doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Charleston SC Gunsmith

Can anyone please recommend a good gunsmith in the Charleston SC area for double gun work?

My appreciation in advance.

It's been a few years since I've used Jim Kelly at Darlington Gun Works, but he was top tier in the lowcountry. I don't know if he has retired or not but he was the doublegun man at his shop. Gil

Jim worked on three doubles for me almost a year ago. His work has always been superb, and was on those three. Don't know of any in the Cha'stown area.

SRH

Jim Kelly's background has been discussed previously but the OP may not be aware of his credentials. When Jim was in the USAF over 50 years ago, he was an armorer. He was stationed in France and he became General Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay's personal gunsmith. While in France, Jim was allowed by LeMay to apprentice in French gunsmith shops where he refined his craft. Mr. Kelly did the stock replacement for Bo Whoop, Nash Buckingham's legendary Super Fox duck gun which he had lost decades before.
https://gardenandgun.com/feature/the-legend-of-bo-whoop/
Gil

I truly hope Jim is passing much of his doublegun knowledge and skills on to his "apprentices". When I told him of spending an hour with Bo Whoop in Savannah, before it went to auction, he really went to talking about it. He said after he completed it he and someone else took it down into a swamp. His friend fired the gun a time or two, after Jim had removed himself from the area and gone some distance away, to try and determine if it really did make an unusual report when fired in a duck swamp. That claim was why it was nicknamed "Bo Whoop". I asked Jim if it did. He smiled and shook his head "no".

But then, Jim probably didn't have any of the original Super X loads to try either ..............

SRH

Nice to read that story again Gil. Such a shame it went to DU. An organization that has turned it's back on gun owners and hunters in favour of "environmentalists".

Sorry for the thread diversion.

I was in Kelly's shop a couple years back, might be 5 now?(hope not), to pick up a DR and he just had heart surgery but he had a son-in-law(?) that was an apprentice & driven to carry on the legacy. Kelly had told him that he really didn't want him to apprentice anywhere else as he didn't want him corrupted.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Bill Graham up in the Raleigh, NC, area is an up and coming gunsmith and has done good work for me and several friends.

When I was on the road, and in the Florence area, I would stop by and visit Mr. Kelly at every opportunity; and always made a point to visit his shop on my way to the Southern. He always had a few interesting doubles on the rack, and our conversations were interesting. So, and based on those visits and conversations, about 10-12 years ago I entrusted my B and C grade SAC guns to his care for some minor work; the exact details of which I no longer recall, but the one thing I do remember is how dismayed I was when the guns were returned and I saw the safety slide on my C Syracuse installed backwards. Maybe one of Mr. Kelly's subordinates did the work (?), but regardless of who that may have been the work was substandard; and since it wasn't done right the first time I paid Buck Hamlin to fix the gun correctly rather than risk having the gun damaged by incompetence. My post is not meant to disparage Mr. Kelly, only to relate my personal experience; perhaps whoever it was in his shop who did the work was unfamiliar with SAC guns, or maybe someone was having a bad day; but that event marked my last visit to Florence, SC for gunsmithing. Sometime afterwards an LCSCA member and friend purchased an A-2 Smith that had been restocked and restored at Mr. Kelly's shop; the restoration was poorly done in my opinion. My advice to the original poster would be to be very, very careful.