.







There is nothing radical about the stock in terms of length of pull, cast, or toe out.

To be continued...