FOR SALE
Books and other items relating to custom guns and gunmaking will be offered. In the future complete custom guns by past and present makers will be offered. Please check back for new items of interest. SDH books are now available on the internet directly from the author. Credit card payment via PayPal or by sending a check or MO to; S. D. Hughes, P.O. Box 545, Livingston, MT 59047. Please drop me a note sdh@finegunmaking.com when you are ready to purchase. Thanks, Steve
FINE GUNMAKING: DOUBLE SHOTGUNS (1998) by Steven Dodd Hughes New, out of print, hardback, and 170 pages, large format,. This book continues to be hugely popular and many consider it a classic amongst double gun books. An in-depth look at the creation of custom shotguns, lots of color and B&W photos. Special section on building custom Fox shotguns. Foreword by John Barsness. Signed and inscribed, $49 Media Mail
(please add $10 for Priority Mail)
DOUBLE GUNS AND CUSTOM GUNSMITHING, by Steven Dodd Hughes New 9/07, hardcover, Large format, 160 pages, B&W with color section Details American custom Double Gun projects (Winchester M-21, Fox, L.C. Smith), evaluating used doubles, evolution of the sidelock, visiting Italian gunmakers. Gunsmithing section includes chapters on TIG welding, metal finishing, advanced metal shaping and how-to refinish gunstocks and fit gunsmithing screwdrivers. A special section on evaluating gunstock blanks. Signed and inscribed, $49 Media Mail (please add $10 for Priority Mail)
CUSTOM RIFLES IN BLACK & WHITE (1999) by Steven Dodd Hughes New, out of print, soft cover, 185 pages, large format. I get regular phone calls and emails from folks thanking me for this book and telling me it is indispensable in their workshops and libraries. Many consider it the Go-To book for determining specific details in custom rifle design and construction. Over 200 photos of 40 of the finest American custom rifles from 1990-2000. 20 bolt action (Fisher, Tucker, Heilmann, Hensley, Burgess/Echols, Simillion); 16 single shots (SDH, Webber, Snapp, etc.) and four lever action rifles. Many detailed views with interesting stories. Signed and inscribed,Priority Post Paid SOLD OUT, anyone interested in investing a few thousand dollars in financing a reprint of this now classic work, please contact me!
Custom Gunmakers of the 20th Century, 2005 Collected Articles from Precision Shooting Magazine
By: Michael Petrov A collection of twenty articles from the pages of Precision Shooting magazine...authored by widely recognized custom rifle historian Michael Petrov.
The Kentucky rifle, from its Golden Era, is today treasured by collectors and museums alike as a distinctly American art form dating back over 200 years ago, to a time when America was just beginning to define itself as well as its (then) modest place in the world. Entire books, of impressive size and even more impressive color photography, exist today and study the rifles themselves, their makers (usually one-man shops), and the various regional "Schools" as areas of colonial Pennsylvania and nearby States began to evolve certain characteristics in their Kentucky rifles that were unique to that region and time.
It is just possible that 200 years from now the custom-made rifles of the first half of the 20th century will be widely recognized as products of their own Golden Age here in America, and the subject of rapt appreciation from the collectors and museums of that era. Presumably numerous books will exist on their history and the small shops that lovingly and painstakingly crafted them.
While books on the Kentucky rifle abound today, the same cannot be said of literature on the custom rifles of the first half of the 20th century. They are few and far between; a grand total of two come to this writer's mind at the moment. This bodes ill for the students of the genre one hundred and two hundred years from now. The craftsmen who fashioned the Kentucky rifles in their Golden Age may have been fairly well known, at least on a regional basis, in their day in age, but it was in the oral tradition that they were known; little was in the written word. And thus we are reduced today to researching them in census records and ancient graveyards.
Fortunately for those students in future generations, Michael Petrov, of Anchorage, Alaska has been tirelessly researching the custom rifle makers of the first half of the 20th century for many years now, gathering historical information while there is still access to a steadily decreasing number of people who actually knew, spoke with or corresponded with these old time craftsmen. His files on the topic are voluminous and continue to grow as he pursues his research.
A smattering of the riflesmiths in these pages...Ludwig Wundhammer, A.O. Neidner, Griffin & Howe, Hoffman Arms Co, Alvin Linden, Emil Koshollek, R.G. (Bob) Owen, R.F. Sedgley, Adolph George Minar, Fred Adolph, Harvey Rogers and many more. Hardcover book, 168 pages.
Please order directly from Michael Petrov:
Signed books are $30 by Priority Mail, a personal check is fine.
Michael Petrov
923 West 74th Ave.
Anchorage, AK 99518
OR EMAIL: mpetrov@finegunmaking.com
Tell ‘em I sent you!
