Don King was presented with the Contemporary Longrifle Association's Pioneer Award in a surprise (to Don at least) presentation on August 14th 2010 at the Montana Historical Gunmaker's Guild Gunmakers Fair in Bozeman by CLR representative Steve Garbe of Cody, WY.
Don’s gunmaking career spans nearly 60 years and has produced some of the finest examples of contemporary longrifle making from relatively plain hunting rifles to extremely ornate swivel breeches. Don has made some outstanding examples of Bedford, John Armstrrong and various Pennsylvania rifles as well as later designs such as the St Louis Hawken and Vincent Ohio rifles both or which he made in significant numbers.
Don is not only a fine gunmaker but a teacher and mentor as well.
The award was very appropriate given the volume of work produced, its quality and the length of time Don has been involved with the "American rifle".
Don was stunned and extremely pleased to have been so honored.
There is a 8 minute video of the presentation at
It may load a little slow so its best to let it load then play it. I put in on at lower res and the quality was really bad so I reposted at max quality and its at least viewable.
I have postes a shorter video of the guns on display at the Gunmaker's Fair. Including 18 guns and a some other items by Don, including a folding Rifleman's Knife.
Hopefully this will link to it
We were hoping the announcement would appear in the last Broadside but it was apparently overlooked so I decided to post it on the WWW.
There are still photos of the Guild Fair displays at
http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i199/DPhariss/Guild%20Fair%202010/Dan
