Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Dale Goens Rifle

Bonefish I can't recall if he signed the stocks or not.

Dale Goens did identify his work. Early rifles had both his name and the job number stamped usually on the flat just behind the recoil lug on the action. Thus, the barrelled action needs to be removed to see the I.D. Later guns (especially those that he was totally responsible for) had his name engraved on the barrel. Dale was not only a fine craftman but a wonderful person as well. His most notable rifle style is his light-weight mountain rifle.

I was fortunate to have met Mr.Goens. He lived in Ceder Crest east of Albuquerque N.M. Igot to go to his house and had him duplicate some stocks for me.I was young and dumb and thought I could build stocks just like him! For some reason mine were not quite the same as his.Dale did give me a lot of pointers and my work soon looked a lot better. Inletting was a challenge and he really helped . I couldn't afford his work until he passed away. Low and behold I found a left hand 338 he had stocked and bought it. It is an absolute beautiful piece of work. My gun smith and I went to high school together he is now a full time smith. Mrs Goens gave a lot of stuff to Roy BEDEAUX including his stock craddel and all of his checkering templetsand all the records of all of the stocks he built. The man was truly an artist.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Goens as well, at Ron Peterson's store many years ago. He was big guy! I knew he was really getting up there in years, but didn't realize he'd passed on. His rifles are certainly works of art. The "Jack O'Connor" checkering pattern he created is one of my favorites, along with Biesen's fleur-de-lis pattern.

Did you know that Dale was an accomplished musician in his youth? He played lap steel guitar in Western swing bands, mostly out of Oklahoma.