More on Pope Krag Palma Barrels

[Cat Man]

From "Shooting and Fishing" June 30,1904.

Harry Pope was a subscriber to the weekly Shooting paper that predates the NRA American Rifleman magazine. About 30 years ago while flea market shopping I came on a stack of these magazines from the early 1900 shooting era. While I was looking at them I noticed the address label was to some guy named H M Pope on Dorchester Street. WOW, they once belonged to the old master. Bought the stack and realized later that many of them contained Popes hand written notes in the margins. Written in scratchy dull pencil were Popes own notes about topics in the paper.

This issue contains the column about the Pope rifle barrels made for his team mates and used in that years International Palma Match. Most Krag collectors have read about the US team winning that contest and then being disqualified by our English cousins for using non standard service barrels. Pope angrily made notes in the magazine he received in June 1903. I have transcribed the old originals along with some of the original pages. He notes also his observations on lack of rifle accuracy from Sea Girt matches the previous year.

From the top of the article in hand written notes:

"I discovered at Sea Girt the season before that all Krag bullets tipped @1000 yds.. Soaked off pasters with holes in them and showed them to Will Hayes and Gen. Spencer together. Results 8" twist by me & better bullets by Thomas 220 & Frankford 200 gr. UMC used."

Further Pope responds, "Every man on the team has invariably told me that there was no trouble at Wimbledon. All knew it and I was glad. Every Englishmen used a special BBL, some with PS stocks, there is no doubt about this what so every. H. M. P.

In the far right margin Pope writes: "All this ruckus was caused by WM Harrow writing in the Washington Star sometime after the match. I shot well enough to win a place on the team but was left off because of his earned reputation for trouble making. English papers then took it up because they were hard losers."

Interesting original Krag history.

Jeff The Caterpillar Man

[Cat Man]

More Pope Krag notes

[Cat Man]

Last page of pope notes

[butlersrangers]

A very neat archive that you have found and preserved, Jeff! - Thanks

[waterman]

This just to stir the pot. I read Pope's writing on from the pictures Cat Man posted. It's hard to read, but look closely. The person Pope was writing about was not W. M. Harrow, but Willard Milton Farrow, a noted target shooter of the 1875-1915 period. Farrow (b. 1848, d. 1934) was a serious contender in the BP days, having competed in the international matches from 1878 to 1883. He was probably the best target shooter in the country during the BP days and had defeated Pope in a number of offhand matches. From 1885 until about 1896, Farrow made both whole rifles and barrels, but abandoned the business when smokeless powder appeared. From the beginning, Farrow had a reputation as a prickly character, quick to take offense and often embroiled in rather nasty arguments. The editor of Shooting & Fishing wrote a brief biographical sketch of Farrow, saying that he was either hated or admired. That Farrow would write a letter to the editor that caused trouble is not inconceivable.

Farrow was a modernist, not one to live in the past. Smokeless powder changed gun making and Farrow lacked the resources to remain competitive. About 1896, Farrow shut down his gun making business in Morgantown, West Virginia, and moved to Washington, DC. There, he became a maker of inventors models and bicycle parts. He remained interested in guns and target shooting and became "Inspector of Musketry" in the Washington, DC, National Guard. He was one of the first men to understand the value of the Stevens-Pope .22 rimfire conversions to the Krag. Charles Winder gets the credit and the blame for the Steven-Pope row with the US Army, but Farrow (in DC) and Dr. Walter Hudson, DDS, Inspector of Musketry in the New Jersey National Guard were equally responsible. If you read through the annual results of the Sea Girt matches, you will find the names of 1st Lt W. M. Farrow and Capt. W.G. Hudson placing high in the long range military matches using the Krag, soundly defeating the Regulars. Hudson usually placed higher than Farrow. IIRC, both were in their 60s.

When the Army forced National Guard units to get rid of their Stevens-Pope barrels, Farrow manufactured rifled chamber inserts for the Krag, so that .32 S&W revolver cartridges could be used for indoor or short range practice. A few of these still exist.

In 1908, Farrow bought one of the Winchester Single Shot target rifles, but chambered for .30/40 Krag, not .30-06.