BROOKINGS – “I always had a passion for firearms, even from when I was a little guy running around with a Red Ryder BB gun. It would break, and I’d fix it.”
Now, at 41 years old, Michael Stern owns and operates Stern Custom Gunsmithing in rural Bruce, 16 miles northwest of Brookings.
He brings to his own business 10 years of full-time experience working as a gunsmith in Sioux Falls. It was literally the culmination of a long journey made in 150-mile stints, with some gear shifting before he reached his final destination.
Stern was one of five children growing up on a small farm 14 miles northwest of Freeman; it had milk cows and was also home to pigs and chickens.
He graduated from Freeman High School in 1995 and spent two years at South Dakota State University studying agriculture. He then “decided to change gears a little bit: I went to Watertown, Lake Area (Technical Institute), for diesel technology.” He graduated in 1999 and married “his high-school sweetheart Laura” that same year. He next spent four years working as service manager for a trucking firm in Sioux Falls. His oldest daughter, Cherish, was born in 2003.
“Up to that point I was working a lot,” Stern said. “I was pushing 80-hour weeks, keeping trucks on the road.” It was again time to shift gears.
“This isn’t the way a family man is supposed to be,” he added. “So I decided I needed to do something that would better suit me as a husband and a father.”
150 miles, doorstep to doorstep
A firearms aficionado since boyhood, Stern, joined by a friend, decided to take a look at gunsmithing. Next stop was the 14-month gunsmithing course at the Colorado School of Trades, in Lakewood, a suburb of Denver. The school was founded in 1947, and its graduates earn an Associate of Occupational Studies degree in gunsmithing. Laura and their daughter remained in the Brookings area while he was away at school.
“That was a major change in our lives and a major decision that we decided to go through,” he said. He approached it with the faith of a devout Christian. “Prayer carried us through.”
Following course completion, he took a job at Gary’s Gun Shop in Sioux Falls in 2005. He worked there for 10 years, commuting on a daily basis: “150 miles, doorstep to doorstep,” he said. He had Tuesdays and Wednesdays off.
After 10 years (and about 390,000 miles) of that routine, he and Laura decided it was time to open their own shop.
“It was a long-term goal, something we’d always wanted to do,” Stern explained. Two years ago, he designed and built his own shop, about 16 miles northwest of Brookings, in rural Bruce. They opened for business on their own in August 2017.
‘Every kid from 4-foot on up’
“The most important tool you can have is what you’ve learned and where to find what you don’t know,” he said. “You can’t know everything about everything.”
To that end Stern has a fairly extensive library of books about older firearms and the “tricks of the trade.”
And over the years he has also accumulated a fairly good inventory of the hand tools needed in gunsmithing. And don’t think of Stern as a salesman dealing in firearms.
“I’m more into the repair, building, customization, cleaning part of it and less into sales,” the gunsmith explained.
The oldest gun he has worked on was at Gary’s: an old Winchester rifle, 1880s vintage. The majority of the firearms he works on in his own shop are shotguns and .22 long-rife caliber rifles and handguns.
“(In South Dakota) every kid from 4-foot on up has got a .22, and everybody who has ever walked into the field owns a shotgun,” he explained, with a smile. “Of course, you get the high-powered rifles and shotguns as well.”
1964: ‘the magical number’
When talking firearms quality, Stern looks to 1964 as “the magical number in the firearms industry.”
It marked a turning point in the quality of new firearms. The big manufacturers dominated the industry: quantity went up; quality went down. As the output speeded up, attention to the artistry and finer points suffered.
“Basically, they machine a part, slap it together and out the door,” he explained of today’s guns. “Very little fit and finish.
“In the older days, pre-’64, there were more gunsmiths involved in manufacturing firearms. They’d get a part and it would be oversized a little bit, and they’d fit it and they’d polish it and they’d make it work. Nowadays they’re not quite as smooth, not finished quite as nicely; but they can produce them a lot faster.” Today those pre-’64 guns are in demand.
“Everybody’s looking for a pre-’64 Winchester, a pre-’64 Remington,” he added. But even the best guns need to be maintained. And in this part of the country guns are often neglected – until hunting season rolls around.
“For instance, this gun sits out in the shed. I went to shoot it the other day and it didn’t work,” he explains, again with a smile, talking about the guns some of his customers bring in to be put into firing condition. “Well, that’s because it’s full of rust and it’s full of bugs and everything else.”
Add humidity to that lack of maintenance and “it doesn’t take very long for rust to occur.” But in addition to that basic fix-it regimen, there’s one piece of gunsmithing that has special appeal to him.
“I really enjoy customization,” Stern said. “Everything from building a custom firearm for a customer to doing an action job on a revolver to make it that much smoother. Instead of a factory hard-pulling trigger, they can go out and pull and it’s just like glass. Nice and smooth.
“That’s part of that pre-’64 stuff I was talking about, that fit and finish and attention to detail that makes things smoother and better.”
In that vein, as a 16th birthday present for his oldest daughter, he is rebuilding a rifle “from a general military configuration to a sporterized artistic firearm.” It will be a deer rifle.
And in similar fashion, he has custom-built rifles for his father, his sister and his brother.
Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.
Register photo: Gunsmith Michael Stern works with the bolt-action of a rifle at his Stern Custom Gunsmithing shop in rural Bruce, 16 miles northwest of Brookings.
