Doan Trevor Custom Rifle Building

Here are some pictures of the finished rifle. Will be working on a interesting smallbore rifle in the next week or two. Stay Tuned!

This is a new build. This stock could be used for either sling or F-TR.

These next two photos show me aligning the from the action screws to cut the rear slider.

The muzzle diameter was slightly different.. needed replicate the length of a previous Palma rifle. Made it the property diameter, figured out the length and used a sight that had a 3/4″ bore.

Here they are finished.

Let’s start at the beginning…………

1949 – I shot my first rifle match.

1953/54 – I saw my first high power rifle match at Fort Hood, TX.  My Uncle was Base Commandant. I always thought that it would be cool to shoot the “big guns”.

1955 – I first heard about The Palma Team from my  subscription of The Rifleman.

1957/61- Shot small bore in High School.

1961 – Participated in a demonstration of Biathlon. I was picked because of my shooting and cross country experience. It was my first time shooting high power.

1962 – Joined The Air Force. Qualified in Basic. They tried to con me into joining the shooting team (at the Green Monster), but they had promised me two years of Electronics Training on an Atlas Guidance Launch Crew. With an Altas Missile who needs a rifle?

1966 to 1975 – Didn’t do much in the way of Competitive Shooting.

1976 – Met people like Gene Carson, Creighton Oudette and Wayne Forshee (dun dun dun.. my Nemisis and good friend). I began getting back involved in shooting. Realized it was the time to give High Power a real go. From the 50’s until this time I did my own work on my rifles.. and also on my friends.

1980’s until 1996 – Most of you have known me or have heard the stories. There were multiple trip to Camp Perry.

1996 – Wayne Forshee  put together a team for the The Romanian Trophy. There were 4 of us. Doan Trevor, Billy Parfitt, Ron Michon, and Terry Glen.  We came in 2nd to the Hardholders. There was only one High Master on our team, Ron Michon.

1996 until 2009 – Moved to California. Shot and became friends with some amazing Southwestern Shooters. Still built some rifles.

2009 until 2018 – Moved to New Mexico. Tried to retire. Ya’ll kept calling me, I’ve stayed busy. Built a few Raffle Rifles, I think it’s been about 6.

As you can see, I’ve kept track of the Shooting and Palma worlds. There’s a few things that should be brought to attention. I know that this isn’t as much my circus as it used to be, but as someone who was involved and now has a slightly outside observation point, I see things that could be improved.

Here we go.

To The Power To Be:

Number 1. Team Appreciation: The US Palma Team is every bit as important as The US Olympic Teams. And should be considered as such. The Palma Match is a World Championship.

Number 2: Marketing. Possible thoughts about Marketing. The Raffle Rifle in past years (including this one) could and can earned us more. Have we ever thought about The American Rifleman? We don’t need a hand out, but a hand up. If we could have a place or perhaps the cover of the magazine to support the team or a place on the website to donate to a World Class team that would mean more financial support. We need to take stock of this in the next few month. We are hitting critical mass for fund raising for our team members.

Number 3. Financial Stability. A financial stable team, is a team that can practice and compete with thinking about the money, this makes for better shooters. Unfortunately, some of out best shooters can’t think about participating at the international level because of finances. (Many years ago, I had the opportunity to ski at an FIS level, unfortunately, I did not have the funds. This also happened to me on the shooting circuit.) It’s a shame that we are missing out on such talent. There are ways to ensure a financially stable team. One is having a larger audience for donations and other fund raising means.

Number 4. Team Improvement: The team matches at the Spirit of America Match in Raton, NM at The Whittington Center is a perfect training ground and recruitment for future Palma Shooting teams. Rather than having all the certified coaches show up for the match, who already have all their selected shooters in mind, we organize teams like Wayne did in 1996. We intermix the shooters. Having someone from each qualifications on each team, this teaches all. And at the same time, it allows coaches to evaluate the up-and-coming shooters to shoot between horizontal lines. This would help to eliminate some of the required team practices. This could be done with a number of matches across the country at the local level. 

So, here are my 4 major thought points. I know that these will not be favored by some. At this time in my life, I figure it needed to said. If you have any other ideas or thoughts, please share them here and with other Palma shooters. Maybe we can have an even better team and organization.  Again to drive home the point, fund raising is paramount. Until then, happy trails.

Doan.

I’ve been working on this for awhile. I finished it.

These are the legs of the trophy they are made from leftover stock pieces from fellow shooters.

More pictures of the trophy in process.

Finished Trophy. And my name is on the trophy…… on the back.

While I was working on it one of the former winners, Ben Smith, stop by to visit me with his father, Barry Smith.

Ben sent me an article about the 40th Anniversary.

I haven’t been able to talk about, but I noticed that Lones Wigger won this match 8 times. Maybe this should be known now as The Wigger Trophy. When I can, I’ll talk more about him. He saw back board of the trophy completed before his passing. Also, joshed me why it was already done.

Doan

Sometimes, I get more than a piece of wood delivered to me.

Sometimes, it’s a delivery of 680 lbs.

This is fresh from the mill. As you can see, it doesn’t have much color or grain……  (The first time I cut a log of walnut on a sawmill, the slab plunked off and it was grey and green, it was a real heart sinker. After a month or two the color and grain starts to appear.) I have no worries that this will happen to the new delivery. There will be a considerable about of curing time. Seeings how I’m in New Mexico, the dry climate will help cure it it a bit faster.

I will have thick enough pieces for Open F-Class!

In 6 months or so I will check in on them and cut them appropriately to continue the drying process.

1931-2018

I met Dan in the 1950’s, because I would always be in the way in the pits. We would alway run into each other at different events and had people that we knew in common.

In 2007, I moved and unknown to me (at the time) I moved two house down from his daughter. Our families have been friends since.

My heart goes out to Lyndee and her entire family.

The Trevor’s miss and love you guys.

It’s a New Year’s Day Baby!

Born on 1/1/18…

It’s not very often that you get to work on a piece of wood this stunning. It was a little surreal. It was utterly amazing to make this stock.

Completed little more and got the ebony fore-end, front sliders and pistol grip cap installed.

Duplicated the stock. I’ve started the carving to smooth it out. This appears to be one of the finest piece of English Walnut that I have worked on in loooooong, loooong time. In order to make up for the fact that getting 3 1/2 inch wood is so difficult, I am using Ebony to add width and length to the fore-end and for the pistol grip cap.

I finally got all the names on the backstop for The Western Wildcat trophy.

Will do the base in a few weeks. And show you it when I get it done.

Still looking for brass wildcat figurine.

Here’s what has been going with the Trophy. Still need to find a brass figurine of a Wildcat.

While working, I realized the Lones Wigger has won the Western Wildcat 8 times.

Here’s that beautiful hunk of wood on the duplicator: CLICK HERE!

Here’s that beautiful hunk of wood finished.

It was a lot of sanding for this stock, totally worth it.

Sue got a new drone. It made me remember my in theAir Force (my time as a rocket scientist). 🙂

When,  I was merely an adult, I was stationed at Cheyenne, Wyoming.. aka 564 Squadron. Below is a picture of one of the missiles I worked on. They even let me hold the keys and answer the red phone. Any other information I may divulge in this post the secretary will disavow.

The SM-65D was the work horse of putting stuff in space.

Apparently, I had a thing for accuracy way back when. (CLASSIFIED and REDACTED). I have forgotten more than I knew from those days. It’s amazing that we trust our country to out wonderful and brave troops who are barely in their 20’s. Better their fresh young brains, than mine.

BC-CLASSIFIED

VELOCITY-CLASSIFIED

DISTANCE-CLASSIFIED

SIZE OF BULLET-CLASSIFIED

INFORMATION TO THE BIRD-CLASSIFIED

TIME TO LAUNCH-CLASSIFIED

Here is the original post, go ahead and read if you haven’t, yet: READ ME!!!!

I’ve finally finished this up and shipped it out. Even remembered to get photos of it!

Clare and I took video of me truing the action on this rifle.  Also, have video of feeding and ejecting empties that we’ll post tomorrow.

Fitted this one with a PTG bolt with Sako extractor.

I’ve been working on the trophy. I need to find a fierce brass wildcat aka bobcat. All the ones I’ve found are too cute. Let me know if you have seen one. Thanks!

Clare has been here for awhile and we are having a Barn Burner.

Cleaning out the garage. Need to be able to turn around to keep making more stuff!

Here’s what’s left from the first round on GunBroker.com:

FOR SALE

I’ll be putting more stuff up in a couple days.

Here’s a nice piece of Walnut. It is multi-colored, has strong grain with flowers and little burls.

I played hooky for a few minute from wood and metal working!

Click this link to see:

I RODE THE TRIUMPH!

IT STARTED ON THE FIRST KICK AFTER BEING STORED FOR FIVE YEARS!

The frame on this bike is a 1966 Triumph frame. The fiberglass tank and seat are From Champions Fiberglass. The wheel should are magnesium Kimtab. Brake so are Hearst Earhart. The engine is a 1976 Bonneville with some modifications.

Recently, I received this rifle to bed and refinish. I made made a few new parts for the harness. Not only do I do woodwork, I also do metal work. Another project is in the books! Soon to be shipped off to it's owner.