Hacker Martin guns

[BoomStick]

Last month at a gun show a dealer was selling a couple pistols and a couple rifles by Hacker Martin.  Said they came out of an estate and the family said Hacker Martin built all the guns in the 1950s.  I assumed it was some sort of mistake or that they got locks by him or something...but these were priced based on his name only and not the build quality.  Or maybe they were very early guns.  Photos of the pistols (just easier to photograph) but the rifles looked much the same.  Dealers name is visible in the tag and asking price.  They were online as well but no longer, so maybe someone really liked them...

[Bob Roller]

Bill Large.E.M.Farris,Glen Napier and others spoke of guns of Hacker Martin.He apparently did what he could with what little was available back in his time.I saw a brass plate pistol he made at Morris Watch Shop in Milton WVa decades ago and fixed the lock but don't remember what was wrong.Maybe it wouldn't hold full cocked.He was surpassed by later makers but he did get the attention of a lot of us then.
Today we have makers that can rival the best of England's makers and that is a long jump from the pistol seen here today.
Bob Roller

[Ky-Flinter]

I have my doubts.  Hacker Martin knew what a gun should look like and he did make some really nice ones.  In his declining years his work also declined, but the guns pictures above.... as I said, I have my doubts.

Some Hacker Martin work:
http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/2008/04/hacker-martin.html

Ron

[whetrock]

Here are a few photos of a rather famous original Hacker Martin pistol that was displayed at the CLA last weekend. It's famous because it was pictured in Foxfire 5. It is built around an original Ketland lock (antique). (I confirmed this with Mel Hankla.)

Sorry I didn't frame the photos very well.

[Hungry Horse]

 I’ve seen pictures of some pretty up scale guns signed by Hacker Martin, and have read several stories, and articles, regarding his work. But I suspect that as has been stated his expertise began to fail him in old age. We don’t see much of his work out here in California, but I have seen three guns signed by him. Of the three only one would I take home for any other reason other than it had his stamp on it. I think we have become spoiled by the plethora of nicely made replicas that often rival the old masters.

Hungry Horse

[BoomStick]

Interesting and thoughtful discussion.  I thought perhaps very early work as he was figuring things out, without any quality parts or help in creating them from scratch.  I had not heard that in later years he may have struggled to produce a good fit and finish.  I would not have bought them for anything more than $100.  Certainly my expectations of a custom gun are colored by the amazing work of many talented gunsmiths.

[Stoner creek]

The stuff at the top of the thread are not from the shop of Hacker Martin. Lots of tell tale signs to boost my opinion. None of the stock profiles are correct. Hacker wasn’t that bad on a bad day.

[BoomStick]

My first reaction was that it had to be a mistake.  I spent some time looking through the posted guns on the contemporary maker blog and there's this Hacker Martin pistol...not quite as bad as the ones at top, but certainly some similarities to one of them.  Particularly in the (handmade?) lock.




http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/search/label/Hacker%20Martin?updated-max=2017-10-14T04:03:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=5&by-date=false

[Hungry Horse]

 Hey Boomstick, I think you got your binoculars turned around. There was a ton of parts floating around in the good old days. Every blacksmith shop had a pile of hand forged barrels stuck under the bench. And as for the learning curve for a young budding gunsmith heck a lot of those old gunsmiths were still alive. As a young kid I helped take down part of a WWII bomb shelter house built by a GI when he came home. It was cinder block filled with concrete and all the “rebar” was old octagon rifle barrels. So I think Hacker hit the ground running when it came to gun building, but the wheels fell off toward the end, and possibly somebody got hold of his signature stamp.

Hungry Horse

[whetrock]

I'd think it was not uncommon for the work of older smiths to begin to suffer back in the day before they invented cataract surgery, florescent lighting, and optivisors. That would affect their ability to do fine detail, such as inletting and engraving. It shouldn't affect big details such as architecture.

[Tim Crosby]

 I was home on leave in Dec of'70 I think it was and drove up to Hackers, I did not know he had died.
There was a guy there named Bobby Carr that told me he had worked for Hacker, I only saw him that one time but then again I never went back up there. I wonder if he put the above together after Hacker's passing?

  Tim C.

PS> Hacker also made fiddles. TC

[Stoner creek]

Hey Boomstick, I think you got your binoculars turned around. There was a ton of parts floating around in the good old days. Every blacksmith shop had a pile of hand forged barrels stuck under the bench. And as for the learning curve for a young budding gunsmith heck a lot of those old gunsmiths were still alive. As a young kid I helped take down part of a WWII bomb shelter house built by a GI when he came home. It was cinder block filled with concrete and all the “rebar” was old octagon rifle barrels. So I think Hacker hit the ground running when it came to gun building, but the wheels fell off toward the end, and possibly somebody got hold of his signature stamp.

Hungry Horse

Agreed!

[BoomStick]

I don't often take photos of guns at shows or events, but these caught my attention for how bad they looked and how they were marked and priced.  The dealer was absolutely certain based on the maker marks and the guns' provenance that they are authentic.   I doubted it and figured the people on the forum might opine a bit...willful forgeries?  Made from parts?  The first few guns he made?  Or maybe, from the discussion above, some of the last?
As I handled them and talked to the dealer for some time, my father-in-law (with me at the show) asked if I knew the builder and he was well-known, why I didn't buy one?  I chuckled and said nobody would ever believe me...