Interesting article about a 3rd world gunsmith

[Doyle]

I saw this on Fox and thought I would pass it on. We sometimes forget how skilled craftsmanship can occur even without a "proper" shop environment.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/03/18/skilled-gunsmith-helps-kurds-turn-isis-guns-on-terrorists/

 

[g.willikers]

I knew a guy who used a ruler and homemade wooden calipers to make sucessful sprint car designs.
And another guy who made muzzle loader rifles from scratch with hand tools and a home made rifling tool.
It's always more about the guy with the tools, than the tools.

 

[4V50 Gary]

He learned the old fashioned way: from his father.

 

[tobnpr]

Thanks, interesting article.
What really caught my eye were the words "dimly lit"...

I can think of few things that would be more of a handicap to a gunsmith.

For the guy in the article, "having the right tool for the job" is something he's learned to do without by necessity. So goes, I suppose, having enough light to clearly see what he's doing...

 

[chris in va]

I like how he's using a drill on the M16.

 

[Dixie Gunsmithing]

If you ever get to read the Foxfire books, one of them, and I think it is the first, has a guy making a muzzle loader from scratch, and using a homemade rifler, similar to the ones they used in the first rifled guns here. A good video about it, also, is the Colonial Gunsmith, which was filmed at Old Williamsburg. It was on Youtube for any interested. The two machines they used, in the video, which were mostly wood, was an early gun drill, and a rifling machine. Everything else was pretty much by hand.

 

[Shooter2675]

Wonderful article. Thank you Doyle for posting it. I love how he modified the PPS-41; that is one of my favorite military rifles from WW2. The 7.62x25 Tokarev is such a good round for a small sub machine gun.

John

 

[SIGSHR]

Their version of a Field Ordnance Service. We admire the craftsmanship of frontier rifle makers, what he does is no different.