Greeting All...I have a DR that is in need of complete restoration. Engraving has been recut but stock/forend need refinsh, barrels and hardware need reblacked and casecolors need to be refreshed. Anyone know of one person capable of doing all this work or am I better off sending it off to 3 different experts. Thanks

Champlin Firearms in Enid, OK is the best at this that I know of.

www.champlinarms.com

DOGCAT has it pegged! JJ Perodeau at Champlin's in Enid, OK is da man!

The two gunsmiths that I have experience with who can do this are Duane Wiebe in Tacoma, Washington and David Yale in Yellowjacket, Colorado. Either are good, but Duane is a little better.

Chris,

I've used David Yale and my rating is only an "OK" - decent job but it had to be sent back.

If you are from Bozeman you might want to bring it by Westly Richards on Huffine West of the mall. The people who run the shop are not DR experts but maintain a relationship with the makers in the UK. They might be sending it to JJ or Champlain anyway.

Best of luck!

Nick Makinson can do it. He does first rate work.

Yale, or Eversul

Oops,

Forgot to mention the "Grand Master" himself, Paul Roberts...

Owned, seen and used his restored stuff...The best if you are willing to pay for it...

Your rifle will have to go to the UK though.

JW

doug turnbull does the best case coloring. if you want it to look right he can do it.

there are lots of wood guys - you should have no trouble getting tht done.

same for rust bluing. makinson is super.

In the US, I recommend J. J. Perodeau for this kind of project. I assume this gun is British? Personally, I avoid re-hardening. If the action has been annealed to recut the engraving (I assume it has) and you have no choice, I would consider having that done in England. I don't know if the St Ledger business is still operating or not. If so, I would use them. If not, there will be someone else who does it regularly for trade, as most gunmakers send it out. J. J. normally uses Turnbull.

quote:

Originally posted by tomo577:
there are lots of wood guys - you should have no trouble getting tht done.

When nice British doubles are "restored" in the US, the one thing that gets butchered more often than anything else is the wood. Seems very few guys over here can really do it right. J. J. is pretty good here. Another option would be to have the wood redone by one of the British stockmakers here in the US. Paul Hodgins comes to mind.
----------------------------------------------
"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

Nate Heineke in Laramie, Wyoming. Restores and builds from the ground up.


Dutch


Sittin' in the gutter sluggin' rats.

quote:

Originally posted by Dutch44:
Nate Heineke in Laramie, Wyoming. Restores and builds from the ground up.


Dutch


Sittin' in the gutter sluggin' rats.

DUTCH, does he specialize in Double rifles, or is he simply a guy who restores guns?

The reason I'm asking is,I'm not famaliar with Nate Heineke! His name sounds good, anyway, it's German!

There are only a handfull of real double rifle smiths in the USA, and some of those are far better than others.

I know lots of fine custom gun smiths who do excelent work on bolt, and other rifles, but who I wouldn't let touch a double rifle. A tiny mistake on a double may mean thousands of dollars in repare, by a real double rifle technition.

I've seen some work done by Ken Owens and it is first rate. He builds doubles from scratch so I'm sure he knows what he's doing.

This comment is not directly on point, but I have seen a lot of rifles, doubles, bolts, dropblocks, that were restored gorgeously by the Brits .... externally .... over badly cordite burned barrels. Too many suckers can't recognize a spoiled bore and buy these clunkers thinking they are in mint condition. Some restorers compound the crime with a few strokes of a lapping rod to shine the bores up.

MacD37:

PM sent.


Dutch

Thanks for the info on your guy, Dutch44! I'd really like to view some of his work, on double rifles!

...................Good Hunting!

quote:

Originally posted by LJS:
I've seen some work done by Ken Owens and it is first rate. He builds doubles from scratch so I'm sure he knows what he's doing.

LJS, is this the same Ken Owens from Arkansas?
if it is, I have seen, and handled some of his double rifles, but have not seen any targets for the shooting of them, nor shot one myself.

The rifles I'm talking about were beautiful. Very nice case coloring, and engraveing, fit and finish is top notch, and wood above average. However, the rifles ( a 450NE 3 1/4", and a 500NE 3") were extremely heavy for caliber. If they shoot well, and he could pare the weight down to a more workable poundage, for caliber, these rifles would be a real value for money laid out!

Considering the examples I've seen,if it is the same guy, I think he would be a good choice for some forms of restoration, but I would still be prone to go with JJ, in the USA, or simply send it back to the maker for re-finishing! One must be very wary of plumbers in double rifle smith's cloths!

Mac: Same guy. He used to do all the US repair work for Westley Richards. I believe he has relocated and I'm not sure where he now is. Perhaps someone on AR knows and can give us his address. He built a couple doubles that were in the 14 pound range that have been for sale recently. The only reason they weighed that much was because his customer was recoil sensitive and wanted heavy guns that would not kick.

There is a guy in Carson City who is also reputed to do restoration work. His name is Lee LeBas. Here's a link:

http://www.learmes.com/

quote:

Mac: Same guy. He used to do all the US repair work for Westley Richards. I believe he has relocated and I'm not sure where he now is. Perhaps someone on AR knows and can give us his address. He built a couple doubles that were in the 14 pound range that have been for sale recently. The only reason they weighed that much was because his customer was recoil sensitive and wanted heavy guns that would not kick.

I spoke with Mr. Owens recently. He specializes in very large bore rifles, .577, .577 Rewah (sp?) and 600 NE. He explained to me that he won't be doing many, if any more .500s as he had some complaints about the rifles being in excess of 14 pounds. He prefers large frame, heavy use doubles.

He does extractors only and his guns have Greener type cross-bolting....From what I've seen and heard of his work it is really top-notch.

Google him up, I believe he is somewhere in Tenn / KY.

I enjoyed my chat with him, he has some really good philosophy on DRs.

Worth the visit!

JW