Don Brown? Alexander Henry

[fcornell]

Hi guys! My first time to post here. I'm looking for some information on a Alexander Henry rifle. Supposedly it was built from a Don Brown kit. It is marked "Ron Long". I was told Ron assembled the kit.  Fit & finish are OK however the wood is what I would consider poor quality appearing to be beach wood. The gun is unfired. The gentleman who owns the gun has offered it to me at a seemingly very reasonable price. If I end up with it I will definitely restock it. My major concern is that the barrel is a Ron Long. His barrels have a mixed reputation at best. Does anybody out there know for sure if Ron Long assembled and/or used his barrels on the Don Brown kits? 

Frank

[J. Talbert]

The examples I have seen of Don Brown's "kits" were first rate.  I'm surprised to hear of one with subpar wood.
I can't comment on whether Ron Long may have assembled any or on his barrels.

Jeff

[Roger B]

Ron Long barrels were uniformly excellent shooters.  I bought mine from him at the time he was building Schutzen rifles for the Coors people.  His workmanship was nothing less than awe inspiring.  My guess is that the barrel was made by him.  If the rifle is mediocre to poor, Ron didn't build it.  Having seen some of the Don Brown kits over the years, they were nothing less than first rate.  The gun you are looking at doesn't seem to fit either label.  I would look at the parts to see who made them, and if first rate and in good condition, buy the gun for them.  I would love to have another Long barrel if it is in excellent condition.
Roger B.

[Don Getz]

The Alex Henry kit that Don Brown sold was possibly the Best kit of any kind that you could buy. He had his own stock buplicating machine, and he was fussy...it had to be right.     We did a lot of barrels for Don, they were unrifled, and we sent
them down to Ken Owen in Memphis to have typical Alex Henry rifling.    If you saw an Alex Henry rifle that appeared to have
plain wood it most likely was plain english walnut.  The patent breech that he fit to his barrels was by far the best that you could buy.    He fit the hook breech on them.  My first ex[eroemce with them, they were fit so tight I thought they were
soldered together to make it easier to inlet.  One day I bumped it and it moved, much to my surprise........Don

[Bob Roller]

Rod England has the tooling and all that pertained to the Don Brown Alex Henry kit.
If anyone is interested Rod can be contacted at <rtengland864@aol.com>.
Don Getz is right about the breech plug/tang set up.Way better than anything else
made today.Don Brown told me he really invested time and money in getting that
most critical component done right.

Bob Roller

[T*O*F]

We did a lot of barrels for Don, they were unrifled, and we sent
them down to Ken Owen in Memphis to have typical Alex Henry rifling.

Don,
Just to be clear, Don offered 2 different component sets: an English sporting rifle and a long range bullet rifle.  I gotta assume that, if you were using 12L14 back then, that the barrels you supplied were for the sporting rifle.  I know his long range bullet barrels were supplied by Ernie at Badger Barrels, but I don't know for how long.  I know that Mike Rock in Wisconsin supplied Don with 4130 bullet barrels prior to Badger. 

Did you also profile the barrels or did Ken do that?  There seems to be a problem finding someone to do this.  Ernie bored, rifled and profiled his barrels.  Mike Rock bored and rifled his, but sent them to a CNC machine shop in town to have them profiled.  I know I waited over 3 years before Rod England was able to get profiled barrels in 4130.

Ken Owen lives a couple of miles from me and I've been to his shop a couple of times.

[Don Getz]

The barrels that we made for Don were made from 12L14, and they were profiled.....slight swamped.   I think the barrels were
approximately 1 1/8" at the breech, pretty hefty barrel.......Don

[T*O*F]

So back to the original poster's question.  Is the gun you are looking at a sporting rifle or a long range bullet rifle.  The long range rifle has an octagon to round, tapered barrel with NO under rib or ramrod channel.

[Don Getz]

I had one of Don's kits, it was the target rifle, no underrib or ramrod, other than that, it was the same gun as his hunting
version   I had one and was laying on our table at Dixon's.    John just made  a bullet barrel for it..........Don

[Dphariss]

Hi guys! My first time to post here. I'm looking for some information on a Alexander Henry rifle. Supposedly it was built from a Don Brown kit. It is marked "Ron Long". I was told Ron assembled the kit.  Fit & finish are OK however the wood is what I would consider poor quality appearing to be beach wood. The gun is unfired. The gentleman who owns the gun has offered it to me at a seemingly very reasonable price. If I end up with it I will definitely restock it. My major concern is that the barrel is a Ron Long. His barrels have a mixed reputation at best. Does anybody out there know for sure if Ron Long assembled and/or used his barrels on the Don Brown kits? 

Frank

Just curious but what is the basis for the  "mixed reputation at best" comment?

Dan

[Bob Roller]

Take it out and shoot it.That should tell something about the barrel.

Bob Roller

[longcruise]

Where on the rifle is the Ron Long mark?  If its on the lock, then the lock may be the only part of the gun by Ron.  He made quite a few locks.  Have seen several guns in this area with his locks on them, but I don't think he would have put his name on the rest of the work on them.

[HEad Redneck]

I have one of the fanciest and last rifle Don ever built fancy fancy black  totally engraved gold all over the gun first rate bullet gun ,unfired,I live in Yakima spent many hours at Dons shop!!! What a guy miss him a lot!