Vern Juenke of Verdi, NV ?

[RCE1]

Anybody have any of the Contenders worked over by Vern? I have a couple, one a .22lr he did his full package on and one he worked on the action, basically while I waited. He was a fascinating guy and good friends with my father in law.

[BobT]

I don't have any but would love to, one of Vern's frames is on my short list along with one of Lee Jurras' Howdah pistols.

[sunnysmarine]

How does one get a hold of Vern

Thanks
Sunny

[RCE1]

Unfortunately, Vern passed away in 2018, I believe. He was really an interesting guy. One of the things he did was working in the gambling industry. He had a few developments in the design of slot machines that were pretty useful. He also designed machines that measure the quality of benchrest bullets and also a machine that could measure the consistency of twist in rifle barrels. Before the more widespread acceptance of .17cal for TCs, Vern would take Sako .17cal barrels, cut them to length and turn down the breech end to fixture them in Contender barrels cut and bored out to accept them. He did beautiful work on TCs and specialized in custom work that resulted in essentially modifying frames so the barrels were no longer interchangeable, but the tighter fit improved accuracy. I met him on the way to hunt ground squirrels with a new TC that was very balky in opening, which he was kind enough to fix for me.

He was friends with my late father in law, who was kind enough to introduce me to the finer things in life.