NO ONE ELSE IS MANUFACTURING WICKLIFFE RIFLES
The pre - 1982 rifles were from the founding company, Triple S Development, which went bankrupt as you know.
Then Ed Medves (God rest his soul) acquired the Wickliffe inventory and continued to offer Wickliffe rifles built to order. Ed was an armorer from the Euclid, Ohio Police Department, a top flight rifle builder and the best double gun repairman in northern Ohio. He was also an avid fly fisherman, which took time away from Wickliffe production.
When Ed went on his 'final trout fishing trip,' we acquired the Wickliffe inventory, tooling, jigs, fixtures, etc. and resumed production of the original Wickliffe 76.
When we picked up the inventory, it took 4 van loads to empty Ed's basement and garage. There were ten 5 gallon buckets of rifle barrels, all mixed up and none marked. Our owner, Coral Kennedy, spent half a day with dummy cartridges, determining what caliber and chambering each was, marking them and then putting like ones together so we could take an inventory.
The small parts were also a jumble. Coral and I spent 1 1/2 days sorting through boxes and buckets of all kinds of parts. At that time, we didn't know what the parts were so we sorted them until we had gotten them into boxes, where all the parts in the box were the same. That was a lot of work, let me tell you. At last, we knew what we had and were ready to begin production.
We introduced the NEW MODEL WICKLIFFE which has a top tang, so there is a place to mount peep sights for long distance black powder cartridge rifle (bpcr) shooting and competition. (top tang photo attached.) The Wickliffe is fully NRA and ASSRA approved for competition. Expect to see some winning matches soon.
No records seem to exist that document the serial numbers originally used by Triple S Development. Tom Kocsis informed us there was such a book at one time, but it seems to have disappeared or was lost. He indicated that there were about 2,400 rifles sold and he had orders on hand for approx 240 more when the company closed.
Our serial numbering began at #08238 when Custom Parts put the Wickliffe 76 back into production.
We offer the traditional Model '76 and the NEW MODEL with either right or left hand cheekpiece, or no cheekpiece. Several styles of forearms are also available to satisfy customer requirements.
Wood is available from plain basic walnut to extra fancy exhibition grade. CIRCASIAN WALNUT is now available also for those who require the very finest wood.
CUSTOM ENGRAVED MODELS MADE TO ORDER - see photo.
The Wickliffe Liberty Bell Logo has been retained as a hallmark of our quality. It is now located on the receiver ring ahead of the breechblock. It is filled with real gold to make it show up better. (photo attached)
In addition to standard models, we are building the Wickliffe Rifles on a custom basis made to order. The customer can specify the length and brand of barrel and caliber of his choice. All the original chamberings are still available, but we are not limited to only those. We will build with any barrel available as long as the maker can supply what the customer requests. Custom stocks as described above will meet the most demanding customer’s requirements.
