Trip to Santa's Workshop

[BobR1]

My brother and I dropped by Power Custom today. For a Gun Nut, this is Santa's Workshop.

The youngest son picked up a 64 HB 4" for the little misses a house gun. It was an older 64, in almost unfired condition. I did a trigger job on it, and discovered a problem above my pay grade once the trigger pull was light enough to feel it. Once I got the trigger pull about right. I discovered it had a small hitch in a couple of the chambers. At the last 600 yard Bench Rest match at the Club, I made an appointment for todays visit.
About noon, Ron went to work doing his majic on the 64. You would think that it had a little something wrong with it, causing the problem. (One Thing) It ended up being about five or six little things just a hair out of adjustment causing the problem. The Crane was a little out of line, "low on the back". The hand was a hair long, The cylinder release did not have enough rearward clearance, he did a little work on the Extractor Star, etc. etc. Ron kept making adjustments until each small problem was eliminated. The end result was another Smith & Wesson K Frame Swiss Watch.
Ron then Chamfered the Chambers, and added Ball Loc.
Ron even Numbered the Chambers for me as an added touch.

Not to waste a 240 mile round trip to the North Pole, we also brought my brothers CJM 625 5" in for a little tuning. Ron Chamfered the Chambers, installed Ball Loc, and added a crane bearing to it. The First Year CJM625 Old Number 86 is a much nicer gun than the new 625's. Ron again checked everything out, and pronounced it near perfect.

Next Ron worked on my brothers Talo Special Edition Willy Clapp GP100 3". The Original Plan was to have the Chambers Chamfered on it only. A week ago I took a few minutes and installed some Wolfe springs in it right before a match. Not enough time to do any smoothing on it to any extent.
Ron Chamfered the Chambers, and then checked it over and ended up polishing the Main Spring Strut, which I had not gotten around to yet. Back together, and he decided it could be a little better yet. Next he did a little polishing on the hammer, and took a little drag out of it. He also did a little majic on the extractor star. Another Swiss Watch. The rest of the gun was in good shape from the factory.

I did a little looking at the NEW Power Custom Ruger 10-22 Trigger Assembly. WOW is it a thing of beauty. Move over Kidd. This trigger will adjust down to OH MY is that Nice. I think my 10-22 Target may need one of them.

Bob

 

[BobR1]

I thought a little history might be in order.

I am not sure how many of our readers are aware of the American Pistolsmith's Guild. At the moment they have around 62 Regular Members. They include names like Bill Wilson, Jack Weigand, Jim Clark JR, Hamilton Bowen, and Ron Power. You have to be a Master Gunsmith recognised by other Master Gunsmiths to be a regular member from what I understand.

In 1978 James (Jim) Clark SR was the first President of the Guild.

Starting about 1985 they started to vote for The Pistolsmith of the Year Award. I believe this is a One Time Award.
The First one to win this award was James (Jim) Clark SR in 1985.
The Second one to recieve The Pistolsmith of the Year Award in 1986 was Ron Power.

In 1986 Ron Power and Jim Clark SR were considered the two best Pistolsmiths in America. Jim passes away in I believe 2000. Ron is still going strong at I believe 72. He has been married to the same young lady for 52 years if I remember correctly. Rons son pretty much runs the Power Custom Gun Parts, and Tools business now days. Ron considers himself retired. I think this means he just works on what he wants to now days. Looks to me like he is still pretty active.

Ron is still at the top of the List for Revolversmiths in my opinion. He worked on my first S&W in 1992. A 610 no dash that he did his Power Custom Combat work on, plus I had him shorten the barrel to 4" off the back. You cannot tell it did not come that way. I had Ron check over the old 610 a few months ago. After nearly 20 years it needed an end shake bushing.

Just thought I would share a little history of a real Master Gunsmith.

Bob

 

[LOBO]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

 

[Tyrod]

It's too bad most of the top gunsmiths in the world are like 100 years old. I was communicating with Teddy Jacobson earlier this year about doing some work for me. The 2 things that turned me off was the $100round trip shipping (for $150 worth of work) and the guy is well into his 70's. While that wouldn't normally turn me off if I was face to face. What does bother me is that I could ship my gun off to him and he'd do the bucket thing while my gun was in his que. I have no idea how or even if you could get your gun back and what that expense would be.

I know a woman who was the wife of a NFA dealer. He died and she had like 100 automatic weapons she didn't have a clue as to how to dispose of them. It took years before she could sell them for money she preciously needed.

 

[Frank46]

Tyrod, Had that happen to me once. Gun shop took in a swedish mauser
for some work and the smith passed away. Evidently I was not the only one he had firearms to work on. Good thing the shop owner was extremely careful with his records. As I got it back. Frank