The Real Gunsmith – Randy's History

howdy I'm Randy Selby and Randy's custom rifles there's a young lad here in the valley I grew up on a tourist resort hunting lodge my grandparents owned it and we're very early age I had a great interest in those sort of things to do with the out-of-doors horses hunting guns and so forth my granddad was a gun collector and did gun work for himself and I very early was very attended to that followed my granddad all around the area no matter what he was doing and people friends it that he knew people that came hunting with him and one thing another I always had to be right in the middle of everything so at a very early age I say I got involved I started shooting a 22 rifle at six years old and by the time I was nine years old I had a larger caliber rifle to build up our mess with and when I was about nine years old my granddad had a couple of horses he wanted to sell and we knew some people my grandad do some people from the valley across the valley from us and they also had an operation similar to ours and this couple came over it happened to be less moment when his wife Marty and Marty loved to raise horses and one of the verses we had was a marriage he took to that mare very quickly and all the time that they were there they showed an interest in me and and couldn't believe how interested I was in the horses and things like that and we just kind of developed a relationship I did my granddad with wood lesson Marty Bolton and it was within within the year Marty Bowman called and said the colonel Townsend Whelan was going to be at the ranch to hunt and that they wanted my granddad me to come over and meet Colonel Townsend Weiland now I'm only nine years old and but we went over and and had a great lunch that their hunting lodge and you know develop somewhat more of a relationship and whenever I saw less we always spoke when we're in town the scene frequently in town we both of our operations were around 40 miles from Cody Wyoming west of Cody Wyoming near Yellowstone Park and by the time I was 14 years old I was doing a lot of a lot of shooting my granddad taught me how to reload ammunition by the time I was 10 years old and so I was working up loads for for various things at that age with other people I took right to it and I had several rifles that I picked up when I was 15 years old I was handling for him and I had a rifle of a friend of mine that I was working on trying to develop a load and I bumped into less at the post office and Cody and I told him the problems that I was having with this rifle and he says what you need to do this you need to do that something else you know and basically just right there you know ahead of me in the right direction to be able to develop loads for this rifle and it turned out it worked really really well as advice and we developed a tremendous relationship over the years and within within the year so I picked up the various component parts to build to build a rifle myself because my granddad could show me how to do some of these things and so I've built my first rifle at 15 years old and within a few months I built a second rifle and the first rifle I developed loads for it and then shot quarter-inch groups 10 shot quarter-inch group at 100 yards my second rifle shot 9/16 inch group I would just write a couple years after the 7 Remington Magnum came out but that was less moment to brainchild that he sold to Remington Arms and because he was very close to those folks at and he guided all the all the Remington top brass as his outfitting business in the South Fork of the Shoshoni they took these hunters back you know 30 some odd miles into the wilderness but country they called the thoroughfare anyway we were just constantly together in in by the time I was about nineteen years old he got married and I was thinking what I was going to do when I graduated from high school and lessen our spending a lot of time shooting and developing loads for rifles just all sorts of things because all the larger gun companies send him their rifles to test because they knew that if they sent it to less that he was the man the go-to man to properly test their rifle and give a word of praise or or a word of criticism or whatever it might happen to be and anyway left we kind of could've you know he says what are you going to do is says when you get out of high school issues you got it you know it says here you got a wife and he says you're going to you know it's probably some time to have a child and you know what you're going to do I said well I'm kind of leaning towards maybe you know being being an engineer less was a very experienced engineer and he built and developed aircraft engines and so forth and he also being connected to all the gun people in the gun world clear across the United States and other parts of the world he knew he knew those aspects he knew everybody in the industry personally up close he could just pick up a telephone and get whatever he needed for whatever the purpose might happen to be and he says well he says you know he says of course he says you noise I'm an engineer and he said I think that you'd find engineering Bourg and he says I don't think that that's what you want to do and he says you've got an inherit build in gun ability a gun savvy like nobody else at your age so he says I think that you had to go to gun making school I suggest Trinidad state junior college P lactic started started that school and basically it was worked into the college over the years and he says I suggested that's what you you need to do and you know and just at that I thought you know I think you're right I think you're right I think that that's that fits Randy because you know I love to shoot I love to develop loads and do all these things in hunt and what could be better than to build rifles and shoot their rifles just the rifles that you built and sell them to people and so forth and you know develop that kind of relationship with people that did like things in the gun world so he he wrote a letter recommendation to to Trinidad State junior college and I don't know that he needed to I mean anybody could apply and go to go to college you know for whatever purpose was but he did and anyway and they sent him an application package and everything and I applied went to to Trinidad state Junior College in 1969 September 69 that's a two-year accredited college course with a majoring you know in gunsmithing so you go to guns gunsmithing school there's various things that you have to do and one of the biggest requirements during that length of time we are there you've got to build a complete rifle you know take an action and in a barrel barrel blank and the stock blank just a square stock blank and build a rifle you know with those component parts a trigger you know scope mounts and so forth and what else ever else it might happen involved so that's what I did I had I had a Springfield action and I I built an 3006 rifle on a Springfield action and I was finished weeks weeks ahead of all the other students because I'd already built you know three rifles that way you know I didn't have a lathe or an aspect you know access to a lathe before I went to gunsmithing school but I learned you know some of those aspects and I'd use delayed the lot in the high school because I I took double courses in machine shop so I had a tremendous amount of experience in the machine shop earning ladies and milling machines and things of this work so I think that I had kind of a head start I had some of these other students because of my background you know with my granddad in and with less Bolden so we had to make various tools and fixtures and jigs for gunsmithing in in gunsmithing school we had to take apart disassemble and reassemble firearms and so forth and when I went to Trinidad I took 50 guns to gunsmithing school and 50 guns you know about a dozen of those were rifles the rest were were handguns and I took all these guns because I I felt that I had a lot of lot of guns that were very valuable from the aspect of of gunsmithing there's--that's assembly and disassembly and so a lot of these firearms I took to turn event we used in gunsmith in class to to be able to teach us teach all the students assemble and disassemble firearms and how this worked and how that worked a lot of them were semi-automatic handguns because my granddad was into that sort of thing and I at that point in time I had hidden Harry did a huge gun collection with that with that aspect it really it really benefited me because they had a limited number of firearms at Trinidad State junior college for guns mething theory and to be able to teach students how to work on firearms and how things really worked and so forth and it really added a huge dimension to every aspect and it was very much appreciated and as I say we were all required to build a a complete rifle during that class of you know gunsmithing classes of two years but I didn't build one rifle I built 18 rifles in 18 months well I was going the only student that had ever done that I don't know there anybody has sense but I built a rifle a month well I was there because I needed some kind of an income and I had a wife at this time a young daughter and had to support myself and my wife and mine and my daughter my wife worked and well I was going to going to school but I was working all the time you know I put in average around 16 hours everyday in gun gunsmithing school and building guns and I actually took orders people that would come to college you want a gun Milt and I took a take order to build a rifle for these folks and I didn't make a lot doing it but I made enough to supplement our income we could barely get by you know on that sort of an income so that benefited me greatly because of building 18 rifles in 18 months while I was going to go into gunsmithing school and by the time I you know saw the end of the road to get out of gunsmithing school in 1971 thinking well Who am I going to go to work for what am I going to do it got to start my own shop what am I going to do you know well I said letters around various parts of the country peel a cleat you know who was over in Salt Lake City was against gunsmiths in Salt Lake City and anyway other people that you know like barrel makers and other gunsmith and really those were all pretty much just one-man shots actually was rather they took on anybody to work in the shop occasionally they did so I had to work into something and since they had quite a lot of machine experience you know lathes and milling machines and so forth I landed a job you know this is a machinist and over the years I worked into being a tool and die maker machinist I found an opportunity that maybe I needed to kind of move up and what I was doing and I wanted to do something in the Machine aspect of things related to the gun world so I flew to Lewiston Idaho and I went to spear rifle bullet company and I told him who I was what I didn't have hired me in the spot they wanted me to go to work the next day and I said well I can't do that I've got a wife and a child and you know my home was over in Colorado and I've got to moved to Idaho so give me a month you know to get things over here and get settled and you know so that's what I did so I was a machinist todai maker journeyman machinist Jill and die maker for spare life a bullet company for a little over a year and a half and also during that time because they knew and understood that I did a lot of this gun work they had many accuracy rifles in the and their test lab that the barrels were wore out on so I already barreled all the rifles in the ballistics lab for him they had barrels that were wore out on the pressure test guns ivory barreled those pressure test actions and built a you know copper crusher pressure test action for horse pure just like several that they already had they needed another one so I did that I build bullet making machines bullet dies i perfected the they were wanting to come out with a line of their own boattail bullets I perfected the boattail bullet machining aspect and so forth nobody else could seem they've handed this job to other other employees but they could never seem to catch on how to do it and I I took right to it and did it and perfected it so we were able to produce bullets for you know with the boat tail design from spear and I built the Grand Slam grand slam bullet making machine that built their Grand Slam bullets and from the ground floor up it was built out of an old world war 2 50 BMG you know it was basically a machine to draw copper I mean that brass brass material in the 50 BMG cartridge cases and of course we had to tear all that down and rebuild this machine completely because it was aged and I build all those build all those things have built their whole line of ammunition pistol ammunition loading machines well there and during this length of time I I worked four 10-hour days and just literally worn me out and I couldn't understand how you know I have three days off by the time I go back to work I was recuperated but you know after dare to then I wore out again and so I found out that I needed to leave that low climate that was at about 1,100 feet because I'd spent you know my life at higher five six seven eight nine thousand feet altitude so I I got a hold of verse scope company in Greeley Colorado because they needed to kill and die and maker machine estimate I landed the job over the phone and I left Idaho and I went to work for Don burst I built everything in the spirit in the I mean in the in the burst rifle scope and a company that built rifle scopes I built everything all the tools and fixtures twice for the company I built all the all the prototype scopes are than four of their first original scopes that they built I built everything for the entire full field line of scopes and their mini scopes during the years that just over two and a half years that work there and I found that you know I wanted to get back to kind of where my roots were and you know all this time that you know I was working for for bearish or working for spear I was building rifles part-time on my own for people all around the country and I knew that that's you know really what I wanted to do that I felt better working for myself and I did for somebody else and so I I eventually left birth you know reluctantly less burst rifle scope company because it was a good job there are good people and I came back to to Cody Wyoming you know the area where I was born and raised and opened a gun shop and my wife and I bought a dry-cleaning business - also hurt for her something to do also in because I felt was going to take time to build that gun gun shop up and so here we are now from from 1965 when I built my first rifles and here it is you know 2017 so I've been building rifles for 52 years and over this 52 years I built rifles for four people in every state in the United States Alaska Hawaii Australia New Zealand Germany and so forth and this is what I what I want to do we live out and we live about 20 miles out in the country I've got my own my own gun shop and I'm able to do all my gun testing right on site I can reload ammunition for a particular gun project and tested and develop loads for the appreciation of life polls that I build and I build rifles for almost every aspect that a person has a need for for benchrest rifles hunting rifles lightweight hunting rifles long-range shooting rifles and so forth and takedown rifles and anyway you know something that I enjoy and I don't see myself as ever you know giving up what I like to do I'll do it you know as long as I can do it and continue to do it and I feel that I have such an extra edge on on some things to do with firearms and building guns because of people that I was associated with because of family because of people that I work for you know working for for smear laughable a company and for in for birth the design of rifle scopes I understand the designer rifle scopes in and out because I built everything that built rifle scopes and worked hand in hand with Don verse who was who was of course ingenious and an absolute expert in in rifle scopes and of course superior life a bullet company has been around for 70 some years and started by Vernon spear I was lucky to have met Vernon spear a few months before he passed away and that if the Sun also and work worked with all those people but anyway that's that's been been my background what I do and and why I do it the love that I have for the firearms and the hunting industry and the relationships that I built with with people all across the world in and in this country and I don't know how you could start over and replace that

Channel: The Real Gunsmith

Views: 43,535

Rating: 4.9566789 out of 5

Keywords: Gunsmith, firearm, firearms, long range, long range rifle, hunting rifle, gun maker, rifle manufacturer, bolt action, wood stock, long range hunting, gun building, randy selby

Id: k2Z0cCMEmzA

Length: 22min 13sec (1333 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2017