George Stanford was a friend and a mentor to me, I built my first rifle with his help. George also mentored Wayne Watson who made the rifles for Daniel Day Lewis in the Last of the Mohicans movie. Carl Pippert was the founder of the Bladensburg School and George, Rudy Bahr and several others (including myself) apprenticed under him. George was born in Colonial Beach Virginia where his father and relatives were watermen. He lived in Marlow Hgts Maryland when I first met him and later moved to Strasburg Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley where he restored an early log and stone home. George passed away about 18 years ago at age 77. George didn’t always sign his rifles, but I’ve seen his work signed on the top barrel flat, the bottom flat and I’ve seen one signed under the patchbox lid. If I had the rifle in hand I could verify that it was made by him, he did high quality work. I recently wrote an article about The Bladensburg School that will be published soon in the the Kentucky Rifle Association Bulletin, if you’re in the KRA you should be getting a copy in the mail. Private message me if you have more questions, I’m pretty much the last of the Bladensburg School gunsmiths. By the way, this does look like his work, he liked to build Schroyer style rifles and this style was referred to as the pin wheel Schroyer.
Frank Kobilis
