Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Best gunsmiths in AK?

I live in rural central Idaho and commute back and forth to Alaska for work.

I use Buckhorn Gun Shop in Boise for all of my gunsmithing work that I cannot do myself. I have had them work on my bolt actions, lever actions, revolvers, and 1911's.

My fellow Idahoan, John Taffin, the fairly famous gun writer who writes for American Handgunner and Guns magazines also uses Buckhorn exclusively.

I call bullshit on that one! I know steve, nothing ilegal going on at his shop. He also does good gunsmithing work.

Well, let's meet at Steve's and ask Steve directly...

No bullshit, just some extremely stupid acts...

If be glad to meet you there. I'm sure Steve would love to set you straight himself.

I have jury duty this coming week, but if free say when and I will be there.

is this the "look out your window at all the cops" event?

No, it was a worse thing by most criteria.

Why does this infantile feces always have to crop up?

If you know a good gunsmith, say, "this guy is good". If you see someone you think is not good, say, "this guy is not so hot, PM me for details".

Call it what you like... but if it bothers you why not contact me and find out the issue before making a public response and continuing it?

I have zero concern about what folks think about my comment, but those that have checked with me know exactly what, when, and how laws were broken. None of those that know the issue are lining up to have work done there...

Looks like I do not jury duty until Wed at the earliest... So tomorrow or Tuesday work for me. Be sure to tell Steve it involves JA... I doubt seriously he really wants to set me straight.

Hint; bluffing will not work...

I can be there at noon.

Responded at length to your PM.

Any chance this meeting could be audio or video recorded for training purposes?

Not to hijack, but I thought I had read somewhere that Brian had been involved in an accident (test firing a gun?) and was in pretty bad shape, or at least looking at a lengthy recovery.

he had a m70 come apart on him while test firing. Lost 8 teeth, and cut up his lips, luckily his eyes and hands where fine. Aside from the teeth he is doing well. He is going to be getting implants to replace them.

a quote from brian “you can eat with wooden teeth, but can’t see for [bleep] with glass eyes!”

He’ll be fine. Hell of a guy.

U guys send me your guns , I have a hack saw,chain saw file (3/16th)and some old wd40...turn around is 1day !

What fault did the 70 have? Over load, something not right? Just curious, not pointing a finger at all.

it usually takes something to toast a 70 or 700 basically.

I don't know the details of this case specifically, but I do know that, 15 years ago or more, when I called to inquire about building a 44 caliber rifle on the 30-30 case (44 Van Houten Souper) - on a M94 Winchester levergun, the guy I talked to that time suggested buying a 45 Colt in the M94 and they'd rechamber it for 454 Casull. It was kind of funny a few years later I picked up a M94 in 45 Colt in a gun shop in Fairbanks. As I was looking it over, the fellow behind the counter saw me looking at a couple minor flaws. He proceeded to tell me that they had just rebarrelled it after taking it in on a trade and discovering that the chamber had been altered to take the much higher pressure 454. I don't know how many 454 cartridges it had consumed before I got it, but it has been a very good pipe through which to burn W296, 23 grains at a time behind 300 grain lead lumps. I kind of think there is some effort to flirt with the firewall at that shop.

I'm not sure what, if any, fault the M70 had in the mishap. It was a post war 300h&h that was long ago rechambered to 300wby and restocked with a very nice piece of wood by an unknown to me gunsmith. I had shot it on several occasions previously and aside from not liking the stock shape had nothing bad to say about the rifle. The customer had bought a new scope and brought it to be mounted and sighted as it needed a base modified to fit the rear bridge, involved drilling and countersinking two holes in the base nothing was done to the rifle.

I took it to the range along with a box of his ammunition which was from a longtime boutique maker and in a sealed box.

Shot the first round and made a scope adjustment and loaded the next round. Thank the big man upstairs I had remembered my rear sandbag that day or I would likely be typing one handed. The barrel and forend were still screwed together and about 25' downrange, the barrel looks almost reusable. The front ring completely disintegrated and the rear bridge is opened like a soup can. The bolt it brass plated of course and was lying on the bench right beside everything. Floorplate is a banana as is the follower, the spring is okay. The left raceway wall is wrapped back around to the left pointed to the rear.

The scope bent over backwards and is what did most of the damage to my face. The front bell hit me under the nose and cut through my lip from my right nostril down to the left corner of my mouth and on into my bottom lip. Knocked out all my front teeth and broke my pallet along with a chunk of bone under my nose in my top jaw that is still unaccounted for.

Don't know what happened or why and suspect we never will, just thankful for safety glasses and modern dentistry.

On another note. I try to do the best job possible when at work and am not shy about turning away stuff outside my capabilities. I like to think I keep my customers happy for the most part.

That said I don't generally advertise or tell people to come by as I don't agree with many things that go on at my place of employment, pricing and customer service being but a couple. I'm just a guy trying to feed my family and keep the lights on.