Author Archives: gwebs

Colonial Williamsburg – Gunsmith Shop

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Dozens of firearms (most on display)

Created in 1963

Williamsburg, Virginia

Gunsmiths make rifles, pistols, and fowling pieces using the tools and techniques of their 18th-century

https://colonialwilliamsburg.org/

“Four hundred hours” is the generic answer that the Colonial Williamsburg gunsmiths give when the inevitable question, “How long does it take to build a rifle?” 

  • Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
  • a “living museum” of pre-Revolutionary America
  •  re-create the Colonial-era American rifles using the materials, tools and techniques of the Colonial time period
  • 1967-2008 Gunsmith Shop was located on Francis Street near the Capitol
  • 1960  designated a National Historic Landmark District
  • 1966 Wooden Sign Created
  • 2008 Gunsmith Shop moved to James Geddy Sr. & son’s William and David carried on the trade in the mid-18th century
  • musket-firing program is open to participants aged 14 and older 

https://colonialwilliamsburg.org/locations/gunsmith-shop/

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2018/12/17/making-the-american-rifle-at-colonial-williamsburg/

http://www.flintriflesmith.com/cwf_gunshop.htm

Magazine

  • 1715 Built as storage for the arms and ammunition from London

https://colonialwilliamsburg.org/locations/magazine/

Museum – Colonial Williamsburg

Jonathan Browning Home & Gun Shop

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Just a few Guns

1960

Nauvoo, Illinois

  • 1843 Jonathan Browning & family moved to Nauvoo
  • 1836 Mormon militias disarmed as a negotiated truce
  • 1838 Battle of Crooked River & Mormans slaughtered
  • 1845 J.B moved to Iowa & 1852 Moved to Utah
  • His Illinois Gunshop
  • Re-Opened in 1960
  • Just a few Models of Brownings firearms
  • It’s a drive, but you stand on
  • the grounds of his actual factory !!
  • FREE – Open almost every day

Visited the Jonathan Browning gunsmith shop in Nauvoo, Illinois
They have recreated his original Workshop on the location that it’s stood before he moved to Utah

It’s a remote location but awesome experience to stand on the same location where John Browning’s father started building guns

There’s a tour with knowledgeable guides who tell you about his life and story

There’s no cost to visit this Museum

#JonathanBrowning
#BrowningsGunShop
#GunShowLoopholeTour

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn7JyJ5nS7D/

Jonathan Browning Home & Gunshop
Rock Island Arsenal
Building 60
Rock Island, IL 61201

Ben Avery Shooting Facility

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1,650 acres

Opened in 1960

  • Originally named the Black Canyon Shooting Range
  • 1961-2009 run by Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association
  • 1970 host of the ISSF World Shooting Championships
  • 1992 renamed Ben Avery Range
  • 1995 AZGFD took over operation of the range
  • 1996 renamed Ben Avery Shooting Facility
  • 67 positions at distances from 5 yards to 200 yards
  • 6 Clay Target Centers w/ trap and skeet, sporting clays & five-stand
  • Indoor airgun and archery building firing positions for 40 Air Guns OR Archery
  • Smallbore Range –  lighting for night shooting 25 – 100 yards
  • High Power Range 100 – 1,000 yards
  • Rifle Silhouette Range
  • DPS – Uncovered 100 yard range
  • Benchrest Range – 300 yards
  • 6 Practical Pistol Bays
  • Pistol Silhouette Range – A covered cement shooting pad featuring silhouette animals at varying distances out to 200 meters
  • Cowboy Mounted Shooting arena

Ben Avery Shooting Facility
4044 W. Black Canyon Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85086
623 582-8313

https://www.azgfd.com/shooting/basf/

Museum of Connecticut History – Colt Collection

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1,500 firearms (200 on display)

Created in 1957

Hartford, CT

Also

  • Guns produced by the twenty-six different gun makers who did business in Connecticut

Museum of Connecticut History
Connecticut State Library
231 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
860-757-6535

Complements the E.H.J. Colt Firearms Collection in the Wadsworth Atheneum

https://bennicholson.com/guns/Museum-of-Connecticut-History-Colt-Collection.html

http://museumofcthistory.org/colt-collection/

Museum of the Fur Trade

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800 guns on display

1956

Chadron, Nebraska

  • 1837 James Bordeaux’s trading post established
  •  founded by Charles E. Hanson, Jr.
  • 1953 acquired site property
  • 1956 trading post was reconstructed on its original foundation stones
  • 1956 opened to the public
  • Included in the National Register of Historic Places
  • most complete collection of these rare firearms in existence
  • Indian trade guns manufactured between 1640 and 1911 in England, Belgium and the United States

Saunders Museum

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300+ guns on display

Opened in May 1956

Berryville, AR

  • Built by C. Burton Saunders
  • He gave his collection to the city of Berryville, AR when he died
  • He left property
  • He funded the $150,000 building
  • The land is where his family started their business in 1867

open from April 15 through the first Saturday in November

Saunders Museum
113-115 East Madison
Berryville, AR
(870) 423-2563

The collection

  • Pistols & Revolvers
  • arranged by E.C. Bayer

Guns belonging to

  • Jesse James
  • Annie Oakley
  • Billy The Kid
  • Sam Houston
  • Cole Younger
  • Belle Star
  • Cherokee Bill
  • Wild Bill Hickok
  • Buffalo Bill Cody
  • an original Bowie Knife
  • Chief Sitting Bull’s war bonnet
  • knife owned by Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody
  • spurs owned by Mexican Revolutionary General Francisco “Pancho”

http://online.flipbuilder.com/digitalpbjc/pbfm/mobile/index.html#p=18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mylv8AzReBk
https://www.arkansasbedandbreakfast.com/blog/2019/03/saunders-museum-gun-museum/