I know Michael, Terry and Mark and several others here, am delighted to have old friends and see new aquaintences in a forum that suits my notions of what fine guns are about.
I started gunsmithing school in 1975 (TSJC age 24) and have dedicated my career to creating, photographing and writing about fine firearms ever since. I began building bolt action rifles in school and progressed back to a Mauser sporter style circa 1900 and a Krag sporter, then a few single shots before taking a job with Green River Forge of Springfield, OR (1978) building muzzleloading guns & rifles. After leaving GRF (1980) I continued such in my own shop until about 1985 when I started to work on double shotguns and single shot cartridge rifles. Left M/L guns behind in the early 1990's specializing in sxs shotguns and single shot breechloaders. Much of this work is documented in my first two books (Fine Gunmaking: Double Shotguns, Custom Rifles in Black & White and in Three Centuries of Tradition).
That's what I do, along with writing the Fine Gunmaking column for Shooting Sportsman (since 1993) and the Custom Shop column in Sports Afield (about custom rifles since 2006). My gunmaking has never been prolific, (I've built a very few extra Deluxe lever rifles) and never will be. I like to shoot and hunt with custom rifles and have been creating modern hunting rifles along with the more historic types for the past decade or so.
To sum up the changes in my gunmaking interests; I reverted from bolt rifles all the way back to 17th century M/L guns, and have been working my way forward to Dakota and Hagn single shot hunting rifles. I will always be enamored with history and historic notions. I am current ly rstoring a circa 1910 Mauser sporter along with other custom projects. (And have aquired vintage Springfield and Krag sporters thanks to Michael's influence!)
It's great to see you all here and I hope his venue continues to be an inspiration for all of us.
Can't Hold Me Back!
Best,
Steve
