Gunsmith Wanted
- Thread starter Mopp
- Start date
Mount Sweetness
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Ontario
Nick Makinson, Komoda Ontario
Google
Roger Kotanko , Dark International in Simcoe 1 519 428 3127. I gave him an old Colt 357 Magnum that I was told by many smith's to just trash it. It took awhile but he fixed it and the cost was very cheap. Be prepared to spend time chatting as he has many interesting stories he likes to chat about.. Excellent guy to work on firearms.
That doesn't really sound like an old English double shotgun.
Nick is no longer accepting work unfortunately. He only does very sporadic small jobs that interest him now
Martin Hagn in Cranbrook is a genius when it comes to diagnosing problems and fixing broken guns. He repaired a Winchester Model 21 for me that I thought was beyond hope and he has repaired/restored many English guns for friends of mine. Ralf Martini, in Creston, specializes in building custom rifles but can do shotgun work if coerced.
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Martin Hagn is friends with/worked with Hartmann and Weiss of Germany. Arguably the finest gunmakers in the world until they retired a couple years ago. Somehow I neglected to mention him.
This smith with his knowledge of all fires, his shop, his machinery if you can't buy it he will make it. Give him a call. You might be pleasantly suprised.
Might be but I highly doubt it.
That’s not to call into question his skill as a gunsmith but a quick look at his website shows not a single mention of working with classic vintage English (or from anywhere) SxS. And working on them requires skills and techniques not typically used on other guns. Additionally, I have been in the workshops or had work done on my vintage guns by most of the quality SxS smiths in Ontario (not many of them). Never heard of this guy before. And after 15 years of looking, I think I would have.
I see the results of unqualified smiths working on fine doubles regularly as well. It’s usually not pretty and results in some rather expensive restoration costs.
This is never about “are they good smiths”. It’s about “being qualified to work on a SxS”. Just because I flew a Piper Cub doesn’t mean I’m qualified to fly a 747.
Stuart Newby was mentioned and he is one of the very best on these guns in Canada. Unfortunately like many of his dwindling generation of genuine certified English trained gunsmiths he is now semi retired and not taking any new customers. I have also been completely satisfied with work done on my finest guns by Nick Makinson (retired) and Ralf Martini. These are very specialized guns, they aren't cookie cutter machine made pieces roughly assembled on an assembly line, every piece is hand made and hand fitted to this particular gun. Bubba might be able to fix it to make it work but he might also drastically lower the value of a fine piece. Choose your gunsmith wisely and expect to pay upper end tradesman's rates for quality work.
There is a high end smith in that area and if you are refering to who I think you are, he’s not looking for new clients and is very particular about what he takes on. He’s also as good as it gets.
