Eddie built three rifles for me, all first rate and fully in accord with my specs. Nothing lately (my gun safe is full) so things might have changed. But his past record is very good and you live in Michigan, so why not take a drive to Luna Pier and see Eddie in his shop?
have used 5 different sniths over 30 years.jim borden,mike bryant,clay spencer,karl feldkamp and mark penrod,all built shooters,if building on a winchester controlled feed mark is my only choice.phenominal.eddie fosnaugh i have heard nothing but good about.if in doubt and dont mind the ride talk to mark penrod.he is the equal or better than many.
David Christman is great. He built a couple rifles for me and has done other smithing work. As long as I've been around I seen and used several good ones. Karl Feldkamp, James Anderson, Mike Bryant, Jim Kobe, Pete Pieper, John Holiger, John Pierce, Jim Borden are just a few of the good ones. I know going in that the wait may be long, but I do most of my metal work and have gained a little patience.
Nothing confusing at all. I recommended him to a close friend based on his reputation here. My friend sent him all the parts and causally asked a ball park time frame. He said something like 6 weeks. My friend knowing things happen didn’t try to contact him until about 3 months and then it was just to make sure everything was ok. Eddie told him he was very sorry and had been busy. No big deal. He told him he would get it in the next couple of weeks. After a couple more months my friend tried to contact him again and he wouldn’t reply to him. I sent him a message asking him to contact my friend and explained my situation where I recommended him to a friend and how poorly things were going. He apologized again and gave another time frame which wasn’t met. The rifle finally arrived and it didn’t shoot like a 6BR defiance action brux or bartlien barrel McMillan stock NF scope should. After the whole bad experience he put the gun up and just forgot about it for a bit. After getting it back out we noticed the barreled action didn’t set right in the stock. The bedding looked amazing but it rocked and we determined the recoil lug was bottomed out. So we dremeled out some of the pretty bedding and skim bedded that. During all the trouble shooting we noticed the barrel didn’t really seem to be crowned. Now I’m not saying it was just chopped off flat. I also know some crowns are slightly different than others. With that said the crown was not like anything either of us has had before or since then. So he had the barrel crowned. After the bedding tweak and crown the gun is a tack river. I have absolutely no axe to grind and nothing against Eddie. I just wanted to share my experience. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about this but I would hate for someone else to have the same experience we did.
Well, I feel the need to respond to this partially true claim, even if it's about a build from 2015 (had to look it up because I couldn't remember that far back). The claim about timeframe is true, no denying, and in big part due to some personal family things that happened. I will leave it at that, since quite frankly it's nobody's business. Onto the claim of me not crowning a barrel, and putting out bad bedding is simply BS, not true. I have NEVER bedded a rifle without clearance under the recoil lug, ever. As far as the crown goes, the barrel was threaded and timed for a muzzle brake, therefore gets a new crown regardless, and my crowns/machining are done correctly, period.
I have no axe to grind here either, especially from 2015....however, it would have been nice to know about this back then. Finally, I am not going to get into a technical argument on how to check bedding, cutting crowns, chambering etc. with someone that doesn't know what they are doing.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention and putting me on blast. I am not perfect, but I do strive try to be a better person everyday.
I am truly sorry for your friends' experience 6.5 years ago. This will be my only response to this thread
I currently have a rifle in the process of being built by Eddie. All I can say is aside from being a great guy to talk to, he has also been a pleasure to work with on this build. Great communication all along the way. I got to look over his shop, some personal rifles and shot the breeze awhile. I have ZERO doubt the rifle will exceed expectations with the attention to detail he has.
Eddie built a 6br for me some years back, and a few for my cousin
I was given a timeline that was accurate to within 2-3 weeks with Eddie. Which I felt was pretty dang good for a one man custom shop! Communication was not a issue for me with Eddie
The rifle that was delivered was exactly what I was led to expect in quality, accuracy, fit, and finish.
I was very happy with my experience with Eddie and wouldn’t hesitate to send him another.
Dana English built me a 260 about 6 years ago
He was also very easy to work with. I caught him at a great time on that build and turnaround was much faster than he even told me to expect. Wouldn’t pause to recommend him either as he delivered a high quality rifle
My son had a M700 customized by Mr. Fosnaugh about three years ago. He cut and crowned the barrel, installed a TriggerTech, installed and bedded a McMillan Edge, and did some bottom metal work. It is easily the most accurate rifle I own. It groups three into a half inch and five into 3/4” routinely. That is varmint rifle accuracy! There is a Big Horn action in his shop as we speak being built into a 7mm-08 for me and I fully expect the same result. I’ve also had him bed several Montana’s for me in the past. I’ve never had the first inkling of a problem with his work!
If we live long enough, we all have regrets. But the ones that nag at us the most are the ones in which we know we had a choice.
