From my earliest memories, I have been fascinated with guns. When I was twelve and living on a farm in Idaho the rule in our home was that you had to be twelve to own your own gun. On my twelfth birthday, I received a Winchester Model 37, 16-gauge, single-shot shotgun that my father bought when he was twelve. The shotgun was great, but on my meager earnings I knew I wouldn’t be able to shoot it much, so I went to the local store that very day to purchase a Daisy, “spittin image” model 94 BB gun, and all the BBs I could carry. It was an accurate shooter, but I shot it so much, it didn’t take long to wear it out, and I had to buy another one. Later, we moved to Phoenix and I bought a used Winchester .22 rifle. Before I could drive I would strap it on the side of my bike and head for the city limits north of town.
I started my gunsmithing around the age of fourteen, taking a 1917 Remington Enfield 30-06 that my father had and sporterizing it. I cut the floor-plate with a hacksaw and welded it at a friend of my Dad’s to straighten it. I didn’t have many power tools so I milled the receiver with a file. Another friend cut and crowned the barrel for me and drilled the receiver for scope mounts. I put a Fajen semi-inletted stock on it with a Weaver 4X scope and I was ready to shoot. The first time I hunted with it, it hadn’t been blued yet. I’m sure the game saw me coming from ten miles away with my “silver” rifle. I shot my first deer with that gun and it is still in the family.
Just about every gun I have ever owned has never come out of the box good enough, so within a short time I was sanding, grinding, honing, or re-shaping something on it.
I believe a firearm is a personal thing. It reflects who we are and what we think. I like every one of my guns to look and feel just right, and to function perfectly. I’ve worked on some of them off-and-on for forty years to get them that way. When a gun is finally right, there is a great sense of satisfaction every time you pick it up or take it into the field. You have confidence in it, and know it will do exactly what you want it to do.
That is my commitment at Levie Precision, to make every firearm the finest it can be.
-Dennis Levie
