This will be a long story and a bit of a brag, bare with me if you will. I am in no way advertising here, I just want to share what an awesome experience I last last night and maybe raise awareness for an organization that blew me away. I respect Robert (Stick1) and will not step on his feet by advertising on TBH, I can't compete with his talents anyway, and he taught me more than he knows about gun building without ever meeting me.
As some of you know, I acquired a lathe a while back and learned to build bolt action rifles, with the goal of one day having a small gunsmith shop as a side business and retirement job after the fire service is finished with me. I've been working on guns since I was a kid, but just recently got the tools to really build them. I went ahead and acquired my FFL, just to get things rolling with the business, and maybe offset some of the costs associated with tooling, so I'm all legal and what not.
About 3 months ago, a neighbor called me up and asked me to build a rifle for him to donate to this group he's a part of called Headwaters for Heroes. He went on to explain that H4H is an organization that takes Purple Heart recipients and Gold Star kids hunting and fishing throughout the year and they have a big fundraiser once a year to help finance that endeavor. OK! I'M IN, NOT A QUESTION IN MY MIND! So Shawn financed the build, as he wanted to be the donor, I donated labor and got my Cerakote guy to donate his work.
We were burning the midnight oil a few nights, as the custom inlet stock from Grayboe took a little longer than expected, but we got it done and delivered to the event yesterday.
We attended the auction with intentions of buying the rifle back at whatever the bid ended up at, but there was never a chance of that happening. I heard folks talking about "Lot 25", "I'm here to buy that rifle." I thought, "Well, it's going to be expensive, but I'm probably buying it." When Lot 25 came up, the organizer asked Shawn and me to come to the stage, I explained what the rifle was, a basic trued 700, Bartlein barrel, Timney trigger, Grayboe stock, fairly simple stuff. Then Shawn told everyone about his experiences with H4H, as he's a Wounded Warrior himself, and the bidding started. $1000, $2000, $4000, $5000...... dang, who's even bidding? I never even got to raise my hand! The next thing I knew, a quick conversation took place between 3 very generous men, and the bidding stopped at $10,000! Those three men teamed up to buy that rifle, then turned around and donated back to the organization to be given to a veteran or gold star kid! Pardon my language, but HELL YEAH! So they called all the vets on stage, and the kids, gave everyone a raffle ticket and did a drawing. The winning ticket.....x x x x 9 1 1. Lots of amazement in the crowd, but that went away really fast when the winner, a Purple Heart vet, picked up the rifle, turned around, and handed it to a 15 year old kid from Louisiana who lost his dad in 2007. The kid was shocked, mom was crying, I couldn't wipe the smile from my face, lots of hugs and handshakes, it was just awesome, a truly incredible experience. I'm already planning what rifle to build for next year, and with plenty of time, I think it'll be even better!
Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
As some of you know, I acquired a lathe a while back and learned to build bolt action rifles, with the goal of one day having a small gunsmith shop as a side business and retirement job after the fire service is finished with me. I've been working on guns since I was a kid, but just recently got the tools to really build them. I went ahead and acquired my FFL, just to get things rolling with the business, and maybe offset some of the costs associated with tooling, so I'm all legal and what not.
About 3 months ago, a neighbor called me up and asked me to build a rifle for him to donate to this group he's a part of called Headwaters for Heroes. He went on to explain that H4H is an organization that takes Purple Heart recipients and Gold Star kids hunting and fishing throughout the year and they have a big fundraiser once a year to help finance that endeavor. OK! I'M IN, NOT A QUESTION IN MY MIND! So Shawn financed the build, as he wanted to be the donor, I donated labor and got my Cerakote guy to donate his work.
We were burning the midnight oil a few nights, as the custom inlet stock from Grayboe took a little longer than expected, but we got it done and delivered to the event yesterday.
We attended the auction with intentions of buying the rifle back at whatever the bid ended up at, but there was never a chance of that happening. I heard folks talking about "Lot 25", "I'm here to buy that rifle." I thought, "Well, it's going to be expensive, but I'm probably buying it." When Lot 25 came up, the organizer asked Shawn and me to come to the stage, I explained what the rifle was, a basic trued 700, Bartlein barrel, Timney trigger, Grayboe stock, fairly simple stuff. Then Shawn told everyone about his experiences with H4H, as he's a Wounded Warrior himself, and the bidding started. $1000, $2000, $4000, $5000...... dang, who's even bidding? I never even got to raise my hand! The next thing I knew, a quick conversation took place between 3 very generous men, and the bidding stopped at $10,000! Those three men teamed up to buy that rifle, then turned around and donated back to the organization to be given to a veteran or gold star kid! Pardon my language, but HELL YEAH! So they called all the vets on stage, and the kids, gave everyone a raffle ticket and did a drawing. The winning ticket.....x x x x 9 1 1. Lots of amazement in the crowd, but that went away really fast when the winner, a Purple Heart vet, picked up the rifle, turned around, and handed it to a 15 year old kid from Louisiana who lost his dad in 2007. The kid was shocked, mom was crying, I couldn't wipe the smile from my face, lots of hugs and handshakes, it was just awesome, a truly incredible experience. I'm already planning what rifle to build for next year, and with plenty of time, I think it'll be even better!
Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
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