John V Planz, Gunsmith

My goal is to provide excellent service and offer precision workmanship!

Welcome to my website! I’m John and I’m a full-time farmer, gunsmith, blacksmith and avid outdoorsman. I began studying and fiddling with guns about 46 years ago. From an early age I was drawn to figuring out how things worked and if they were broken, I would try to fix them. Firearms always held a special interest to me, it didn’t matter if they were rifles, shotguns, flintlocks or caplock Hawkins.  I see them as finely designed machines and some are exquisite pieces of art. I’ve had the opportunity to do many things over the years: field biology, forensics, molecular genetics and educator. The constants in my life’s timeline have always been gunsmithing, hunting, and stealing what moments I had to be working in the shop…whether that was my kitchen table or a dedicated shop space.

After over 30 years in University research and teaching, I had the opportunity (Thank You COVID!) to do what I love…of course, gunsmithing is a major component. Even before my wife and I found our farm and made the move across country, I had begun to prepare the foundations for my gunsmith shop. I wanted to see how much gunsmithing and firearms engineering I had really picked up over the decades, so I went through the highly regarded Master Gunsmith Certification program offered by the American Gunsmithing Institute. The program is founded on the principles of firearms design, function and repair. Although I have had the opportunity to work on hundreds of firearms over the years, the program exposed me to many types of arms that I had never considered before…and reinforced my conviction that I really do know how to do this stuff! 

So, that’s me in a nutshell. I work on firearms, pretty much all firearms, from flintlocks to modern guns, and everything in between. The majority of guns that come to the shop are typical hunting guns that sportsmen treasure and carry with them afield: rifles, shotguns, handguns that need repairs or maybe a facelift. My favorites are the old classic Brownings, Winchesters, Marlins, etc., made in the first half of the last century. I especially like to see old, experienced guns brought back into service safely. I also enjoy building and repairing flintlock rifles styled after the early American Longrifles and Germanic Jäger Rifles of the 18th century, and have spent many hours in the company of many of today’s finest artisans and reenactors. If this is something you are interested in, please give me a holler!

I hope to have the opportunity to meet you and provide whatever level care your firearms may need!