Behind the Scenes at David Miller Co.
This is the book the shooting sports industry has been waiting for since the first maker put his own custom touches to rifles.
Featuring hundreds of full-color images, illustrating the process and highlighting finished works of art, Custom Rifles: Mastery of Wood & Metal is more than an entertaining and informative book about custom rifles and how they are made. It also serves as a map to help gun lovers and makers navigate the nuances of turning wood and metal into the functional art of a fine custom rifle. This edition will answer many questions and provide insight into the world of precision and custom gun craft:
- What about rifle stocks?
- Where does the barrel fit into the picture?
- How does function dictate form in gunmaking?
Although the book acknowledges a number of custom rifle makers, it addresses the many facets of the art by focusing on the works and procedures of David Miller Co. of Tucson, Arizona. This shop has been instrumental in numerous advances in custom rifle work during recent decades.
Custom Rifles: Mastery of Wood & Metal is a tribute to all that is superlative in the making of custom bolt-action rifles. No other book in the world covers David Miller Co. or custom guns in the same way. Truly, this book provides a unique insight into one of the premier custom rifle building operations of all time.
Tom Turpin's nationally published writing career began in 1972 when Petersen's Guns & Ammo magazine published his first article. At the time, Tom was stationed in the great state of Alaska during a tour of duty with the U.S. Army. Not long after that, he had a few articles published in Gun Digest and Guns magazine. He later became acquainted with, and as time passed, a good friend of, the longtime editor of Gun Digest, the late John T. Amber. Mr. Amber introduced Tom around the industry and helped his budding career immensely. During the seventies and eighties, Tom was very busy indeed, balancing a military career, including a couple tours in Vietnam, an outdoor writing career, raising a family and serving as a design consultant to the old German firearms manufacturer, F.W. Heym. He also from time to time, assisted the great German scope manufacturer Schmidt & Bender.
These days, after more than thirty years in the business, several hundred published articles, two books of his own and substantial contributions to another two, he is still at the keyboard. He presently is a contributing editor to Primedia's RifleShooter magazine; contributing editor to Gun Digest; and a freelance contributor to most all the other firearms and hunting publications. At any given time, he usually has several magazine articles in progress, another book or two in the works, and two or three custom rifles in varying stages of completion.
An avid hunter, he has hunted on four continents. A great fan of the late Jack O'Connor, Tom has found the sage advice contained in O'Connor's writings to be very accurate. As such, Tom's favorite hunting caliber for most situations is the old 270 Winchester. One of his published articles is a tribute to Jack O'Connor on what would have been O'Connor's 100th birthday. That story was published in the March/April 2002 issue of Petersen's RifleShooter.
Tom and his wife, Pauline, live and work in the wonderful high desert community of Sierra Vista, Arizona.
