Does anyone here know a gunbuilder from the Louisville, Ky region named Gatz?

[AeroE]

This gentleman passed away 6 years ago.

I would be interested to see rifles he built.  His son told me he built every part in his rifles from scratch, at the forge, and down to the screws.

I found one mention here of a man named Gatz on a 1963 shooting team.

[C Wallingford]

Norton Gatz was a member of Kentucky's Corps of Longriflemen and shot on the longrifle team for several years. I vaguely remember seeing the rifle that he shot, somewhere around 1973-74, but can't give you any details.

[Eric Kettenburg]

One turned up here in NE PA a bunch of years ago, maybe 4-7, and for a little while we thought it was an old original.  It had some pointers to the 1950s, but it really looked like an old rifle.  Was pretty cool.  I don't know if you can search the forum but there were some pictures and some discussion.  I'll bet he was a neat guy.

[AeroE]

I talked to a Gatz son last night; I'll find out near the end of the week whether his name was Norton.  I was in a noisy environment and had a hard time hearing the first part of the conversation (deafness isn't helping).  The name is sufficiently unusual that I'm betting it's the same man.  This son remembers that his dad was very active in NMLRA and the KRA.

I'm waiting on more photos of the sine bar rifling machine he built, I may bring it home.  I have no idea what the machine should be worth, and I don't want to skin a widow, but I don't like to get skinned, either.  There are bore tools, probably reamers and rifling heads, but I have no details.

When I searched this site, all I turned up was one mention of "Gatz"; that is in the roster of a team for a match.  I'll try a different search strategy.

Here's the other thread:  http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=10408.0

I wonder if Don Getz knew the man.  I also plan to talk to Greg Grimes at Trailcreek, he's as likely as anyone to have run across a Gatz rifle.

[C Wallingford]

The Gatz that I am referring to had a brother and I think his name was Tom. Not sure about that name. Both were shooters on the Kentucky team and competed against PA in the early years of the Interstate Flintlock matches.

[Ky-Flinter]

EK,

I searched the ALR Archive board for "Gatz" and turned up 1 post... looks like the one you reference, but alas, the picture links are dead, just those sad red X's.

-Ron

[AeroE]

I'll post an update when I get more information.