An afternoon in the gunsmith shop.

Have you ever known someone who is the backbone of of a gun clubs existance? He is the patriarch of our club, and respected counselor for many others. A knowledgeable voice of BP guns and history. A rifle builder with over seventy rifles to his credit. His 62nd build was a early Lancaster flinter in .45cal with curly maple stock that he built for me.

His skills arent limited to the gunsmithing bench. Leonard is also known as an accomplished horner, leatherman, knifemaker, and all around mountain man. In fact his entire family are artisans of some sort. His son is a taxidermist, his wife an accomplished quilter, his daughter a seamstress and scrimshaw artist.
This is a true legend of our sport. He not only hosts shooting events at his farm, he also faithfully attends and organizes shoots at our club. He serves as range officer when needed. He provides prizes to shooters, regardless of who is hosting the shoot.
My good friend and I had occasion to visit him on a rainy afternoon to return some gear that had been barrowed from him. We spent a few hours talking BP guns and hunts and competition shoots. Time well spent with our old friend. Several members of our club proudly shoot guns that Leonard has made.
It takes guys like this to keep our sport alive.


Salute!

Patocazador said:

Does he sell his wares or only do custom orders? It looks like he has a lot of gems to offer.

If he wants to sell items, put him in touch with our classified section.

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Oh lord no....
He would flip out if he knew I posted this!
He built my flinter and insisted that I only pay for the parts.
I know he isnt interested in custom work.
He donates items to the local whitetails Unlimited club for their auctions and banquets.

Flintshooter said:

I thought the backbone of the local club for me might be in the Alvin York picture but he isn’t. For almost the entire time the club has existed it has been somewhere on ground he owned or rented. I remember a kind of cold crappy day when the range was still under the big maple tree. A group group of us were standing around the fire and the topic of discussion was the upcoming inaugural Alvin York shoot. A few of those present were instrumental in getting it organized. The club, Wahpanipe, was one of if not the first to start holding several times a year chunk shoots. And without Allen Coon the club would have gone belly up decades ago.

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Allen Coon was not in my picture....but he was attending the event. I shook hands with him!
He and I are both proud members of the same ancient fraternity. We briefly chatted about that.
I hope to attend one of the "chunk gun" matches the he hosts on his farm.