• Hey All! Lately there has been more and more scammers on the forum board. They register and replies to members requests for guns and/or parts or other things. The reply contains a gmail or hotmail address or similar ”anonymous” email addresses which they want you to reply to. DO NOT ANSWER ANY STRANGE MESSAGES! They often state something like this: ”Hello! Saw your post about purchasing a stock for a Safari. KnuckleheadBob has one. Email him at: [email protected]” If you receive any strange messages: Check the status of whoever message you. If they have no posts and signed up the same day or very recently, stay away. Same goes for other members they might refer to. Check them too and if they are long standing members, PM them and ask if the message is legit. Most likely it’s not. Then use the report function in each message or post so I can kick them out! Beware of anything that might seem fishy! And again, for all of you who registered your personal name as username, please contact me so I can change it to a more anonymous username. You’d be surprised of how much one can find out about a person from just a username on a forum such ad our! All the best! And be safe! Jim

Looking for Top Gunsmith IN Central Texas

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

Bill, PM me if you would be interested in one from Stephenville (1.5 hrs SW of Fort Worth/ 2.5 hrs N of Austin). Burton
 
Howard Dietz in New Braunfels if he would take the job.
Might also try KDF in Seguin. KDF installed a front sight base on my Vixen to use with
Sako detachable peep sight and did a Perfect Job.
Dietz is a World-Class benchrest gunsmith.
 
I don't know if they are in central Texas, but I sent my 7m-08 to Hill Country Rifles and they did an excellent job. It wasn't a rebarrel, but they would be high on my list to consider if I needed that service.

Long
 
hogan and long:
many thanks for the feedback. last summer i asked ed shilen if he would rebarrel my a1 shilen custom that had a worn out barrel. ed declined but gave me dietz's name. i put off doing anything and even tried to sell the rifle. failing that, i called dietz and made an appointment to visit him. he said he's no longer doing rebarreling but he did help me with an l579 243 that was giving me extraction problems. for rebarreling, he recommended hill country rifles but wasn't sure they did anything but build custom rifles. he also recommended mike bryant in north texas. another benchrest shooter here in austin had already recommended mike. so i actually called mike while i was in dietz's shop and arranged to send him my a1 for rebarreling to 6x222. i'm hoping i get the finished rifle back from mike by summer. i guess it's a pretty small world after all. again, i really appreciate the recommendations.
 
I had bought a new in box 75 about 2 years ago. As I have found in several of my wood stocked Sako's the action screws were in so tight you could hardly break them free. One I have had to go to a local gunsmith to break them loose (it also was new in box).

Any way my 7m-08 at best would shoot 1.5" groups. I reload and am a pretty decent shot and it did'nt matter what bullet, bullet weight, powder, primer etc...it was not consistent. The barrel was of course already free floated and I had lowered the trigger pull.

Sent it down to Hill Country and they did their accuracy thing on it. Sent it back with a test group of just over 1/2" shot with Triple Shocks which is their go to bullet for Sako's. Now it will shoot most anything 120gn to 140 gr at 1/2 to 3/4" . I have not tried anything heavier.

I was not sure if they rebarrel or not, but I would certainly check with them if I was looking for that kind of work to be done.....They did just an excellent job on my rifle.

Long
 
Another top name you might try is Harold Broughton in Big Spring.
Seems like he's sold his barrel business, but maybe he just is no longer making barrels?
KDF in Seguin worked on my Sako Vixen and Rem 700 varmint in the mid-90s. They are the Kleinguenther Distinctive Firearms folks and were pioneers in the muzzlebrake field. I am sure they can chamber whatever you want.
Might also check with Jackie Schmidt over at benchrestcentral.com There are a lot of Tomball shooters these days and maybe there is a guy in Bryan or College Station? Bound to be somebody good out toward Kerrville also.
Hope you had a nice drive out to Dietzville, pop varies.
One last thought is to check in with the San Antonio and Austin NRA highpower clubs:
https://stmtc.org/shooting-matches/highpower-rifle/
https://austinrifleclub.org/
Might get some info there.
KDF looks pretty ritzy these days, being a Blaser dealer and all might still be a good prospect for you; https://www.kdfguns.com/products.htm
 
hogan-
wow! what a wealth of texas gunsmith info! many, many thanks. i just noticed that you are relatively new to the forum. welcome! i assume you are in texas too?
yes, the drive from austin to howard's shop is pleasant if you go by way of canyon rather than take i-35. howard's a very interesting guy and he was very helpful and very pleasant. have you heard anything about tip burns? he's off hiway 281 down toward san antonio. also, from randy walters in boerne i got the name of guy (who's name escapes me at the moment) who lives west of here out hiway 71. if you don't know randy, he's an ex-marine sniper and a real character. i know kdf, having visited their shop some years ago to look at their custom rifles. glad to know they do smithing as well. my friend august crocker may know broughton because i think he has used his barrels in benchrest competition. i'll check with august. thanks for the leads to tomball as well. in the houston area, there is also a guy in laporte who's also supposed to be good. again, thanks for the info and welcome to the forum. all the best.
 
Hill Country checked out the barrel and chamber. They checked the locking lugs and how the barrel was free floated. Glass and aluminum piller bedded the action. Recrowned the barrel and re-mounted the scope after checking the bases and rings. Then they shot it and sent me the target. I don't remember which factory cartridge they used, but I know they did use Triple Shocks.

Like I said, I would not give it a 2nd thought to send another rifle to them.....but, in my opinion, they do charge top dollar.....course with results like I got I'll pay more for a sure thing.

Long
 

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