Please welcome respected gunsmith Grant Cunningham to NWGUN!

Hello everyone. I’m pleased to announce that Grant Cunningham will be one of the featured authors in the first issue of Northwest Gun Magazine! If you don’t know Grant, he’s well known for his revolver gunsmithing, his blog, as an author, and his active voice in the defense community. I’ll let Grant tell you a few things about himself!

My name is Grant Cunningham, and I’m an author, teacher, and gunsmith who lives in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

Like many who grow up in the country, I started out shooting at a very young age. In our family we had a .22 rifle, a “deer rifle” (a Winchester 94, of course), an “elk rifle” (a Springfield .30-06), and a shotgun. That modest arsenal instilled in me both a love of shooting and a respect for safety.

In my teens I apprenticed as a watch and clockmaker, learning to repair and refurbish very small and complicated mechanisms. Though it was never my career, the experience I developed working with metal and making small parts would prove to be invaluable later in life.

After college I settled into a business career and only occasionally got the chance to go shooting. In was in my mid-twenties that I decided to get back into shooting and hunting, and as an adult bought the first gun of “my own”. I was also able to start carrying a gun under Oregon’s revised concealed carry laws

I found that I liked the growing sport of combat or defensive shooting, and spent a number of years shooting several matches every month. My wife and I even ran matches at our local gun club!

It was after I’d been shooting seriously for a number of years that I combined my love of guns and my mechanical expertise by working on them. I’d acquired a Colt Python which needed work and couldn’t find anyone locally who would touch it. All of the local gunsmiths told me that it was too complicated! To me that was a little odd, as it wasn’t nearly as complicated as even a simple watch or clock.

Using my mechanical knowledge and skill I took that Python apart, learned how it worked, did some customization of the action, and showed it to some people at the range. They were complimentary and asked me to work on their revolvers, too.

My big break came one day when I was chatting with Massad Ayoob, well known gunwriter and trainer, about the work I had fallen into doing. He asked to see some of them and was quite impressed – enough so that he did a major article in the Complete Book Of Handguns that year. After that I had a long waiting list of revolver work to be done, a waiting list which continues to this day.

Over the years I refined my techniques and became nationally known as an expert on customizing the double action revolver. By this time I was carrying and competing with the revolver almost exclusively, and it wasn’t long before people were asking me to teach them how to properly handle their wheelguns.

This lead to another career as an instructor, and today I teach my own courses on how to handle and shoot the revolver and the lever action rifle. I’m also one of the few certified Combat Focus Shooting instructors for revolver and autopistol. I’m able to teach people both how to operate their guns and how to use them to keep themselves (and their loved ones) safe from violent attack!

I’m also known for my writing, and that work has appeared in publications like Concealed Carry Magazine, the Personal Defense Network, and in the many articles on my own website. I also wrote “The Gun Digest Book Of The Revolver”, available on Amazon and at any book or sporting goods store that carries Gun Digest publications.

My blog, the Revolver Liberation Alliance, is read by many of the movers and shakers in the shooting industry. It’s updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and usually combines a mix of revolver talk, general shooting topics, self defense training, and industry news – plus an occasional surprise!

The best way to reach me is through my website, www.grantcunningham.com. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Please welcome Grant aboard the NWGUN team!

Thanks,
Gavin

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3 Responses to Please welcome respected gunsmith Grant Cunningham to NWGUN!

  1. Rob says:

    Welcome Grant!
    We look forward to reading your articles.

  2. Dave says:

    Welcome Grant….
    Looking forward to a “Wealth” of Knowledge and Experience.

  3. Reza Rowhani says:

    We are lucky to have you Grant!

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