Anyone know anything about this smith from Plains, Montana, especially his wood stockwork?

Very good guy, very good work, very resonable prices and delivery. Don't expect much conversation.

J Belk

thanks for the info

vigillinus

Well, Dennis has been pretty friendly lately at least to me since we have been thru several projects already. In fact I was on the phone with him a couple of months ago and we spent a good 45 minutes talking about a wildcat project. We were actually going thru a small portion of his reamer collection on the phone just to see what big bore wildcat reamers he got in stock. It is just amazing that Dennis got almost every big bore reamer imagineable including many wildcats that I have never heard of them before. To some people, Dennis does not seem to talk much but for me he is very straight forward and honest to deal with and that is the way I like it.

Dennis is an A number one gun smith, he won't talk as rule but from time to time you'll hit on a subject that interrest him and it gets real interresting..

He does excellent work and he can make any rifle feed anything, beer cans, dead rabbits, prunes and even bullets, he feeds them Metamucil I think...He can also repair anything...

vigillinus

Ray hit the nail on the head. If Dennis likes what you are talking about he is much more talkative. Big bores are one thing that he does enjoy. He had several in his shop when I was there a couple of weeks ago. He can't wait for the new Montana PH action to appear for obvious reasons.

As Ray also mentioned he can seemingly fix anything and make most anything. He had a wood spliter and also a shake shingle cutter there a couple of weeks ago both made from the frames of old hay balers. They both worked perfectly also.

He does excellent stock work and has about 1500 blanks on hand if you happen to need one. He uses a Don Allen duplicator and can make it talk for sure. As he says, he definately has it figured out.

If you happen to drive up that way stop and buy him a bannana cream pie. That is one thing that will definately bring a smile to his face. It won't get you any quicker service but it will usually get him to talk a little bit more.

He is well known for three things:
1. He does what you want him to do.
2. He almost always gets it done when he said he would.
3. He never asks for more money than he said it would cost.

Overall, a first class gunsmith as well as a first class person.

[ 05-23-2003, 08:27: Message edited by: Idared ]

Contact number?

By the way, it is Dennis Olson and not "Olsen".

Here is his contact info:

Dennis Olson
P.O.Box 337
500 First Street
Plains, Montana 59859
(406) 826-3790

thanks everyone, I will be getting in touch with Mr. Olson. And if anything comes of it will give you a report.

What makes things even better is that Dan Lilje lives in Plains also. I used to live in that area and although I don't know either one real well, I can confirm that there is no b.s. in either of them. Dennis does amazing work on both metal and wood. His rifles are very light and very accurate. Jeff

It isn't as easy to catch Dan in his shop as it is to catch Dennis in his though. Dennis once remarked "I envy Dan's hours!!"

But, if in the area by all means check out both of them. One look at Dan's barrel making operation will tell you why his barrels have such a good reputation. Even if he is not around, he has very capable people working for him.