Hello from Southeast Arizona

[DoubleAdobe]

Greetings all,
Like quite a few here, I am a LEO, in my case also a saddle/holster maker. I have long been an admirer of engraved firearms and recently traded for a S & W Model 60 , engraved in the mid-80's by a guy in the St. Louis area named C. Hunt Turner. I acquired this from a guy that was an LEO in that area, and told me a little about Mr. Turner. Anyway, it sparked my interest in the engraving process, the acanthus patterns are identical to many of my really old leather patterns. So, I am here to learn what I can, I only wish something like this website and spirit of sharing knowledge would have been around when I was trying to learn how to tool leather and build saddles years ago. If anyone has any knowledge of C. Hunt Turner, I would appreciate anything you can tell me. All I know for sure is that he is gone now, and a retired Police Captain took over his shop.

[Roger Bleile]

You are fortunate to have a gun engraved by Hunt Turner. He was a fine fellow, skilled engraver and an early member of FEGA. It would be a service to the forum for you to post pictures of your engraved gun though I realize it is quite difficult to get good pictures of engraved revolvers beacuse of all the rounded surfaces and various depths of field.

You are right that lots of engravers are or were law enforcement officers. I don't know what the connection is but maybe we would like to have more to show for our lives than a stack of reports and a bunch of crooks in jail.

Engravers, Hugo Galante, Pete Geiger and I were all deputies on the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Dept. in California. There are many more from around the country.

Roger