A friend of mine has acquired an interesting target rifle in .303", heavy barrel, single shot on a Mauser action made by Westley Richards.
Interesting in itself but it gets better as there is an Antipodean connection, the barrel is stamped J T Lake Adelaide so the rifle was made for him. We know that a Lake from there in 1904 published a book of tables for shooting the Lee Enfield, this rifle was amde by Westkey Richards in 1929.
Any history or details on Mr Lake would be appreciated.
Will try and get some pictures.
Interesting Westley Richards target rifle.
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joseyclosey
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joseyclosey
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I had a look at this rifle and must say what a fantastic piece. there are no iron sights on it, front or rear, and apart from four filled holes on the left of the stock adjacent to the reciever there seems to be no provision for mounting optical sights. More research needed on this firearm, for it is a truly interesting rifle. Only wish i had the time to have taken some photos myself.
Joe
Joe
Update
The owner of this rifle has come across the following information relating to the rifles late owner JT Lake.
Just a thought but do you think he could be a relation of "PRIVATE H.A. LAKE, ONE-TIME KANGAROO HUNTER, NOW A SNIPER WITH THE 2/5TH INDEPENDENT COMPANY." Pictured in the "Field Modified" post
"J.T. Lake was the best shot in the Colony, being South Australian Champion of Champions for many consecutive years.
He was very successful at Bisley on a number of occasions winning at least one Queens Prize and heaps of other loot.
I recall that he was top scorer in a number of Australian Teams that shot at Bisley around the turn of the last century.
He was most noted in South Oz as the most decorated German Ring Target Koenig, he regularly competed in the German Shutzen circuit and won something like 15 or 20 Kingships, he certainly won the Hahndorf Belt
on 6 or eight occasions, the Kapunda and Lobethal Prize about five time each from the 1880's to around 1910 if memory serves me.
No one else ever managed to equal his tally - to the point that the German Shutzenbund mooted a proposal that he be excluded from further competitions; apparently this fell over at the committee stage.
But, as a result of this there was a huge falling out with much rancour, name calling and recrimination on all sides, gave the Shutzenbund a massive public spray at a dinner after cleaning up yet another kingship at Lobethal.
After he gave the Germans a dressing down he then declared that he would never shoot with any German again or attend any of their Shutzenfests ever again.
A bit of a shame as there is no telling just how many Kingships he could have won if he had not spat the dummy and burned all his bridges so publicly.
His business was gun retailing, I believe he had at least two addresses in Adelaide - his speciality was buying job lots of guns with his name stamped on them for extra sales potential.
Yeah, Lake was one plenty serious shooter who is still spoken about in awe and admiration over here, basically there was no one who could equal him at NRAA style shooting, far get anywhere near him at Ring shooting - then or now."
This also suggests that perhaps the rifle was not made for/or used by him specifically but just retailed by him.
Just a thought but do you think he could be a relation of "PRIVATE H.A. LAKE, ONE-TIME KANGAROO HUNTER, NOW A SNIPER WITH THE 2/5TH INDEPENDENT COMPANY." Pictured in the "Field Modified" post
"J.T. Lake was the best shot in the Colony, being South Australian Champion of Champions for many consecutive years.
He was very successful at Bisley on a number of occasions winning at least one Queens Prize and heaps of other loot.
I recall that he was top scorer in a number of Australian Teams that shot at Bisley around the turn of the last century.
He was most noted in South Oz as the most decorated German Ring Target Koenig, he regularly competed in the German Shutzen circuit and won something like 15 or 20 Kingships, he certainly won the Hahndorf Belt
on 6 or eight occasions, the Kapunda and Lobethal Prize about five time each from the 1880's to around 1910 if memory serves me.
No one else ever managed to equal his tally - to the point that the German Shutzenbund mooted a proposal that he be excluded from further competitions; apparently this fell over at the committee stage.
But, as a result of this there was a huge falling out with much rancour, name calling and recrimination on all sides, gave the Shutzenbund a massive public spray at a dinner after cleaning up yet another kingship at Lobethal.
After he gave the Germans a dressing down he then declared that he would never shoot with any German again or attend any of their Shutzenfests ever again.
A bit of a shame as there is no telling just how many Kingships he could have won if he had not spat the dummy and burned all his bridges so publicly.
His business was gun retailing, I believe he had at least two addresses in Adelaide - his speciality was buying job lots of guns with his name stamped on them for extra sales potential.
Yeah, Lake was one plenty serious shooter who is still spoken about in awe and admiration over here, basically there was no one who could equal him at NRAA style shooting, far get anywhere near him at Ring shooting - then or now."
This also suggests that perhaps the rifle was not made for/or used by him specifically but just retailed by him.
