Fine Gunmaking

Susquehanna Stockworks

When Craig Libhart graduated from high school in the spring of 1971, he knew what he wanted to do: start the gunsmithing program at Trinidad State Junior College, in Colorado, that fall. Although there was a gunsmithing school close to his home in Pennsylvania, he had asked the advice of the late, great barrelmaker P.O. Ackley, who had convinced him with a handwritten reply to travel west for the best training. Libhart’s only regret now is that he wishes he had kept Ackley’s letter.
    In 1973 Libhart headed home with more than an associate degree; he had a new wife and enough experience to immediately hire on as a machinist in a Pennsylvania pattern-making shop. For the next 20-plus years Libhart was a devoted husband and father of two and a company machinist, primarily machining rare-earth magnets for special applications.
Through that time he never lost interest in professional gunsmithing, and in 1997 he started reentry by setting up a small shop at his home and taking several different National Rifle Association-sponsored summer gunsmithing classes. Libhart started with... Read More »

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