Ned Hipp rifle

[sqrldog]

This rifle was built by Ned Hipp in the early 1970's. Serial number 3. If number 3 he was a fast learner. My understanding is that Ned only made a few rifles. It is based on rifles by the Albrights.

[Mike Brooks]

That's quite a gun, not much of that quality being built in the 70's.

[n stephenson]

That`s a beauty!  Man had talent!

[Carl Young]

That's a nice find Tim. What part of the country was Hipp from? Not a name that I remember from Ala. Gun Collectors Assn. This would have been unusually fine work in the 70's.

Hope all is well with you.
Carl

[sqrldog]

Ned is from NC. He was shown in Weil's Contemporary Makers.

[wattlebuster]

If thats #3 i would love to see #10. The man has skills. Beautiful rifle Tim

[sqrldog]

Thanks to all of you for positive comments  on the Hipp rifle. This is the cartouche gr used and I assume the serial  number.

[Jim Chambers]

Ned primarily did furniture restoration and was one of the very best restorers in the country.  He was also a very fine rifle maker as can be seen from the above rifle.  He lived just north of Winston Salem, NC.  I saw him from time to time when I worked at Old Salem.

[Don Steele]

First....thanks for sharing the pictures of a gorgeous piece of work. That rifle certainly has "all the features" of a truly fine piece of art.
I'm interested in the design of his cartouche. Fortunately, we live in a very well documented era, and with Jim's comment based on first hand knowledge there's no question about where Mr. Hipp worked. If he were not so well documented and all we had to go on....say a hundred years later...was the cartouche, I'd be thinking he was working in SOUTH Carolina.

[Bob Roller]

Obviously a very talented and capable man. Is he still alive? I hope so.
That lock looks like one of mine based on the externals of the Chet Shoults Ketland
and I hope it is.

Bob Roller

[sqrldog]

Bob I've had the lock out of the rifle it is unmarked on the inside and has a typical spring riding on the tumbler. I does not have a stirrup link. I wish it was your lock also. I was also a little confused about the tree in the makers mark on the rifle. Could be a palmetto or it could be something other than that having a significant meaning to Ned. I usually put a note in the patchbox with the history and information I have about a gun. Tim

[rich pierce]

A Ned Hipp Rifle was included in an article in one of the old Lyman ML books or guides back in the 1970s. Glad to see another.

[D. Buck Stopshere]

I believe Ned and his fellow gunmaker, Ken Fritts from Mount Gilead, NC were Highway Patrol Officers back in the '70's - '80's. I met them the NC Gun Collectors Show when it used to be the best gun show in the state. Think Ken's riflework is listed in the CLA Gunmakers Ledger. Nice fellers, both. I expect they were influenced early on by the late John Bivins  & the late Frank Burton of Winston-Salem.

[Hlbly]

Buck, you are talking about Herb Phipps with Ken Fritts. They were highway patrolmen and worked together building guns. I knew them both for many years.

[D. Buck Stopshere]

Thanks for the correction, you're right.

Memory seems to be the second thing to go when you turn 70.

Durned if I can remember what is the first thing. 

[BOB HILL]

I met a gentleman at The Village Of Yesteryear in Raleigh a few years ago that told me he and Ken Fritts, both retired highway patrolmen, had taken a class from Frank Burton many years ago. He said it was their first builds. He also told me that Frank had told both, after they completed their rifles, that  he would have been proud to have his name on either of them. He was the gentleman that told me Mr. Fritts had passed away. I'm sorry I don't remember his name. This may have been Mr. Phipps.