Top Rifle Gunsmiths

We're running desperatly short on gun smiths in Norway. Although Norvåpen AS, R.Hansen and Rafdal are three of the better known smiths. Of about two dozen students studying to become gunsmiths, three graduated. Not a whole lot.

I've ordered a rifle from Norvåpen - best known for their BR rifles. Luckily, the gun smith there has built plenty of both rugged hunting rifles and BR rifles - now he's combining it into a Rem700 with the AICS stock.

...a few more weeks now.

I agree Hammonds is a good smith. He made my custom swap barrel .308 / 6.5x284. It shoots tight-ass groups from every range I've shot it so far (5 shot group of .183 at 100 yds with my Fed. Gold Medal ammo). He recently had surgery (from an auto accident in Florida), which delayed delivery of my rifle by about 6 weeks. He still actively shoots in Benchrest competitions (in the Hall of Fame I bellieve) and goes on varmint hunts (I believe he is building a 2,000 yard varmint rifle as we speak).

For Tactical rifles I STRONGLY recommend Jered Joplin of Patriot Arms. Jered's rifles flat shoot or they never leave his shop. And he understands the sniper game because he makes several trips to the Army Sniper School at Ft. Benning every year where he shoots on the range and talks to the people in the industry. John Williams Jr., owner of US Optics, is one of Jered's customers and is kicking serious butt in 1,000 yard competition with a rifle that Jered built for him.

His site:

http://www.patriotarmsinc.com/index....com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=484

Where I live (Seguin, Texas), there is one gunsmith that everyone knows. Her name is Irene Herrera, yes a girl, but I don't know anyone else that knows more about gunsmithing than she does. She works at Hill Country Rifle, in New Braunfels, Texas. If you look in any major gun magazine you can find there ad.

MOrpheus,

You have any experience with KDF. Would they a good place to have actions worked on? Or would you run the 15 miles over to NB? I would be coming from Houston so the extra 15 miles wouldnt really matter to me.

I haven't had any direct experience with KDF, but I have a friend that put a muzzle brake put on his rifle. For all I know they are good. But the gunsmith in NB is the one I would go to. She is a very good gunsmith, but the reason why I go over to NB (as many people do) is because of her personality brings people in. I hope this helps.

Morpheus,

Thanks for the info. I have been giving some thought to having my RUM checked out and make sure everything is in good shape. I'm not getting the accuracy I think I should be getting and I don't really think its me. Is it possible that I am trying too hard to make each and every shot as perfect as possible and making myself screw the shot up? Thanks again for the help.

badshot,

Hill Country Rifle would be the perfect place to take your RUM. That's what they work on a lot over there. So especially if your taken a big rifle take it to HCR. And ask for Irene to work on it (if you talk to her tell James H. sent you).

Thanks Morpheus. I'm going to give the RUM a few more outtings to see if i can get a load to work then I'll get more serious about doing some work on it. I'll holler if/when i get ready and get some contact info from you. Thanks again.

Undoubtedly the best gunsmiths for TACTICAL bolt action rifles are George Gardner (GA Precision Rifles) and Jeff Hicks (HD Rifles). Both of these smith will amaze you with the quality of their work. GA Precision has a smith, Eric Reid, who is a 2112 and helped develop the M40A3.
Read the review of GA "rock" here http://www.snipercountry.com/InReviews/TheRock.asp
I have a .300 winmag from HD and a Rock from GA and have shot consistently under .5 MOA with FGGM or Black Hills.[/url]