How I Spent My Time At SHOT

It was Wednesday at the Sands Convention Center. The annual Adult Video drink-as-much-aspossiblewhilewearing-as-little-as-possible clambake wasn’t due in at the Hard Rock until Thursday. The store manikin wearing nothing but abra had me thinking otherwise until I saw she was the centerpiece of the Deep Conceal booth in the lower level of the Sands. Then I noticed the bra was wearing something. It turned out to beanew product named BRAT.

The Deep Conceal management type in attendance said it was, "Very easy to use and extremely comfortable." I couldn’t find alive model to check out the claim so I took his word and switched my attention to another new product named The Stick Up. It’s a combination of a Velcro pad and a holster that make it possible to secrete a CCW under a chair, a desk and in a purse or briefcase. In another application, the Stick Up lets the CCW owner hide a small handgun on the sun visor of his or her car.

Speaking of concealing, by Friday there was a lot less of it happening at the Hard Rock. Proof positive this was fact dawned on me at about 4:30 PM up on the SHOT Show main floor. Manning in the hundreds of booths had morphed to minimal. Test Fire Answer Savage Range Systems has an answer for your need to test fire. You don’t All of them can be seen at DeepConceal.com. need a thump on your head to know the importance of testing feed and function of a gun you’ve worked on before turning it back to its owner.

Doing it is no problem if your operation is attached to or near a firing range. But what if it isn’t? Over the years, gunsmiths have had to dream up some pretty odd ways to make live fire testing a gun possible. One I knew had a trap door installed in the rear of his shop. It opened on a 55 gallon drum full of water sitting in his basement right under it. The muzzle was always held close to the water surface at an angle of 90 degrees to eliminate ricochets. The system never failed but

The GD Gunsmith is 3/8" steel with a 8100 FPE rating and up to 200 rounds per day. GHD Gunsmith, 3/4" steel, 13,000 FPE rating (up to .50 BMG) and up to 500 rounds/day. All feature the patented Savage circular deceleration chamber and are welded, one piece construction. it had a critical flaw. Inevitably, the number of bullets drowned demanded an overhaul.

The barrel was tipped over, either drained or pumped free of water, the assorted spent bullets raked out, the barrel righted, refilled and the water escaping in the process mopped up. That fellow had the cleanest basement for blocks in any direction. These days trap doors, barrels and mopping up water have all become unnecessary. So have ranges somewhere far away in the boondocks. You can have a perfectly safe and very sound test range right on your bench or one that rolls to and from where you want it.

Essentially, you can forget about moving way out of town or adding a shooting range to your premises. Instead, bring the range into your shop. Calculate the foot pounds of energy produced by the round you’ll be testing, come up with a figure for the number of rounds to be fired per day and call Savage Range Systems KDF Incorporated How does $300.00 an hour sound? Down in Seguin, Texas is an outfit called KDF Incorporated and has been recognized worldwide as the leader in high efficiency muzzle brake technology.

Their Slim Line brake, for example, has risen to be judged the most effective in many quarters. That’s very nice but it also gets raves for blending in with an almost seamless fit. KDF muzzled brakes can accommodate 36 different OD barrel sizes and match almost any finish from high luster to matte blue. Stainless steel brakes are available either polished of matte. For the gunsmith bent on providing a custom fit and finish, brakes are offered unfinished and untapered. There’s more.

Once you’ve made KDF part of your business they add your name to their web site and refer customers in your area directly to you. Call KDF Can you locate the seam where the barrel and brake have been joined? Neither could I. for more details. Selling and installing their muzzle brakes could be a plan to boosting your bottom line by $300 an hour net profit. Rimfires And Airguns Rimfire and Airgunners were not ignored, as they should never be.

The two markets remain a major source of prospects whether they are beginners or smallbore fans. Heck, I remember having to prove my respect for guns two years using a single shot, muzzle-

loading, lever action Daisy before I could graduate to my first, single shot, bolt action Winchester .22 S-L-LR. I‘m not alone in my opinion of those markets. BKL Technologies of Fort Worth has positively zeroed in on them and manufactured the largest selection of airgun and rimfire scope mounts in the United States. To the markets knowing them best, BKL is the mount specialist. A couple of innovations have helped BKL deserve that reputation.

Their Clamp Spreading feature eliminates the problem of oversized mounting rails by evenly spreading ring clamping legs apart. This allows the ring legs to slide easily on the still oversize mounting rails. Another patented feature, Auto Centering, solves problems due to varying mounting rail widths. The screws are switched over to the clamping holes in the ring legs and the legs evenly drawn together to tighten them while keeping a scope center mounted on the rail.

Another BKL breakthrough not shown but worth mentioning is an adjustable scope mount that never runs out of vertical adjustment when using a scope. I later found out how this is possible at BKL’s website (bkltech.com).

The BKL Adjustable Mount system incorporates side rails for mounting accessories, a lower profile than usually achievable in an adjustable mount and over two American Gunsmith Mailing List Policy Like many other publishers, we make portions of our customer list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services we believe you may enjoy.

If you do not wish to receive these offers, and/or information, please let us know by contacting us at: American Gunsmith Opt-Out Program Norwalk, CT 06854 inches of clamping length with six screws. It’s available for one inch or 30mm scope tubes. CSMC Here’s how to get apiece of the high end market. There always has been and always be a market for the Rolls Royce or Bentley. It’s true with automobiles and is equally true of the finest shotguns and rifles.

Up to now, you may have counted yourself out of serving the latter group. Maybe you don’t believe there are any such people in your immediate world and I can tell you there were very few of them at SHOT. They aren’t universal snobs, though. Not for the most part anyway. They live all over the United States, have very deep pockets and can readily afford what they prefer for venturing into Africa on safari after large, dangerous game.

Their particular guides and gunbearers will be packing rifles built for the trip by members of the American Custom Gunmakers Guild. Though you may not be a full Guild member, you can become an associate member for very little. Visit their website (acgg.org) for information. Once you’ve signed up, you will be able to place any high end customer coming your way in touch with one or more Guild members most appropriate for building the dream piece required. It would end up being American Gunsmithing Association

the one-of-a-kind heirloom desired and worthy of being included in any photo of its proud owner posing with his or her just-taken Cape Buffalo. In less time than you might expect, the fact that it wasn’t you who built the rifle will not matter as much as word of mouth getting around that it was you who brought customer and practitioner together and made the rifle happen. If nothing else you are permanently marked as a provider of fine service. Such reputations never hurt any gunsmith’s business.

I’d pretty much given up on being able to suggest a similar route you could take with high end double shotguns until very recently. Still to be had are newly made American classics like the Winchester Model 21, Parker Double and AH Fox among them. Higher on the ladder still are veterans of the formal bird firing lines of England. There, plus-fours and finely tailored Harris Tweed shooting jackets are required.

Shooters are traditionally armed with two of Britain’s best, one for themselves and one for their similarly but not quite as richly attired loader, yet even these nobles amongst all scattergunners might be tempted to place you on their first call list. Both these groups of shotgun purists with deep pockets can and are being served by the Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company and A. Galazan operating out 410 shotguns.

Below center: This CSMC one piece tool accurately checks chokes of 12, 16, 20, 28 gauge and .410 guns. Easy to use and read, it is made of brass, is five inches long and weighs 3.5 ounces. 410 bore. Durable rust blue rods, gauge ring with brass fitting with a length of 6 1/2 inches and a width of 2 5/8 inches. of New Britain, CT connecticutshotgun.com). CSMC isn’t a guild you can join but it can become the source from which you can draw a dazzling list of legendary shotguns presently made in New Britain.

Visit their website for all the possibilities. While there, you might want to do as I did and order in a sample of the tooling used in actually building and servicing these shotgun icons. Just having this tooling in sight can get a conversation started about top end shotguns. AG