American Gunsmith

A gunsmith and former products manager discusses a few new tools.

by Paul Mazan
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Our Technical Editor’s editorial from Las Vegas.

by Chick Blood
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Getting started on getting good results with engraving is easier than you may think! Here’s how to begin.

by Ray Ordorica
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An approach that can cut your group size by about 20%.

by Joe Carlos
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Converting John Garand’s self-loading rifle to a potent medium bore cartridge. Here’s how to sporterize a World War II battlefield classic.

by Glen C. Busse
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No matter how proficiently the gunsmith performs his work, no gun will shoot bad ammo well enough to win.

by Joe Carlos

I was disappointed when I accepted the position of Armorer for the Army Reserve Shooting Team and machine-rest tested all 135 of the Team’s match AR-15 Service Rifle uppers. I found only 39 would shoot 10 shot groups of minute of angle using Team-issue match ammo. That was unacceptable and it took an enormous amount of work to correct. I had to not only rebuild the guns but make the ammo “more better” as well. When I left the team I had cut average group sizes fully in half and every one of those 135 uppers would shoot sub-minute machine rest groups.

While our focus usually isn’t on ammunition and reloading, we want our customers to be happy with the guns we build for them. None of us can build guns accurate enough to compensate for bad ammo. Concentricity and management of run out is cheap and effective. It also works on factory and hand loads, rim fire and centerfire ammunition for rifles and pistols.

Read more in the April 2016 issue.

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Overview of gunsmithing highlights from this year’s show.

Read more in the March 2016 issue.

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