Northlake Gunsmith

05/31/2025

Just finished grinding a recoil pad to fit this ATI Cavalry O/U 12ga. This was a KickEez brand pad. It’s the first one of this brand I’ve done, and I was pretty impressed with the look and feel and how easy it was to grind. The customer provided the pad. If it had been longer to begin with, I would have followed the angle of the stock to the tip, but I like this look too.

05/18/2025

This is a follow-up to my post about the MarlinGlenfield Model 60. I’ve gotten several in for cleaning since that post. I thought I’d show an example of how the fouling builds up over time. The pictures below are of the inside of one that’s probably 50 years old. The customer had obviously taken care of the gun and cleaned the breach area regularly. Still the insides were caked with crud. The big globs on the paper towel came from the bolt and firing pin channel. They are actually not that hard to take apart. Just remove the right hand plate, and if you’re not careful, the rest will disassemble itself. You then simply search every room in your house for the pieces. I don’t know how springs pass through walls, but they do - quantum tunneling maybe.

05/17/2025

This is a Browning Citori that was found in a barn. The stock had been refinished before, and the checkering was full of polyurethane as well as being worn from use. I pointed up the checkering and sanded in a new finish. Thom Oliver at Artisan Armaments cleaned up and blued the steel parts. I was really happy with the result.

06/19/2024

The Marlin Glenfield is one of the most popular ri**es of all time. Marlin introduced this semi-automatic .22lr in 1960 and it was in continuous production for over 50 years. A drawback of this fi***rm is that it is difficult to clean thoroughly without complete disassembly, and disassembly can be very intimidating to the average owner. Many of these ri**es were simply shot until they stopped working and put away in a closet for years. At some point they get handed down, and the new owner will bring it in to see if it can be fixed. There is almost never a problem beyond a tremendous buildup of gunk and/or a cracked nylon buffer in the receiver ($20 part). These are very accurate, very reliable, very fun guns. If you have one wasting away in a closet, it may likely only need minimal work to get it functioning again.

03/22/2024

Finished up this r***e rack for the workshop last weekend. It turned out pretty good for a first crack at it, but it needs some refinements. Functionally, it does its job perfectly. I think I’ll do the Beta version in oak when I get the details worked out.

03/22/2024

Here is a Beretta 1301 12 GA I just finished flaring the loading port on. The customer uses it in competition and wanted it opened up a little bit and the sharp edges removed to make loading faster and less painful. The before pics are a different gun in the same model because, as usual, I jumped into the job without taking pictures. In my opinion, it’s a great modification.

02/05/2024

Customer on the phone: I have a bullet stuck in my barrel. Can you get it out?

Me: I believe so. Bring it in and let me take a look.

Then this:

Please note that I don’t fault anyone for a lack of knowledge when starting out. We ALL started somewhere. But guns are serious business, and a little education beforehand could prevent a tragedy. I was not at all unkind, nor did I preach him a sermon. We had a very good conversation about proper loading and safe handling, and I hope he is enjoying being a gun owner. Enjoy the pic.

01/30/2024

01/23/2024

Browning Sweet Sixteen. This sh***un had a near perfect finish on the metal, but the wood looked bad. Customer got a great deal on it and asked me to spruce up the stock and forend. I think it turned out great.