Jim Wisner left his family’s home in Adna and went into town one day in 1986.
Upon returning, his mother handed him a piece of paper with a name and phone number on it.
“You need to call this guy,” she said.
The paper read “Hank Williams Jr.”
“Hank called and he read the article,” she said.
An article had been published about Wisner and a rifle he made in Guns Magazine in January 1986. The rifle was for a rider in Olympia.
Hank Williams Jr. — an American singer and songwriter and the son of country music legend Hank Williams —was evidently intrigued by Wisner and his craftsmanship.
He had a job for him.
Williams wanted a specialty rifle that ended up having a removable scope, foldable rear sights, a trigger guard with a German lever and a front sight hood.
“Hank kind of got me by surprise,” Wisner said of the detachable scope during a recent interview.
The rifle recently returned to the Adna shop, this time with a new owner seeking repairs.
The Chronicle stopped by the shop to learn more about the origins of the firearm.
The detachable scope was not a common feature on rifles in 1986. Because the scope was an uncommon feature, Wisner had to build the scope’s base and create what he said was the first set of Kimber rings to secure the scope.
Not only was the detachable scope already a scarce model, the caliber of the gun required a scope that varied from the traditional 1 inch.
These craftsmanship decisions were mutually decided by both Williams and Wisner. However, Wisner also added special flairs such as angled inset ebony and also refused to ship it early when requested to do so by Williams.
“I definitely took a lot more pains with it,” Wisner said.
Some parts of the gun could have been sourced in Germany. However, according to Wisner, “In 1986, you had to speak German, do a bank transfer and then wait three to six months.”
For Wisner, that wasn’t an option, so he made the parts himself.
The trigger guard with a German lever started as bar stock, or an 11-pound block of steel. Shaping that into the desired form meant 10 hours of work on the manual milling machine for Wisner.
Of the gun parts, only a few were bought or sourced from preexisting wares that Wisner had on hand. The grip cap, rear swivel base and an old military action, which was surface ground and cleaned up, were not made by Wisner.
While visiting Wisner in his gun shop, The Chronicle was given a tour of a variety of machines he uses to make gun parts, which included a computer numerical control (CNC) machine that has the capability to hold 22 tools on a rotating carousel and a number of manual milling machines.
The manual machines were what Wisner used to create Williams’ gun. They were also the machines his parents used when they ran the gun shop before Jim.
“I grew up in the gun shop,” Wisner said.
Now, he runs the machine shop, his wife manages the office and his son helps in the machine shop when he can.
Williams went to Adna to receive the rifle during the first week of October 1986. This was not, however, the first time Wisner and Williams met in person.
In September 1986, Williams was touring the West Coast performing, and Wisner and his parents got tickets. When Wisner called to let Williams know he would be at one of his shows in Oregon, Williams invited Wisner and his parents to visit him at his hotel before the performance.
Wisner said that he asked Williams’ bodyguard if it was OK that they were there before the show. It was two hours before start time. The bodyguard, named Merle, told Wisner that this would relax Williams before the concert.
So they talked guns for a while. Williams gave Wisner and his father requests for modifications and things that needed to be fixed on a variety of handguns.
The Wisners walked out of the hotel with over a dozen handguns in two big cases to take home and work on.
Wisner and Williams talked many times over the years on the phone. If Williams had a problem, he’d call Wisner and they’d walk through it.
“It was fun,” Wisner told The Chronicle. “I’ve been lucky in some aspects to be at the right place at the right time and meet the right people.”
Wisner has also met Chuck Yeager and Hoyt Axton.
Wisner currently has Williams’ rifle because a new owner sent it to him to get repaired. As far as Wisner knows, the gun has had three owners. After Williams relinquished ownership, the second owner really did a number on some of Wisner’s specialty attachments, he said.
Damage was done to the scope and its base and was marked with a Sharpie. The hood and rear sights were also removed from the gun, so Wisner had to make a few new ones.
The new customer who will be receiving the gun resides in Alabama.
Although Wisner’s gun enterprise has become smaller over the years, his passion for craftsmanship and the tradition of making guns is evident. He showed Chronicle reporters a Mannlicher muzzle cap that, according to Wisner, did not have a mold to be cast in because it had been lost.
With his CNC machine, he was able to create not only a replica of the original part but new parts with several different diameters, keeping the history of craftsmanship and tradition alive one part at a time.
