Knimrod
11-07-2005, 03:02 PM
Gunsmith does a bang-up job at work
Andy Rathbun
Battle Creek Enquirer
HASTINGS — Don Peebles bought his first new gun, a double-barreled shotgun, around the age of 15.
Now he owns six and works on hundreds as the resident gunsmith at Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop in Hastings.
He said he likes the job, though he wouldn't recommend it — there are too many people who do it as a hobby. It makes full-time gigs like his hard to find.
Everything I see here seems to be a hunting rifle of some sort.
"We don't get into the paramilitary stuff, hardly any. We'll get some once in a while, and it will just be simple stuff. Hand guns, we've got a couple.
"Just for story's sake, this one right here," he said, grabbing a silver handgun from the wall, "belongs to a lady up north here. It was actually stolen, found in Detroit. The cops picked it up and, to go through court and everything, they had to put some kind of red dye over the whole thing. So the whole gun was red. The lady got it back, and just wanted to get it cleaned up."
Do a lot of guns have stories behind them — not necessarily about being stolen, but just stories?
"Oh yeah, yeah. A guy down here in Delton picked up an old rifle. It was, like, late-1800s, and he just wanted to get it cleaned up. He got it from this kid when he was at a gun show. This kid came up and said, 'Anybody want to buy this? Anybody want to buy this?' And at the time it was like a $600, $700 gun, so he brought it up here to have it cleaned.
"Well, inside the butt stock there was a hole with a note in there. It was from the father. It had the father's name on it. And it said, 'This gun belonged to me..., I brought it to Africa during some kind of conflict, and carried it when (I) was a Texas ranger.'"
Do people ever bring in guns that are still loaded?
"Oh yeah. I always charge them twice as much for that," he said, laughing. "Constantly. We'll get guys that bring in .22s and shotguns out here. They'll walk up to the counter and say, 'I need to get this fixed,' and they won't open the gun or anything. So the guys will just hike it, and a shell pops out. It's like, duh."
If you know how to fix one gun, do you know how to fix them all?
"One of the guys here that's been trying to learn it, I told him, I said, 'Once you get into a gun, pull the trigger, hammer goes down and it fires. Different guns do it differently, but it's a system. You learn the system.' It's not really hard."
If I took apart a gun and brought you the pieces, could you put it back together?
"Yeah, we get that often, at least a couple times a year. They always say, 'My son took this apart, and I can't put it back together.' Ooookay. There's nothing difficult. It's only hard if they say everything's there and something's missing."
Do you ever have people who don't like your job because it deals with guns?
"They don't voice it, but you have a feeling that yes, they don't like it."
Does that bother you?
"Not really. I understand."
Link to article (http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051107/NEWS01/511070308/1002)
Andy Rathbun
Battle Creek Enquirer
HASTINGS — Don Peebles bought his first new gun, a double-barreled shotgun, around the age of 15.
Now he owns six and works on hundreds as the resident gunsmith at Bob's Gun & Tackle Shop in Hastings.
He said he likes the job, though he wouldn't recommend it — there are too many people who do it as a hobby. It makes full-time gigs like his hard to find.
Everything I see here seems to be a hunting rifle of some sort.
"We don't get into the paramilitary stuff, hardly any. We'll get some once in a while, and it will just be simple stuff. Hand guns, we've got a couple.
"Just for story's sake, this one right here," he said, grabbing a silver handgun from the wall, "belongs to a lady up north here. It was actually stolen, found in Detroit. The cops picked it up and, to go through court and everything, they had to put some kind of red dye over the whole thing. So the whole gun was red. The lady got it back, and just wanted to get it cleaned up."
Do a lot of guns have stories behind them — not necessarily about being stolen, but just stories?
"Oh yeah, yeah. A guy down here in Delton picked up an old rifle. It was, like, late-1800s, and he just wanted to get it cleaned up. He got it from this kid when he was at a gun show. This kid came up and said, 'Anybody want to buy this? Anybody want to buy this?' And at the time it was like a $600, $700 gun, so he brought it up here to have it cleaned.
"Well, inside the butt stock there was a hole with a note in there. It was from the father. It had the father's name on it. And it said, 'This gun belonged to me..., I brought it to Africa during some kind of conflict, and carried it when (I) was a Texas ranger.'"
Do people ever bring in guns that are still loaded?
"Oh yeah. I always charge them twice as much for that," he said, laughing. "Constantly. We'll get guys that bring in .22s and shotguns out here. They'll walk up to the counter and say, 'I need to get this fixed,' and they won't open the gun or anything. So the guys will just hike it, and a shell pops out. It's like, duh."
If you know how to fix one gun, do you know how to fix them all?
"One of the guys here that's been trying to learn it, I told him, I said, 'Once you get into a gun, pull the trigger, hammer goes down and it fires. Different guns do it differently, but it's a system. You learn the system.' It's not really hard."
If I took apart a gun and brought you the pieces, could you put it back together?
"Yeah, we get that often, at least a couple times a year. They always say, 'My son took this apart, and I can't put it back together.' Ooookay. There's nothing difficult. It's only hard if they say everything's there and something's missing."
Do you ever have people who don't like your job because it deals with guns?
"They don't voice it, but you have a feeling that yes, they don't like it."
Does that bother you?
"Not really. I understand."
Link to article (http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051107/NEWS01/511070308/1002)