tonykharper
Well-known member
The Bill Calfee I knew (part 2)
When I returned from overseas, I thought I wanted to get back into centerfire benchrest but that did not last long. I knew I wanted to make contact with Bill Calfee, but everyone told me that was a waste of time. He had more work than he could do and without a direct connection he would not even talk to me about building a rifle.
My first thought was no, surely, he would not be like that. So, after some searching, I got his phone number and address. I called. Got the answering machine, left a message, no call back. I did that several times with the same results. So, I then started writing letters.
In the meantime, I still had my Time Precision Rifles. So, I was shooting them. Years earlier I was lucky enough to have become friends with Art Cochi, owner of Time Precision Rifles. He actually sponsored me in my early shooting career.
I was doing Ok with them but most of the big winners were using Bill Calfee rifles. I continued my campaign to make contact with him. Finally, one day he called. He asked me why I was filling up his answering machine, and what was up with all the letters. I snapped back if you would read the letters or listen to the machine you would know what was up. He kinda laughed and said you got me now what can I do for you?
I told him I wanted him to build me a rifle. He said OK, get me a Turbo action, a Darell Horsely bedded stock, a barrel preferably a Shilen ratchet, a tuner, and a jewel trigger and I’ll put them together for you.
I wasn’t expecting that. I kinda thought he would source the parts and build it, but no, that is not what he offered.
Even back then getting all the parts was quite a job and took time to gather. I finally got everything ready to ship and I called Bill. I told him I had everything, and he said good. What are you naming the rifle and what logo do you want on it? I said no, don’t bother with all that, just build the rifle so it will shoot. He said no, that is not what I do. Give me a name or it will have my name on it. I came up with Tack Driver off the top of my head.
I sent the parts out on a Monday. One week and two days later I got a package. It was my rifle. At first, I was mad. I thought all he did was screw it together to get me off his back. But I was so wrong.
When I shot that rifle it was like a laser with the ammo I had on hand. That first weekend I won matches on Saturday and again on Sunday. I was over the moon. Really could not believe it. I won’t bore you with a list of all the things I won with Tack Driver, but I don’t think many other rifles have equaled it’s number of National wins.
Another interesting thing about the rifles Bill did for me was he would not take payment until I was happy with the rifle. His words to me were shoot it until you know you are happy. If you aren’t happy send it back and you owe me nothing. I don’t know if he did that with everyone but he did with me.
That rifle brought Calfee and I together on a quest to find if there was anything left on the table in terms of improvements that could be made to increase RFBR accuracy. We experimented with many, many, things not just the rifles, actions, barrels, tuners, ignition and trigger timing.
In truth Bill came up with the ideas and I just did some of the testing. He built many rifles for me. Some were more successful than others but no two were exactly alike. There was always something he wanted to test so he included it in my next build.
An example of that was a rifle we called Kong. Kong was built to test various ignition setups. Everything from firing pin tip shapes, to springs, to firing pin fall. Actually, I wanted to call the rifle King Kong, but Bill said until it wins its first ARA tournament it stays Kong. Well, I won that one because Kong became King Kong the first ARA tournament, I shot with it.
But it was not all successes. Many times, I got my butt kicked and I wanted to blame the rifle, blame the bullets, blame anything but me. But, in truth, I probably was the weakest link in that chain.
Until last week I always addressed Bill's phone number as Kong control. When I said that he knew it was me and would pick up the phone. Silly maybe, but that is what we did. Just like two kids having fun.
I’m going to call this part 2. For those still reading there will be more.
TKH
When I returned from overseas, I thought I wanted to get back into centerfire benchrest but that did not last long. I knew I wanted to make contact with Bill Calfee, but everyone told me that was a waste of time. He had more work than he could do and without a direct connection he would not even talk to me about building a rifle.
My first thought was no, surely, he would not be like that. So, after some searching, I got his phone number and address. I called. Got the answering machine, left a message, no call back. I did that several times with the same results. So, I then started writing letters.
In the meantime, I still had my Time Precision Rifles. So, I was shooting them. Years earlier I was lucky enough to have become friends with Art Cochi, owner of Time Precision Rifles. He actually sponsored me in my early shooting career.
I was doing Ok with them but most of the big winners were using Bill Calfee rifles. I continued my campaign to make contact with him. Finally, one day he called. He asked me why I was filling up his answering machine, and what was up with all the letters. I snapped back if you would read the letters or listen to the machine you would know what was up. He kinda laughed and said you got me now what can I do for you?
I told him I wanted him to build me a rifle. He said OK, get me a Turbo action, a Darell Horsely bedded stock, a barrel preferably a Shilen ratchet, a tuner, and a jewel trigger and I’ll put them together for you.
I wasn’t expecting that. I kinda thought he would source the parts and build it, but no, that is not what he offered.
Even back then getting all the parts was quite a job and took time to gather. I finally got everything ready to ship and I called Bill. I told him I had everything, and he said good. What are you naming the rifle and what logo do you want on it? I said no, don’t bother with all that, just build the rifle so it will shoot. He said no, that is not what I do. Give me a name or it will have my name on it. I came up with Tack Driver off the top of my head.
I sent the parts out on a Monday. One week and two days later I got a package. It was my rifle. At first, I was mad. I thought all he did was screw it together to get me off his back. But I was so wrong.
When I shot that rifle it was like a laser with the ammo I had on hand. That first weekend I won matches on Saturday and again on Sunday. I was over the moon. Really could not believe it. I won’t bore you with a list of all the things I won with Tack Driver, but I don’t think many other rifles have equaled it’s number of National wins.
Another interesting thing about the rifles Bill did for me was he would not take payment until I was happy with the rifle. His words to me were shoot it until you know you are happy. If you aren’t happy send it back and you owe me nothing. I don’t know if he did that with everyone but he did with me.
That rifle brought Calfee and I together on a quest to find if there was anything left on the table in terms of improvements that could be made to increase RFBR accuracy. We experimented with many, many, things not just the rifles, actions, barrels, tuners, ignition and trigger timing.
In truth Bill came up with the ideas and I just did some of the testing. He built many rifles for me. Some were more successful than others but no two were exactly alike. There was always something he wanted to test so he included it in my next build.
An example of that was a rifle we called Kong. Kong was built to test various ignition setups. Everything from firing pin tip shapes, to springs, to firing pin fall. Actually, I wanted to call the rifle King Kong, but Bill said until it wins its first ARA tournament it stays Kong. Well, I won that one because Kong became King Kong the first ARA tournament, I shot with it.
But it was not all successes. Many times, I got my butt kicked and I wanted to blame the rifle, blame the bullets, blame anything but me. But, in truth, I probably was the weakest link in that chain.
Until last week I always addressed Bill's phone number as Kong control. When I said that he knew it was me and would pick up the phone. Silly maybe, but that is what we did. Just like two kids having fun.
I’m going to call this part 2. For those still reading there will be more.
TKH
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