I contacted Dennis Ernhardt and he reports that the stock work is not his.

"I cannot tell for sure who made the gun, but it looks as though Thom Burgess may have done the metal work. The stock could possibly have been made by Maurice Ottmar. It looks like a beautiful rifle."

Maurice Ottmar is evidently deceased, so unless someone knows of the whereabouts of any records he may have kept, I seem to have arrived at a dead end. I have located a few pictures of Ottmar's work, but none in a heavy caliber which would dictate the type of stock fitted to my rifle.

I have also determined that the bolt will barely close on a new, freshly sized cartridge case, leading me to believe that whoever rebarrelled the rifle did not have a headspace gauge and used a factory cartridge to set the headspace with. As soon as I can get my hands on a headspace gauge I will know more.

It seems unlikely that the rifle has ever been fired in its present configuration. There is no evidence of copper fouling in the bore.