I recently heard of Dan Printz and the
great work that he does refinishing and restoring firearms. Dan
is a retired Highway Patrolman, a former US Marine, and an
all-around good guy, from what I have learned of him. He is also
a Christian, and his belief shows in his attitude towards
customer service.
Having a Model 94 Winchester that is
chambered for the .44 Magnum cartridge that was showing a bit of
wear and abuse, I packed it up and sent it off to Dan, whose
shop is called The Firing Pin. The stock showed a few
scratches, the blued finish was dull, and the barrel looked
terrible where the front sight had been silver-soldered back on
by a local gunsmith. I will not go into detail as to how it got
detached in the first place, but they are pretty darn hard to
knock off. The little carbine wears a sixteen inch barrel, and
has the large loop lever. I like the little gun, and it deserved
a refinish.
In a few weeks, the gun was returned to me. What
I expected was a refinish. What I received was a complete
restoration! Well, restoration implies that the gun was restored
to its original glory. However, this Winchester was never this
glorious even when new. What it now looks like is an old
Winchester that has been carefully preserved. While it is the
newer Angle Eject action, which has always been built with a
dull blued finish, Dan finished the action, lever, and hammer in
a bone-charcoal color case-hardened finish. It doesn’t look
flashy and cheesy like some types of case-coloring, but has that
nice subdued, somewhat aged look of real case-hardening, which
it is.
The barrel, magazine tube, loading gate, barrel
bands, sights, screws, and lower tang all received a high polish
and deluxe deep dark bluing. Dan moved the front sight out to
the end of the barrel, forward of the barrel band. I don’t
know the reason for this, but I like it. It adds about one inch
to the carbine’s sight radius, and just looks good to me. The
trigger has been gold plated.
The stock was beautifully refinished. It now
looks better than ever, and fits the receiver much better than
it did before.
Overall, Dan did a beautiful job. It now looks
much better than the average Angle Eject Winchester. Had I known
that it would turn out this good, I might have sent my old 1895
vintage Model 1894 .30 WCF rifle
instead. In fact, I might have him restore that old gun
next.
Prices for the work that was done, as of this
writing, are as follows:
CCH Rec./Hammer/Lever |
$350.00 |
Polish Metal |
$150.00 |
Refinish Wood |
$150.00 |
Gold Plate Trigger |
$60.00 |
TOTAL |
$710.00 |
The Firing Pin offers many other types of
finishing and gunsmithing services as well.
Anyway, the pictures here can do more to explain
Dan’s work than my words. Enjoy.
For more information on The Firing Pin’s
custom gunsmithing services, go online to: www.danthegunman.com.
Jeff Quinn
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