Originally Posted By: gunsmith
Flaigs made some of the finest guns in the world bar non. They also handled guns from Austria, and Germany. They had 2 stock makers, a machinest, and several beginning gunsmiths putting actions on barrels,cleaning the floor,ect.
While I was there, I heard a story of John Unertyl coming into the shop. They had just finished mounting a Unertyl scope on a custom rifle, and had to dissemble the scope so the rings could be soldered on. Well the scope fogged, and the owner came back to Unertyl frothing at the mouth about the junk he was selling. He promptly explained what had happened, and went to Flaig. He told Flaig and I Quote. "I don't mess with your f-----g rifles, so don't mess with my f-----g scopes" Then he stormed out.
I heard this while I was apprenticing at Flaigs right before they closed.
I own one Flaig rifle. A 25-06 that was in a fire. The springs were all collapsed and the finish was burned off. But the rifling was nice, and the chamber was clean. So it was off to the test bench, to fire some proof loads in it. After 10 oiled cartridges, no change in heasdspace, no problems what so ever. So a stock was put on it, and a scope was mounted. 5 shots in a half inch. I gave it to my son, after it was refinished, and blued a brilliant blue. It is sitting in the room with me as I type this.
I worked at Flaigs in the store for a short time in the early '80's. At that time they had one stockmaker ( Nelson ), one barrel fitter/metal ( Kenny ) one guy that did the blueing ( Raymond ) and one guy the came in to pick up stocks to be checkered at his own shop ( Gene). At that time the Ferlach guns were long gone from the shop. Bill had a personal collection of the guns that the old man had given him throughout the years as Christmas gifts, bonuses, etc. One day he ( Bill ) had a collector friend come in and sold the lot of them for what at the time I thought was giving them away. At that time there were no Ferlachs hiding in the back room that I was aware of, but I do rememeber the guns from being in the store almost every Saturday buying stock blanks, barrels and what not over the years before I worked there. It's pretty easy to tell the Douglas barrels from the Bohler ones because of contour differences. They did have quite an assortment of old goodies hiding in the basement when I worked there. If any Ferlach guns went at auction when they closed they may have been personal guns from the family. I believe Bill passesd away some years ago.
Last edited by mmkt; 04/10/11.
