Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Klaus Hiptmayer Gunsmith

The British were behind the Americans when it came to powder chemistry . To maintain accuracy, they used "Enfield" style rifling , the lands are very broad.

Well gentlemen, I FINALLY now know exactly what my rifle is, the serial number gave up its secret!

Serial Number H3301.

This rifle is a BSA Sporterized P17: https://www.airgunspares.com/whats-my-bsa

H​ - P17 Military Rifles Sporterized .30'06 Springfield​ - 1949 - 1953​

You have no idea how many people agued with me on one particular forum, telling me that it was a P17 and not a BSA, when I told them it was a BSA. My father told me it was a BSA, and these gents made me question what my father told me. Should never have doubted my father, he was actually a very intelligent man!

He was the President of the Montreal Skeet Club for a time, he was also a Director of the Atlantic Salmon Association. He was also the best Shotgun wing shot that I have ever seen.

My father also bred and trained English Setters and sold one of his dogs for $28,000.000 USD as a stud dog after it won many big field trials in the USA.

The first time my father took me hunting I was 5 years old, he let me shoot the shotgun and it blew me off my feet lol

Thank you, I just learned something about my two BSA P-17 sporters !

Never thought I'd see one of Don's posts get resurrected and taken for a ride.... lol

Hi downwindtracker2, hope you day is going GREAT!

For many years I did not know how to describe this rifle because the British Markings threw everyone including me off.

Do you hunt with yours? Are they deadly and accurate like mine?

From this day forward this is how I will describe the rifle: It is a Springfield P17 that was Sporterized by BSA between 1949 and 1953 and restocked by the Stockmaker Klaus Hiptmayer and engraved by Heidi Hiptmayer.

FYI, This is what the markings and Crowns represent:

Crown over BV means the incomplete rifle was seen by the proof house and looked fine.
Crown over BP means the proof house is inspecting a rifle barreled action ready for proof.
Crown over BNP means it was shot with a nitro proof load and passed.

I hope that is a good thing? hahaha

KillerBee;
Good morning BC time - afternoon on your side of the big hills.

I believe you meant to type in Enfield and not Springfield and otherwise you're good to go with the description I believe.

Thanks for the link, all the best and good luck on your hunts.

Dwayne

Don had, well a certain reputation.

The resurrection was decidedly pleasant in comparison.

Fron my researsh

Hello there Dwayne, I trust your day in beautiful BC is going great and correct~

Only thing I have to find out is which manufacturer made mine, Remington, Winchester or Eddystone! Still more work to do! lol

Teal;
Good afternoon my old cyber friend, I hope the day down your way is going well and you're all in the peak of health.

My day has been absolutely exceptional thus far, as for the first time in perhaps a decade now I got not one, but two bull elk yelling back at me at the same time. Then the range cattle down the valley a bit heard the ruckus and joined in and finally some coyotes decided there needed to be a high harmony part sung as well. Happily no bulls showed themselves so no tough decisions had to be made Teal as it was really way, WAY too warm to be shooting elk that far from the pickup.

Anyways sir, I'm having an exceptionally finer than frog's hair sort of day thus far.

Kudos on your most diplomatic response Teal, well done.

It reminded me of one occasion when I was interviewing an employee who was witness to something or other at work, so I got to do the incident reports and interviews, etc.

They sort of hummed and hawed when I asked about a particular event, were silent for a bit and then said more or less, "I'm trying to think of a nice way to put this... but F.. it, here's what buddy did.."

All the best and good luck on your hunts.

Dwayne

KillerBee;
Good afternoon to you again my new cyber friend.

As mentioned to Teal, my day just could not have gone better thus far thanks and I hope you're having a good one too.

Regarding the maker, depending upon how much polishing BSA did, there "might" be a mark under the front scope mount on the receiver ring.

If they got zealous with the polishing, it might be that it'll be a mystery for the ages, you know?

Good luck with that quest and your hunts as well sir.

Dwayne

Dwayne, if you ever need any help with the overpopulation of elk in your area, I am only an 8-hour drive away! hehehe

One thing about hunting elk here is that the bush is really thick, and it is nowhere near as beautiful or open as where you are.

If you get an elk, please post some pictures is you feel so inclined :o)

Cheers ~

Sir - excellent news on multiple elk interested! Always nice to have choices sometimes.

I completely agree - sometimes there is no "diplomatic" way to say it and you just have to call it what it is. Don and I never tangled much that I remember but I do remember him quite a bit with others.

Hi downwindteacker2, would it be possible if you could be kind enough to post pictures of your Sporterized BSA's here? I would love to see what they looked like after BSA sporterized them, I have only seen the one my father altered?

Cheers ~ Darren

Teal;
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

On the elk thing, we're restricted to 6 point bulls only and a fairly short season. When they first moved in after the big fire we had in 2003 the bulls I bugled in just didn't add up to that on one side. Then the wolves moved in and the elk went silent for years.

The other thing we struggle with here and I suppose elsewhere too this year is it's too hot to get all the meat out without some spoiling when one is solo. That's fine though as I've killed mulie and whitetail bucks in this exact same spot, so if I have to wave to the odd elk that would be legal, I'm not bothered one bit. I'll note that I've done that once and it likely was a legal 6 - it was huge Teal - but I was sweating with one shirt on and 45 minutes from the nearest road - so it got a wave and a wish for a long life from me.

For sure I didn't contend with Don either, but some folks seem like they're more frustrated by life than others might be and then they feel the need to take it out on the ether space too at times. Each to their own I suppose?

Thanks again for the reply and all the best in all your fall endeavors, but especially the hunts.

PS;
Whether its calling in coyotes, deer, elk or moose, there's few things I love doing up the mountains more than calling.

I can still see the first bull elk I called in - a really big racked 4x5 - whose rack dwarfed a 6x6 I'd seen a year previous when I had no elk tag on me - because "everybody knew there was no elk there"....

Anyways Teal, this thing came in and it was going to kick my butt seven ways from Friday!!!

He swaggered in like John Wayne walking into a saloon. He was the toughest in the hood and he knew it.

When a big ram walks up to a group of it's peers they do the same thing - it's that "Yah, I'm all that and a bag of chips besides" sort of walk.

Oh, lastly the vocalizations that the bulls come up with are just wild. Not always the "usual" bugle and grunt stuff. It's just weird the sounds they can make.

As you can tell, I'm not bothered a whole bunch if there's no cutting up in a shin tangle jungle and then multiple death marches to get it all out. Not that I wouldn't like to eat more elk for sure, because I do love the meat, but like most of us here know, there's a great deal more to our hunts.

Best to you once more.

Dwayne

One of my BSA P-17 sporter was a donor for a 358 Norma Long Neck . A 358 Norma Magnum on the longer 300WM brass. A project I hope to finish this winter. I have a lot of projects half done. oh well. The P-17 was a low cost donor, of the same metallurgy as a pre-war M-70 at a fraction of the cost. It was also a better fit. The other I find much more interesting, it's the very plain stocked one., regular club. It's the Canoe Rifle. I bought it at a gunshow . The seller said it was his dad's, he also said his dad complained of the kick. I wondered about that at the time. These are heavy rifles. I put a scope on it and loaded the common 4350 180 grain load . It went 2950 !!. There are 300WM that are slower. No wonder it kicked, he was likely using factory 220 grain loads. My load for that rifle is well backed off and still does 2700. It's called the Canoe Rifle because I use it in the canoe.

Hi downwindtracker, I can see this gun being an excellent canoe rifle, especially for the price of them. Accurate and deadly and you can bang them around without worrying about scratches or dings.

With mine I always worry about damaging the stock, and I must admit I have damaged it. Although mine was designed as a keepsake and was put on a gun rack, with a collection of fine firearms and never hunted until I got my hands on it. Honestly the rifle has made my hunting experiences better, because of its Heirloom factor.

It does have a good kick, only when sighting it, never feel a thing when I am shooting at live animals, but that is only because it is a wood stock/sterling silver butt without any padding, I can shoot my .300 Win Mag longer than this .30-06 without suffering, only because the Win Mag has padding.

Nice to finally know what is! :o)

Happy Hunting Sir~

Hi Dwayne,
It sounds like the heat won't leave you folks be. We are, unfortunately, in the same boat here in the Alberta Banana Belt with temps around 33C the last few days.
Cooling down tomorrow, 27C LOL. Can't find a Hun anywhere in this heat.

Love reading your stories about elk in the yard.

Wish I could load pics on here but I just don't have tech touch. I have some rather large Mule deer hang around, feeding off my Mountain Ash tree. It is covered with orange berries which they seem to favour. Around the edge of town there is a herd of Antelope, often feeding on the shoulder of the Old Trans Canada Highway. Pretty cool to see. Of course they really get the attention of folks just passing by.

This has been a great thread.
Have a great day,
Jeff

Hi Jeff,

First off thank you for your warm reception to the fire, greatly appreciated :o)

I like your handle, I spent my childhood in part fly fishing for Atlantic Salmon in the Gaspé area in Quebec in gin clear rivers, what fun that was especially when you got to watch a big salmon attack your dry fly (we used Wolf Pattern Bombers) then take it downstream with your reel abuzzing! The only fresh water fish that I have seen to that is Sturgeon on the North Saskatchewan River, that is a BLAST too. My biggest one to date was, 54 lbs

I live in Edmonton, I noticed that there was a Museum in Redcliff, what is in your museum? I took my better half to Drumheller a few months ago to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, what a Museum, 2nd time I have been there and it never gets old! The critters that were walking this planet 250 million years ago are fascinating!

The last time I was in your general area I was in Brooks on a goose hunt, fun, fun, fun!

Do you ever make it up to Edmonton?

Cheers ~ Darren

Good afternoon gentlemen, here is one after it came out of the BSA Armory after it was sporterized, I like mine a lot more :o)

Dwayne, would be nice to see pictures of your elk, when you get him, if you are so inclined

Have a super long weekend everyone.