Roper actually wrote two books and both of them are interesting. He also was a columnist for The American Rifleman for much of the 1930s and I've listed some of the more interesting articles by or about him below. Mathias Gagne carved most of the revolver stocks but at the peak of their popularity Roper hired W.D.H. Nichols to make stocks for automatic pistols and they also offered a machine checkered stock.
Mathias Gagne never worked for S&W. Roper did in the 1920s and Albert Gagne (Mathias' son) worked in the shipping department in the 1950s. He was also on the company's pistol and revolver team. He developed the coke bottle stocks.
- “Some New Grips for S&W Revolvers,” F.C. Ness, The American Rifleman, Dope Bag, August, 1934
- “The Mechanics of Handgun Stocks” by Howard Langley, The American Rifleman, November, 1941
- Pistol and Revolver Shooting by Walter F. Roper, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1945
- Experiments of a Handgunner by Walter F. Roper, Stackpole and Heck, Inc., New York, 1949
- “Double-Action Shooting,” Walter F. Roper, The American Rifleman, circa 1947
- “Notes on Pistols,” Boyd Cherry, The American Rifleman, January, 1948
- “Well, I’ll be darned…,” Walter F. Roper, The American Rifleman, March, 1948
- “Custom Stocks,” Walter F. Roper, The American Rifleman, June, 1948
- “Handgun Grips,” Elliott Jones, The American Rifleman, circa 1949
- “Custom-Made Revolver and Pistol Stocks and Their Value to the Target Shooter,” Edward A. Kiessling, The U.S. Hand-gunner, May, 1952
Regards,
Kevin Williams
