Custom Firearms and Gunsmithing LLC

After a huge couple of weeks where I have been working 12 hours a day and not getting much sleep, I got a couple of days light and I can catch up on the backed up work. I finally got to the gun I thought would be the easy fix. all I have to do is "glass the action" to the stock.. well I started tearing apart the gun and the dread started; rust everywhere, bore with rust, the stock with rubbing areas, and me without any ammo to test this gun out once I get done just cleaning and taking out the pressure bedding point in the stock. I need a base line to see if the barrel is even worth trying to save and glas the action and the barrel channel. 35 minutes after starting the tear down and clean up I am going to have to put it aside and call the owner to discuss the next steps.
I love my job but sometimes these projects come out of nowhere and kick you in the nuts so hard it's just painful to think about it. I have a string of them this week and last including a model 400 Astra 9X21 that I can not help the gun and it is hell to reassemble the gun unless you know all the secret tricks to assemble the hammer and magazine release.. BTW I learned them very quickly once3 I saw the holes in strategic locations to hold the spring for the hammer and the magazine lock. next model 400 I take apart will be easier to re-assemble.

now back to calling people to tell them their guns are ready for pick up.

I am here just to let you all know that I have done something I thought would never come. I have put the business building up for sale and I am moving to a new location. I will let you know later where but for right now, I am letting you all know that I am not going to work for someone else in another industry. I will be moving me and the business to a new town.
For those whom know me; you know how much I love the 1911 pattern and building them. well, I have been happier this week and last and for the last couple of weeks since I have been given the chance to build not one but two 1911 patterns. I got to rebuild into a real "defensive workhorse". Basically it started life as a stainless steel "gold cup" lower/frame with government slide and barrel. this was a long process with parts that needed to be hand fitted and altered for this oddball 1911 style gun. I had to chase down a gold cup trigger, good 5" parts. the only original parts on the gun, after the others were trashed due to filing and grinding by the last person to work on the gun, were the Slide, Frame, Main Spring Housing. the rest were replaced with high quality aftermarket parts. the gun now shoots and does not quit.
now the second one that has been in the shop suffering from the backlog of this dem-panic has been a custom 9MM "ply gun" fun gun for a long time client. the original frame was so bad it had to be set aside and a new one bought from back east. which is where the slide was bought from as well. then the gun got all high end parts including a local company's barrel. this is Sunday Aug 8th. You all know my rule about working on Sundays. Today I just needed some "me time" and that meant working out some frustrations on lapping a slide and frame together. Well, I succeeded in making the work week's worries and hardships melt away. I accomplished more than just the slide, the whole bottom went together easily after the frustration was gone.
I had to mate the bottom with the top. this turned out to be a mess and a half. I went from a #3 link to a #5 link in 30 seconds. then the link was to long in one respect and perfect in another. The #4 was just not good in either test so the #5 got put back in and the link got some quality time with a file to shorten it by a few thousandths. the gun is happy now.
I have some more ordering to do on this gun, grips and mags are something I over looked when I was ordering parts. still this is the least of the things I needed to order and the got overlooked until now. I also need a bit more time to really smooth out the one or two super small stutters in the action.
I know it's been a long time since I have written here, I have missed it but the time went by so fast that I did not think it had been as long as it has been.
I have had a multitude of things going on in the shop, repairs you will not believe, custom revolvers I am proud I made, friends and associates I have made. new clients.
tomorrow will find me in the shop once again making phone calls and ordering up products and a couple services I need now.
I hope you all will keep looking and like this page along with my personal page. I will be linking a new page, the new shop name to this account so you all will be able to see the new place, the new people I am going to have, and the new services, along with all the old ones, I will be offering.
to all of you that have liked this page and talked, messaged, and had me help you. thank you. it's was my honor and it will be my honor to help, advise, or work on just about anything you send my way. this is not in anyway a "goodbye", this is just me saying, "I have to move to move forward in my life." My life is as a gunsmith, I will be a gunsmith until I decide to retire, IF I ever feel the need to retire.
have a great one y'all. see you soon.

in the next few months major improvements to my shop, the building and the property are going to be happening. stay tuned and I will take pics and post them. New roofing, new paint, the office will be made, reconfiguring the bathrooms, new interior paint, new flooring, dry erase boards for projects and teaching, new lighting exterior, ballards/K-rails for crash fortification, repositioning of the eastern fencing, new fence gates, fix all the exterior signs and make my whole operation much more visible from the road.
other news:
I have been slowly making my old 270-264 Win Mag up again. this case is easily formed by necking down a 7MM Rem Mag. I have bought the donor rifle/action (Win 70 post 64) , picked the barrel maker, profile, flutes, length, twist (1:8"), muzzle brake, and chambering. the super expensive reloading dies have been procured, the reamer will be ordered in a month or less, the McMillan stock has been picked out and now I have to wait to buy the remaining parts one at a time over the next few months and have the gun assembled, mostly just the action rebarreled. the rest I can handle on my own. McGowen barrels for the barrel and barreling, McMillan for the stock ( hunter's edge) , PTG for the reamer, Peterson Bulk brass for the brass, and other things will be in order. I mocked up the gun with a McMillan paint job on the old stock.. looks great, might have to bed this to the gun as well.
I have new business cards from a new source. these are much better than my old cards.
more to come in the next week or three.