I feel a little odd trying to contribute to some threads while asking questions in others, so I thought I would introduce myself and explain where that is coming from.
I started a gunsmithing business in '87 just doing minor repairs, recoil pads, muzzle brakes etc. I decided that I needed to fast track the learning curve so I went to CST gunsmithing school in '89. After school I resumed the gunsmithing business and ran it for the next ten years. I was always interested in building accurate rifles but there just wasn't a lot of call for it in my neck of the woods and there wasn't much HP or benchrest activity either. The internet wasn't well established in the shooting community either back then. Early on most of my work involved big bore rifles for the Safari crowd and nice doubles for the quail crowd. Eventually I started gauranteeing 1/2" groups out of my beanfield type rifles and started getting some work in the area I liked but I wasn't very good at marketing and could never get more than a dozen or so rifles a year. Unfortunately I had to move on for financial reasons. I still have the machines and small cnc mill which I use pretty much daily in the protoyping lab. I am still up to speed in making chips department and I still know how to make a great chamber, but there have been a whole lot of other changes in the equipment so I guess I'm a greenhorn here. I'm getting interested in building rifles again as a hobby and ran across this forum in the process. I'm happy to be here and I've enjoyed reading through the archives. There are some very talented builders here.
This is the first rifle I ever built. It was my final project at gunsmithing school and I won the annual CST stockmaking competition with it. I bought it back from a client a few years ago.
I started a gunsmithing business in '87 just doing minor repairs, recoil pads, muzzle brakes etc. I decided that I needed to fast track the learning curve so I went to CST gunsmithing school in '89. After school I resumed the gunsmithing business and ran it for the next ten years. I was always interested in building accurate rifles but there just wasn't a lot of call for it in my neck of the woods and there wasn't much HP or benchrest activity either. The internet wasn't well established in the shooting community either back then. Early on most of my work involved big bore rifles for the Safari crowd and nice doubles for the quail crowd. Eventually I started gauranteeing 1/2" groups out of my beanfield type rifles and started getting some work in the area I liked but I wasn't very good at marketing and could never get more than a dozen or so rifles a year. Unfortunately I had to move on for financial reasons. I still have the machines and small cnc mill which I use pretty much daily in the protoyping lab. I am still up to speed in making chips department and I still know how to make a great chamber, but there have been a whole lot of other changes in the equipment so I guess I'm a greenhorn here. I'm getting interested in building rifles again as a hobby and ran across this forum in the process. I'm happy to be here and I've enjoyed reading through the archives. There are some very talented builders here.
This is the first rifle I ever built. It was my final project at gunsmithing school and I won the annual CST stockmaking competition with it. I bought it back from a client a few years ago.
