In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Ray Price of Washington State
jbhd
Member Posts: 16 ✭✭
Hello,
Does anyone have any information on Ray Price of Washington State? I recently purchased a custom rifle with a Springfield 1903 action, beautiful stock, and a "Ray Price" labeled Schillen barrel chambered in 338 Win Mag. I heard that he passed away in 2004, but was trying to identify the maker, age, and history behind this rifle.
Thanks in advance, Jeff
Does anyone have any information on Ray Price of Washington State? I recently purchased a custom rifle with a Springfield 1903 action, beautiful stock, and a "Ray Price" labeled Schillen barrel chambered in 338 Win Mag. I heard that he passed away in 2004, but was trying to identify the maker, age, and history behind this rifle.
Thanks in advance, Jeff
Comments
Thanks, Jeff
Ray Price,
828 Beacon Road,
Wenatchee, WA 98801-9676;
(509) 662-8541
I don't have any information about your particular gun but I was well acquainted with the gunmaker. I worked part time for Ray from '70-'73 in Sierra Vista, AZ when I was a young soldier in the Army at Ft Huachuca. He had just opened his one man gunshop east of town known as Cochise Custom Guns. He grew up in Ajo, AZ had learned his skills as a pattern maker in the Navy in the '50s and worked for Phelps Dodge in Bisbey AZ after the Korean War. He bought all of his equipment from Don Mott's widow, wife of a well known gunsmith in southern Arizona, after his death. I did an appenticeship in his shop, starting out sweeping floors and advancing through repair, refinishing, stock fitting, checkering and barrel fitting. Ray was a fabulous artisan and when the wood chips started to fly from a stock blank you knew something special was going to come of it. I recall one special rifle he built while I worked for him that was on a pre-64 Model 70 chambered for .450 Watts. He asked me to test fire the gun as my initiation into the fold. I think I still have my broken glasses from that experience. The stock was the most beautiful example of stock making I had seen to that point. A few years after I was transferred overseas I heard he had closed his shop in Sierra Vista (it is a UPS station now) and after a short time of operating out of Bob Romey's Gun Shop in Sierra Vista, he moved to Wenatchee, WA. I only had sporadic contact with him after that, one time being when he was trying to get one of his High Wall Winchesters back from me to build a Schuetzen rifle. Ray was a member of the American Custom Gunmakers Guild and was close friends with great smiths such as Maurice Ottmar. I was very sad to see his obituary in te Sierra Vista, AZ Tribune a few years ago. If you have a rifle built by Ray Price you indeed have a fine example of the craft.
Terry Hopkins