Greetings from Midwestern Plains of Iowa!   

In an effort to keep the Spirit of the Traditionalist Gunmaker alive, I build antique blackpowder rifles and pistols. The vintage of the guns are from 1730 to 1830, and are representative of several different schools of earlier gunsmiths. All guns crafted in the shop are in a traditionalist vein. The projects are shown as they  transition from a block of wood to the finished state. You'll see a variety of guns including a Southern Tennessee rifle and a free-styled target pistol I designed. 

The goal for the website is to serve as a  guide for future gunbuilders who want to learn the craft. I only hope I can accomplish this goal. Check out the  Project Photo Albums and click on the rifles.  The whole rifle building process will unfold to show you how to do it yourself. Some of these albums are like "How To Guides" to help other gunbuilders. 

Example:

For example there are a few Edward Marshall (Christian Springs / Monrovian) Hunting Rifles.  The Hunting Rifle has the most detailed steps shown. The Transitional Lancaster (fancy rifle) and the Tennessee rifle projects were other rifles showing the rifle building process from beginning to end, too.

Take a look around the Rifleshop to give you an idea what tools I have available. Most of the work is done by hand. 

Created an " Apprentice notebook" under the Tips & Aids section in an attempt to share some simple tools, thoughts and etc of the trade to share with others.

 My mentor & Master Gunsmith is Steve "Bookie" Bookout.  He has a website, too and you'd find it very interesting as well. Steve earned the CLA "Pioneer Award" for 2007. He has his own shop is called "Toad Hall Rifleshop". We've been friends since 1978, and he's responsible for getting me into this craft.  

Recently we wrote a book together on how to build "A Wooden Iowa Rifler" similar to those built over a hundred years ago.  The purpose of the rifler bench is for putting rifling grooves into gun barrels. This is the same method used by the Appalachian rifle builders. See the  Rifling Book link for more information.    

In the last few years, I've taken on  Apprentices who wanted to learn the craft. They have their own dedicated pages in this website. 

I been graced with the opportunity to visit Weston, MO on three occasions and attend the Bevel Brothers' "Over The Log Shoot" in the last couple years. I dedicated a page of photos on those unique shoots. We had our own Iowa Original Chunk Gun Shoot. 

Favorite Things To Do: Playing with my grandchildren, building guns in the shop, shooting black powder,  prospecting , and fishing. (Notice I said prospecting. I've prospected for gold in Alaska, Australia, California, Indiana, Tennessee, Michigan and Iowa.)

Again, Welcome To The Shop & Look Around Awhile! 

Visitors to the shop.

• Hot News!! Not only is Our 2nd Edition of the The Wooden Iowa Rifling Bench book  just been completed and in print, with more advanced techniques, it is now featured in the new "Barrel Reaming & Rifling" American Pioneer Video DVD. See DVD By APV link.  Now you can rifle a barrel in an hour.  Also it was reviewed in Muzzleloader Magazine in the "Prime Possibles" section again. Books and DVDs are going fast and being shipped all over the world right now. 

• Rearranged the Project Photo Albums page by placing all the photo albums with detailed breakdowns of the projects at the top of the page instead of forcing people to search and find them.   Hopefully that will make it easier to locate "how-to" information for your projects.  

  If you like the site or have any questions, drop me a line by clicking on "Hoot" below.

  

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