tonykharper
Well-known member
The Bill Calfee I knew (part 5)
I had the pleasure of visiting Bill and watching him work in his shop. I will admit it was quite an experience.
Looking at his old machines I could not believe he could turn out work like he did using them.
But after watching him for a while I soon learned how that was possible.
Bill was a very meticulous person; he did everything with extreme care and focus.
Bill had a car accident many years ago that left him all but crippled.
Bill was about 6-foot 6 inch tall and having a bum leg made everything difficult, but he would never admit it.
He would sit at his work bench on two 5-gallon buckets stacked on top of each other.
I thought he was going to fall sooner or later. I even offered to buy him a stool, but he wanted no part of it.
As a matter of fact, he told me in such a way I knew not to bring it up again.
He worked at that bench like a surgeon performing surgery. He knew where every tool was, and he didn’t have to look to find them.
He would reach out, grab what he needed, use it for his purpose and put it back where it came from without ever breaking his gaze.
He didn’t like any distractions when he was working. I soon learned to be quiet when I was there watching.
As I sat in the shop trying to be quiet, I noticed a string that came up from a dark corner and went around the whole shop.
It was kind of like a cord you would see on a bus. It ran through eyelets around the whole shop. I could not figure out what it was.
Finally, I could not stand it anymore, so I asked. What is the cord for?
I could tell he didn’t appreciate the interruption, but he responded. “Air compressor”. I thought about that, and it didn’t make sense.
Why would you want a string all the way around the shop just to turn on the compressor?
So, I asked why you need to turn on the compressor from every place in the shop.
He gave me that look and said” it is not to turn it on it is to turn it off. I don’t want it to startle me when I’m doing something.
Well then, I understood air compressors kick on when the air pressure drops, and you can’t predict when that will be.
At this point I tried even harder to be quiet. After all, he was fixing my rifle and I really wanted it to shoot.
Where I was sitting was by the paper towel holder. Bill said give me a paper towel.
I jumped up and grabbed the paper, gave it a yank and hit it with my other hand and handed him the paper towels.
Actually, it was about three towels. Bill snapped and I said, “a towel”. Crap, I didn’t know paper towels were in short supply,
so I took back the two extras and tried to fit them back in the roller. I was thinking he would never invite me again.
When Bill finished with my rifle, he put it back together and said let's go to the range.
I had shot the rifle in a match the weekend before so the rifle was sighted in before Bill took it apart. He had taken the rifle out of the stock, removed the scope, unscrewed the barrel, replaced it with a new barrel and put it back together.
I got set up at the range and Bill was watching me through a spotting scope.
Bill did not waste money on targets so the only thing to shoot was a homemade target that was already on the backer.
There weren’t many bulls to shoot at so I fired my fouling shots in the dirt.
Then I went to the first bull and fired. The shot went straight through the dot.
That surprised me, so I fired another. It went through the first hole and didn’t make the hole bigger, just a little darker.
I was mystified. I said Bill did you see that? He said, "Yes, what is the problem? I said problem? This rifle is sighted in perfectly.
Bill’s mind was so fast he responded “why shouldn’t it be I did install both barrels didn't I.”
Now you know just taking a scope off or taking a rifle out of its stock will most always change the point of impact, not to mention changing the barrel for a new one. But Bill was so quick to take advantage of what just happened.
Bill had a quick wit even if sometimes it was a little dry. I was still sitting there thinking how the hell did that just happen.
In part 1 I called Bill Calfee Mr. Rimfire Benchrest (RFBR). He also had another handle that was given him by William Casey (Slick Willy) of Chickenfoot.
Slick called Bill the wax lead messiah (WLM). This was a reference to how often Bill reminded others that a waxed lead bullet was a different animal than a jacketed bullet.
Sometimes the WLM was used with no particular bias other times not so much. Many centerfire gunsmiths have a hard time building successful rimfire rifles because of these differences. Many still do.
I’ll call this part 5. If there is anyone still reading, more to come.
TKH
I had the pleasure of visiting Bill and watching him work in his shop. I will admit it was quite an experience.
Looking at his old machines I could not believe he could turn out work like he did using them.
But after watching him for a while I soon learned how that was possible.
Bill was a very meticulous person; he did everything with extreme care and focus.
Bill had a car accident many years ago that left him all but crippled.
Bill was about 6-foot 6 inch tall and having a bum leg made everything difficult, but he would never admit it.
He would sit at his work bench on two 5-gallon buckets stacked on top of each other.
I thought he was going to fall sooner or later. I even offered to buy him a stool, but he wanted no part of it.
As a matter of fact, he told me in such a way I knew not to bring it up again.
He worked at that bench like a surgeon performing surgery. He knew where every tool was, and he didn’t have to look to find them.
He would reach out, grab what he needed, use it for his purpose and put it back where it came from without ever breaking his gaze.
He didn’t like any distractions when he was working. I soon learned to be quiet when I was there watching.
As I sat in the shop trying to be quiet, I noticed a string that came up from a dark corner and went around the whole shop.
It was kind of like a cord you would see on a bus. It ran through eyelets around the whole shop. I could not figure out what it was.
Finally, I could not stand it anymore, so I asked. What is the cord for?
I could tell he didn’t appreciate the interruption, but he responded. “Air compressor”. I thought about that, and it didn’t make sense.
Why would you want a string all the way around the shop just to turn on the compressor?
So, I asked why you need to turn on the compressor from every place in the shop.
He gave me that look and said” it is not to turn it on it is to turn it off. I don’t want it to startle me when I’m doing something.
Well then, I understood air compressors kick on when the air pressure drops, and you can’t predict when that will be.
At this point I tried even harder to be quiet. After all, he was fixing my rifle and I really wanted it to shoot.
Where I was sitting was by the paper towel holder. Bill said give me a paper towel.
I jumped up and grabbed the paper, gave it a yank and hit it with my other hand and handed him the paper towels.
Actually, it was about three towels. Bill snapped and I said, “a towel”. Crap, I didn’t know paper towels were in short supply,
so I took back the two extras and tried to fit them back in the roller. I was thinking he would never invite me again.
When Bill finished with my rifle, he put it back together and said let's go to the range.
I had shot the rifle in a match the weekend before so the rifle was sighted in before Bill took it apart. He had taken the rifle out of the stock, removed the scope, unscrewed the barrel, replaced it with a new barrel and put it back together.
I got set up at the range and Bill was watching me through a spotting scope.
Bill did not waste money on targets so the only thing to shoot was a homemade target that was already on the backer.
There weren’t many bulls to shoot at so I fired my fouling shots in the dirt.
Then I went to the first bull and fired. The shot went straight through the dot.
That surprised me, so I fired another. It went through the first hole and didn’t make the hole bigger, just a little darker.
I was mystified. I said Bill did you see that? He said, "Yes, what is the problem? I said problem? This rifle is sighted in perfectly.
Bill’s mind was so fast he responded “why shouldn’t it be I did install both barrels didn't I.”
Now you know just taking a scope off or taking a rifle out of its stock will most always change the point of impact, not to mention changing the barrel for a new one. But Bill was so quick to take advantage of what just happened.
Bill had a quick wit even if sometimes it was a little dry. I was still sitting there thinking how the hell did that just happen.
In part 1 I called Bill Calfee Mr. Rimfire Benchrest (RFBR). He also had another handle that was given him by William Casey (Slick Willy) of Chickenfoot.
Slick called Bill the wax lead messiah (WLM). This was a reference to how often Bill reminded others that a waxed lead bullet was a different animal than a jacketed bullet.
Sometimes the WLM was used with no particular bias other times not so much. Many centerfire gunsmiths have a hard time building successful rimfire rifles because of these differences. Many still do.
I’ll call this part 5. If there is anyone still reading, more to come.
TKH
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