Thread: Northern north island gunsmith to build custom rifle

Hi,
I’m looking for a good gunsmith to build a custom rifle for me. My preferred gunsmith seems to be missing in action at the moment and I can’t get hold of him.

Does anyone know of any good rifle builders preferably in the northern half of the north island ie Taupo north to cape reinga as I would prefer to go and meet whoever does the job personally.

I know of Dean Maisy and Arthur Cleland. I’m just checking to see if there are any lesser known gunsmiths in this area that produce very high quality work.

Thanks

well you have several larger scale commercial operators who build rifles, Hardy, Trueflite, DPT, Barnard, then Mike Colin's from an olympic shooting background. Then a number of smaller local word of mouth operators. I have one close to whangarei i have used.
This is just the ones I have spoken to or dealt with. Not a recommendation but I doubt you could go wrong with any of them.
Z

It's actually Mike Collings- lives in Whakatane

Thanks for that, I will pm you regarding the whangarei one and I will follow up on the some of bigger outfits.
I have most of the bits ready to go its just getting someone to assemble it to the standard I require

Dpt are good

Thanks 6x47, re exact name for Mike. It's been some time since I dealt with him.
My last 2 assemblies have been done by Truflite as the last part of my shopping list was the barrel.
I sent them the actions, (bolt and a lever about 5 years apart) plus silencer. They supplied the barrel and chambered them for my calibers and before sending them back they fired a couple of rounds to check functionality. I then fitted my scope and stocks.
My local smith has supplied and refitted a barrel plus fitted a silencer etc for me on a lever gun.
Z

Originally Posted by superdiver

Dpt are good

Thanks.
But we generally don't tend to fit barrels on customer's rifle. We would point you toward other gunsmiths depending on the type of project you have.
We do muzzle brake and suppressor installation, scope mounting, a bit of trigger tuning when it is feasible, barrel fluting , headspace checking ...etc

Originally Posted by Friwi

Thanks.
But we generally don't tend to fit barrels on customer's rifle. We would point you toward other gunsmiths depending on the type of project you have.
We do muzzle brake and suppressor installation, scope mounting, a bit of trigger tuning when it is feasible, barrel fluting , headspace checking ...etc

How come you don't fit barrels?

John Hall at South Head is a skilled gun maker. Not sure if he’s still taking work though. Very interesting background, was in at the beginning of what became IPSC Pistol shooting, used to compete with Jeff Cooper in the 70’s. Designed and built a switch barrel rifle/pistol with a falling block action.

Iv been resisting saying trueflight since this thread started but the work they do is great
iv only had a rebarrel from them but it was great and they were awesome to deal with (good communication)
they are in gisborne so outside your parameters but if you have to send the rifle it doesn't really matter

the work they done on my kimber is so damn nice