We were on our way to a Safari in Zambia via London and we were met by a good buddy and driven north to Birmingham to pick up a very traditional Westley-Richards double rifle my hunting friend had commissioned for this trip. We were ushered into a very nice English office and the Rifle was presented along with the gentleman who made it, all of it. It was exquisite, fascinating and expensive. The Gunsmith must have been 90 years old and all those years of experience, displayed beautifully in his craft. We were offered a tour of their facility, which we had been promised and had been looking forward to, for over a year. The Factory looked like an aging English Manor House with three of four stories and there were many little cubby hole workshops where one gunsmith was enthusiastically working on his rifle, with the most rudimentary hand tools. I have been in a good number of Gun Factories and this was nothing like any of those. Most of the Gunsmiths were very elderly gentlemen dressed in suit and tie with an apron that was appropriately aged and worn. These old blokes are really very accomplished artists, in metal. Their bespoke firearms exude a magnificence that is an homage to their life long pursuit. They hand fettle cold hard steel and rough wood into a mechanical masterpiece. In the case of Westley-Richards finery, happiness is a warm gun.
