Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Anyone know Sisku Gun Works using Ackley/Donnelly equipment

Anyone using their barrels and/or smithing? Sisku Gun Works LLC web site says the Ackley/Donnelly equipment was moved to Tucson in 2007.

Chick Donnelly's equipment was moved from locally here to Arizona about 2006 or 2007. He hung it up about then, right after health issues were slowing him down...

I have several barrels that he did for me when I first moved to Oregon... I've had the honor of sharing a couple of campfires with him while out elk hunting, having a local friend who Elk hunted with him every year and I was invited also...

one little side bar to being around him... I had the opportunity to ask him, a man that could hunt with about any caliber rifle under the sun, on about any type of action under the sun....

his response was pretty simple... " I hunt with a Ren 721 I bought back around the Korean War time, Chambered in a 30/06...I don't recall how many barrels I've shot out on it, but I never saw the need for anything less, or anything more... for anything I ever wanted to hunt, on this continent or anywhere else..."

He showed me the rifle, you could tell it had been around the block a couple million times, and it worn an old 4 power scope on top....

I have two barrels made by Mr. Donnelly. Both are fine barrels. I was considering another for a new build and called him not knowing of his health issues. He told me that he had sold everything and it was now in Arizona. He did not comment on the quality of the new owner's work because he did not know. He did recommend that I call them which I did. From my conversations, they seem to know what they are doing and their prices were reasonable. I went a different route because the gunsmith I was using had his favorite barrels for what I was doing. Talk to them and make your own decision. From my understanding, Mr. Donnelly owned a fair amount of PO Ackley's equipment but that may be wrong.