Recently, I had the opportunity to attend some of the gunsmith classes offered by Gordy Gritters and his "Extreme Accuracy Institute". When I first found these classes listed on his website online, I was quite intrigued and wanted to know if others had attended the classes and what their opinions were. I scoured the internet trying to find information possibly posted by others and their impressions of the classes to no avail. This put me in a precarious position because of the class dates being just one weekend after the annual SHOT Show. My wife and I had already booked everything for attending SHOT and the show was only 3 weeks away. This left me with a difficult decision to make... go to SHOT Show or attend the gunsmithing classes offered by Mr. Gritters, I couldn't afford to do both. Not being able to find ample information from others and their experiences with the class wasn't making the decision very easy. I spoke with Mr. Gritters by phone a few times and he assured me the class would be beneficial to all levels of people from the hobbyist/enthusiast to professional gunsmiths. He told me he had guys come through the class that didn't own or never operated a lathe before, as well as professionals already in the business. This made the decision a little easier.
A little background on myself, My name is Bobby Keigans and I am the owner of a small retail gun store in rural South Georgia that sells general firearms, cleaning supplies, and reloading components. I am also a custom pistolsmith building high end handguns for competition and self defense. I specialize in the 1911/2011 platforms and do everything from minor repairs and refinishing to complete full on custom builds. I've been a long range rifle shooting enthusiast for several years and have owned many custom rifles. I've also competed in many shooting disciplines including long range tactical style matches, rimfire benchrest, 3D Archery, and several handgun formats. Through the pistolsmithing, I have a general knowledge of machining, but admittedly I've spent little time on a lathe. I know all the common concepts and procedures behind building a custom rifle but I wanted more. My goal was to take the methods used by Mr. Gritters to build winning long range benchrest rifles and incorporate that into my own long range hunting and tactical style rifles. I decided I would cancel our SHOT Show plans and attend the "Advanced Rifle Accurizing Class" and the "Extreme Accuracy Chambering" class. In retrospect, it was the best decision I could have made.
I wont go into much detail about the class, it's outlined on Mr. Gritters' website that can be found at www.ExtremeAccuracyInstitute.com. I will say that I found Mr. Gritters to be very personable and an excellent instructor. He was willing to answer all of our questions and even allowed me to video virtually the entire 4 days of class. He did a great job with illustrating the techniques and there was a good bit of "hands on learning" throughout the class. Over the last 24 years that Mr. Gritters has been in the gunsmithing profession for the better part of a quarter century and that has allowed him to accumulate multiple teaching aids for the class. When it came time to lap a barrel in the class, he had a good specimen there for us to work with and each student (there were 2 of us in each class) got to spend time practicing the techniques under the careful scrutiny of the instructor. He also had multiple barrels that we were able to bore scope to see for ourselves exactly what he was talking about when he mentioned "reamer chatter" or a chamber that was cut untrue. For just about every possible scenario, he had something there that we could see with our own eyes which is way more dynamic than a photo or drawing. The things I found most interesting where his "tricks and tips". Kind of like a collaboration of home remedies if you will. Easy ways to do things to achieve the best possible results, how to fix countless problems you might encounter, and what to avoid while you're working on a project. We bedded rifles and chambered barrels in the class, up close and personal from any view point you wanted, with the ability to ask specific questions during the entire process. No video ever made allows you that luxury. On top of all the information taught in the class, Mr. Gritters also sent us home with a very detailed DVD full of photos highlighting all the techniques and procedures with detailed commentary written on each picture. We were also sent home with an equipment/tools list with ordering information needed to purchase the essentials items needed for the various tasks performed in the class. This is extremely helpful for those that aren't that experienced in buying tooling. As one who speaks from experience, I have a tool box full of tooling that I'll never use because I bought things that weren't best suited for the job. Mr. Gritters offers a solution for that. Another perk to attending the class is a discount on items sold by Pacific Tool & Gauge.
I attended the Extreme Accuracy Institutes gunsmithing classes January 26-27 and 28-29 of 2011, and it was a worthwhile venture for me, I'm sure it will be for you too!
Bobby Keigans
Freedom Gunworks Inc.
A little background on myself, My name is Bobby Keigans and I am the owner of a small retail gun store in rural South Georgia that sells general firearms, cleaning supplies, and reloading components. I am also a custom pistolsmith building high end handguns for competition and self defense. I specialize in the 1911/2011 platforms and do everything from minor repairs and refinishing to complete full on custom builds. I've been a long range rifle shooting enthusiast for several years and have owned many custom rifles. I've also competed in many shooting disciplines including long range tactical style matches, rimfire benchrest, 3D Archery, and several handgun formats. Through the pistolsmithing, I have a general knowledge of machining, but admittedly I've spent little time on a lathe. I know all the common concepts and procedures behind building a custom rifle but I wanted more. My goal was to take the methods used by Mr. Gritters to build winning long range benchrest rifles and incorporate that into my own long range hunting and tactical style rifles. I decided I would cancel our SHOT Show plans and attend the "Advanced Rifle Accurizing Class" and the "Extreme Accuracy Chambering" class. In retrospect, it was the best decision I could have made.
I wont go into much detail about the class, it's outlined on Mr. Gritters' website that can be found at www.ExtremeAccuracyInstitute.com. I will say that I found Mr. Gritters to be very personable and an excellent instructor. He was willing to answer all of our questions and even allowed me to video virtually the entire 4 days of class. He did a great job with illustrating the techniques and there was a good bit of "hands on learning" throughout the class. Over the last 24 years that Mr. Gritters has been in the gunsmithing profession for the better part of a quarter century and that has allowed him to accumulate multiple teaching aids for the class. When it came time to lap a barrel in the class, he had a good specimen there for us to work with and each student (there were 2 of us in each class) got to spend time practicing the techniques under the careful scrutiny of the instructor. He also had multiple barrels that we were able to bore scope to see for ourselves exactly what he was talking about when he mentioned "reamer chatter" or a chamber that was cut untrue. For just about every possible scenario, he had something there that we could see with our own eyes which is way more dynamic than a photo or drawing. The things I found most interesting where his "tricks and tips". Kind of like a collaboration of home remedies if you will. Easy ways to do things to achieve the best possible results, how to fix countless problems you might encounter, and what to avoid while you're working on a project. We bedded rifles and chambered barrels in the class, up close and personal from any view point you wanted, with the ability to ask specific questions during the entire process. No video ever made allows you that luxury. On top of all the information taught in the class, Mr. Gritters also sent us home with a very detailed DVD full of photos highlighting all the techniques and procedures with detailed commentary written on each picture. We were also sent home with an equipment/tools list with ordering information needed to purchase the essentials items needed for the various tasks performed in the class. This is extremely helpful for those that aren't that experienced in buying tooling. As one who speaks from experience, I have a tool box full of tooling that I'll never use because I bought things that weren't best suited for the job. Mr. Gritters offers a solution for that. Another perk to attending the class is a discount on items sold by Pacific Tool & Gauge.
I attended the Extreme Accuracy Institutes gunsmithing classes January 26-27 and 28-29 of 2011, and it was a worthwhile venture for me, I'm sure it will be for you too!
Bobby Keigans
Freedom Gunworks Inc.
