When I first became interested in early custom 1903 Springfields, and became acquainted with the late Michael Petrov and his wonderful books, I began inquiring as to who could do the quality of restoration work that was demanded by some of these fine rifles. I'm not talking about the regular hack job Bubbaed 1903 Springfield Sporters that are a dime a dozen, but Griffin & Howe, Hoffman, RG Owen, Barney Worthen, and other custom gunmakers that turned out works of art before WW2. At the time John Wills did much of Michael's restoration work, but he had recently passed away. Michael's remark to me was "When you find the guy, let me know."

At the time Aaron lived right down the road from me (well, 125 miles right down the road) and I took a chance on him to see if he was up to doing the kind of work I was looking for. The first two rifles I took to him were numbers two and four in his bound book. I was quite pleased with his work, and just today he sent me photos of the stunning RG Owen 1903 he is working on for me. Guys, cell phone photos of his work will take your breath away, much less seeing it in person........

I was describing Aaron to a friend of mine needing some specialized work like Aaron does so well thusly: He is a young guy doing the work of a 60 year old guy. He understands rust blue, double rifles, color case hardening, Rigby, Purdy, H&H, engraving, and regulating (in no particular order). What else is there?

I don't toot anybody's horn very often, but:

Michael:

I found the guy we were looking for............................