By Jim Dickson | Contributing Editor
The Best Quality gun trade of the British Isles has a few of its members that have moved to the U.S. over the years and that’s important because it just gets harder and harder to ship guns back and forth across the Atlantic as regulations get more onerous.
Some of the best such as Jack Rowe, Alfred Gallifant, and John Wilkes have passed away while Ron Collings has retired but a few more have come to take their place. We have instructors in the British style of shotgun shooting as well as gun fitters and stockers so that your Dickson, Purdey, or Holland and Holland fits you perfectly so that it unerringly points exactly where you are looking when the gun is mounted without your ever seeing the gun.
There are expert gunsmiths trained to work on the Best Quality guns at the big name makers and some of these have made complete Best Quality guns in the States. Here is a look at those I know about but there may well be others.
Paul Hodgins
Hodgins Gunstocks
P.O. Box 3546
Logan, Utah 84323
paul@hodginsgunstocks.com
Paul served his apprenticeship at Holland and Holland where he continued to work as a stocker. He is held in the highest regard by his peers in the Best Quality gun trade and also does some repair work on the guns themselves. If you need an old stock altered or repaired or a new stock made you won’t get any better work anywhere else.
Kirk Merrington
Merrington’s Gunsmithing
207 Sierra Road
Kerrville, Texas 78028
kirkmerr@yahoo.com
830-367-2937
Kirk was trained as a barrel maker at Churchill guns and after Churchill closed its doors he came to the U.S. in 1983. He does Best Quality repairs to Best Quality guns including action work. He also sleeves barrels and chambers when needed. I remember the late great Jack Rowe, famous Best Quality gun workman, telling me about how Kirk had monoblocked old barrels so perfectly that you could not tell that they were not all one piece. That’s almost impossible to do but Kirk did it.
Steve Hutton
Britannia Sporting Arms
1480 U.S. Route 1
Cape Neddick, Maine 03903
603-303-0699
Steve was another Churchill alumni beginning his training there in 1971 as a finisher and jobber. A jobber is one who repairs anything that breaks. He stayed there until Churchill closed. No longer willing to put up with the London commute he began building custom pistols at another company. When Caspian Arms in the U.S. Needed someone to oversee their production line he came over and stayed on there for a year doing custom work and quality control. He then worked for New England arms for 8 years before striking out on his own. Today he works on Best Quality guns and anything else the customer brings in.
David Trevallion
428 Emers Bridge Road
South Berwick, Maine 03908
207-704-0450
David Trevallion served as a stocker at Purdey in London. Since coming to this country he has gained fame as a stocker and many people swear by his expertise in stock repair. Why send your Purdey back to London for restocking when you have a former Purdey’s stock maker in this country? Of course he also works on any other make of gun needing stock work.
Dale Tate
Dale Tate Gunmaker
Comanche Hills Hunting Preserve
2951 Curran Road
Ione, California 95640
209-763-9040
Dale Tate learned gunmaking at Purdey in London where he did the difficult job of doing ejector and cocking work. After leaving Purdey he worked at Churchill, as well as Atkin, Grant, and Lang, and finally at Rigby before coming to America. He was also a restoration specialist for Peter Dyson and Sons in England. Since arriving at our shores he has made about 50 Best Quality guns. These have included both sidelock and boxlock guns as well as 14 hammer guns. Aside from his gunmaking skills he is well respected for his ability at gun fitting, altering stocks to fit the shooter, and shooting lessons.
Keith Lupton
3 Landt Lane
Pound Ridge, N.Y. 10576
kiethlupton.com
914-646-1528
Keith Lupton is from Yorkshire, England and he is a former member of the British National Shooting team. He came to New York over 30 years ago to establish a shooting school at the behest of Rex Gage, head coach at the Holland & Holland Shooting School. For the last 20 years Keith has run his own shooting school. At various times he does gun fittings for Holland & Holland, Purdey, and Westley Richards when they have an American customer that can’t travel to England for a gun fitting. He stresses game shooting at his school and has a purpose built driven game shooting range.
Pete Blakeley
120 PR 5947
Yantis, Texas 75497
903-383-2923
Pete has over 40 years as a shooting instructor. Prior to coming to the U.S. In 1998 he was the chief instructor at Annandale Shooting Ground on the Earl of Annandale’s Estate in SW Scotland. Once in the U.S. he was the resident shooting coach and sporting clays manager at the Dallas Gun Club in Lewisville, Texas for 7 years. He then went on contract to coach the ISSF Olympic skeet and trap shooters all over the world.
Chris Batha
Chris Batha
Chris Batha Shooting Solutions for Wing and Clay
43 State Road S-7-50
Okatie, South Carolina 29909
866-254-2406
Born in Wales Chris ran the shop and shooting ground first at Atkin, Grant, and Lang, then at Churchill.
Chris bought the old English gun making firm of Charles Boswell in 2004 and currently produces Best Quality guns to the customer’s order under the Charles Boswell name. These guns require 1200 hours of hand work but are worth it as there is nothing that handles as perfectly or lasts as many generations as a handmade Best Quality double.
Of course he also does gun fitting and shooting instruction just like any of the London gun makers. He also arranges bird shooting hunts all over the world.
I cannot stress too strongly the importance of never letting anyone work on a Best Quality gun except a member of the Best Quality gun trade. I have seen one of the finest and most expensive Best Quality doubles ever made rendered worthless by a 360 grit buffing wheel that rounded everything off before a cheap blue job. I have seen a Best Quality gun rendered unreliable by parts made by unqualified gunsmiths. These guns represent a considerable investment and generations of future service. All that can be thrown away in an instant by a gunsmith outside the trade. The workmen at the bench that make the Best Quality guns endure a long hard apprenticeship lasting years to learn to make guns to more precise tolerances by hand with hand tools than machines can do. Asking someone without that background to work on a Best Quality gun is like asking a house painter to touch up a Rembrandt painting. He’s just going to ruin it.
