Ken Rhyne Has Left The Range

[bdale]

Kenneth Linwood Rhyne 78 passed away unexpectedly on Sunday the 17th. Ken will be missed, was a regular competitor here at Piedmont Gun Club, if there was a match going on whether it was short range or 600 yard Ken was always there supper nice guy, he really enjoyed competing. May God Bless.

 

[graco2]

Ken was a fine guy and a top notch competitor he will be greatly missed.

 

[Steve morgan]

Ken was a fine guy and a top notch competitor he will be greatly missed.

Shot.trap with Ken for many years ,good guy RIP.

 

[dmoran]

My respect to Ken, and condolences to his family and friends.
Donovan Moran

 

[22turborimfire]

Condolences to Ken's family . Years ago I shot Trap and Skeet with Ken at Gastonia Gun Club . I enjoyed sharing his company .

 

[kneedtospeed]

Never had the pleasure, but my Respect and Prayers, for our fallen Brother, and His Family...
Godspeed

 

[fultonbig9]

Ken was a super nice man , always willing to help others,he shot really good this past season, I told Chad the other day if you didn’t like Ken you didn’t like no one(rest in peace my friend) Joey Combs

 

[T 700]

RIP Ken, u will be missed at hawks ridge too.

He will be shooting all 50's and 100 scores now!!!

 

[Littlecooner]

Rest in peace old friend. I shot a lot of benchrest with Ken back in the 90's and he did some of my smithing. super great friend.

 

[stacy]

RIP Ken, u will be missed at hawks ridge too.

He will be shooting all 50's and 100 scores now!!!

SHOT MANY A MATCHES THERE WITH KEN BACK IN THE DAY GOD BLESS HIS FAMILY !!!!!

 

[waverly]

I'm sitting here looking at a handwritten bill from Ken for my first custom rifle. It's dated 10/7/1993. He built me a 7-08 on a LH Stolle Kodiak. I still have it. I wanted a model 7 in 7-08, but Remington told me they were not doing them left handed back then. Ken got the parts and a few months later I had my LH rifle. It's still my favorite for tree stand hunting rifle.

I've moved several times since Ken built that rifle and it was probably 10-12 years before I ran into him again. He still remembered me after all of that time. He was always willing to help me and others every time I've been around him. He was a good man, and every time I hunt with that rifle I'll remember him.

God bless him and his family. Waverly McNeill

 

[btrapr]

I was looking at one of his rifles today. I bought my first benchrest rifle off of Ken a sleeved xp100 in 6ppc. That was in the early 90's. Heck him and another shooter made their own bullets at one time and called K & K's. I was a Charlotte police officer working third shift on West Blvd. Ken lived off of Camp Greene near Wilkinson Blvd. I got off at 7am met him some mornings at the Kitchen and ate breakfast. Id follow him to his gunshop near the fish camp in Gastonia. Id hand out and watch him until around 11 or so and go home. Back then I remember Dave Tooley was building log homes and he'd stopped by Kens quit a bit asking him this or that or comparing notes on hamemade tooling for accurizing. Bill Shehane was selling auto parts back then and he too would stop by.
Ken Rhyne told me that he learned how to build rifles in the early 70's at a small shop near Pikes Pharmacy off of Shamrock. Ken built several rifles for me and some of my friends over the years. I miss him dearly.

Most of the wildcatting and experimenting he did back then was before the internet. I remember eating lunch with him when he would tell me stories of taking several different calibers out west to shoot prairie dogs and taking thousands of rounds from 22lr, 17 Remington mk iv, 222, 6 rem ack, 300 Rhyne, and the like. They would use the old SWISS artillary range finders and shoot ground hogs and PDs out to over 1500-1600yards. Shooting Premier custom reticled boosted Leupold scopes. I remember laughing at him one time when he told me him and his buddies had sat up on some short range mounds and shot up all of their 22lr. He said he had 4k with him and that they drove into town and bought all they could find. Id love to have one of those 22lrs as I saw him take apart a pinned barreled bolt action 22lr rifle thread the receiver and screw a Lilja into it..dang things would shoot stupid accurate out to like 200-250 yards.

I remember Ken Rhyne had his wildcats, Kenny Garrett had his and Dave Tooley had his...Decades later Remington brought out the Ultra mag and Winchester brought out their short mags...YEARS after these guys played with them.

 

[Uthink Uknow]

You didn’t mention Jef (One f) Fowler. As he was also in Gastonia, I wonder if he or you ever made contact.