Your Full Service Gunsmith

Welcome to the Gunshop

Double H Gunsmithing is a family-owned and operated business serving the upper southeast with general and specialized gunsmithing services. Located on the family farm in rural Caswell County, Double H is a scenic drive from Virginia and North Carolina communities. Offering a wide range of services, the gun enthusiast community has a knowledgeable and friendly solution for their gunsmithing needs.

Starting with just a Clausing lathe, Bridgeport mill, and a set of bluing tanks in an old tobacco barn, the business has grown in equipment and square footage over the years. The first customers were friends and neighbors, but soon grew to be folks from Maryland to South Carolina. With hardly any advertising, the business has grown from a hobby to a reputable and professional business.

Lead Times

Whenever possible, work is completed on a first in, first out basis. Your gun’s position in our work queue is secured once we receive the gun and necessary parts in hand. While you are welcome to call ahead, your gun must be physically present at our shop in order to hold its place in line. We do not take schedule reservations without the firearm present.

As of September 1, 2025, we offer two tiers of expedited service: Priority and Lightning. Approximate lead times are as follows. Availability and queue length can change; please call or text for the current picture. For wood refinishing, a roughly three-week return requires Lightning service; Priority wood is a longer window than that.

Priority Service (faster)

Priority service means that your job will be placed near the front of the line and will be scheduled as soon as any overdue and in-progress jobs are completed. Assuming all the parts we need are on hand or available to order, you will typically receive your gun back in two weeks or less for general service, or two months or less for restoration work. Priority completion is generally fast enough for nearly all customers.

Lightning Service (fastest)

Our Lightning service is intended for customers for whom money is no object and who would like the work completed as fast as humanly possible. Any parts needed will be ordered using Next Day Air, and no effort will be made to reduce materials expense by grouping multiple jobs together. If we cannot get the part by ordering online, we will make it from scratch or drive somewhere that we can buy it. As a result, Lightning service may incur considerable expenses for parts, materials, incidentals, travel, and express shipping. We do not provide estimates for Lightning work, but we may ask for a reasonable deposit if the cost of the work is likely to exceed the market value of the firearm.

What To Bring

When bringing your firearm to our shop for service, please bring the full firearm in assembled condition when possible, fully unloaded (unload all magazines in addition to the gun), and with the sling removed. Please bring a few rounds of test fire ammo and at least one magazine if the gun is magazine-fed. Without the full gun, magazine, and ammo, we will likely be unable to verify the safety and function of the firearm after service, and we reserve the right to decline or abort jobs involving critical functions (for example, trigger jobs) if we do not have the means to test and verify the gun’s safety afterwards. In instances where we do accept the work, a “use at your own risk” disclaimer will be included on the invoice.

Test Fire Ammo

The best way for us to determine that your firearm is functional and safe for normal use is by shooting it. This places any safety risks on us instead of you, and helps ensure that you do not have to bring your gun back for follow-up service. While we try to keep a basic supply of ammo in stock for testing guns, it is not economically feasible for us to stock every caliber, brand, and variation.

To provide you with the best service possible, we request that you bring an ample supply of whichever brand and type of ammo you plan to shoot the most when you drop off. We will inventory the ammo on your work order and return anything we do not use for that particular job.

For most jobs, a few rounds of test fire ammo (typically 5 to 10 rounds) is enough. For troubleshooting issues, a minimum of two full boxes of ammo is recommended:

• Failure to feed
• Failure to fire
• Failure to extract
• Failure to eject

Loaded Guns

If your gun is loaded, or if you are not able to determine whether it is loaded, please do not enter the building with your firearm. First, come inside and inform shop staff that you have a loaded gun, then wait for our staff to give you further instructions. Because we take our safety and the safety of our other customers seriously, anyone who enters the shop with a loaded weapon will be asked to leave immediately, and the firearm will not be accepted for service. The only exception is loaded personal carry weapons, which must remain either holstered or concealed for the full duration of your visit. If you need service on your carry gun, unload it before you enter.

Models Not Serviced

We do not install or service binary triggers, Forced Reset Triggers (FRT), or any mechanisms intended to simulate fully automatic fire.

Please be advised that we do not offer service on the following makes and/or models:

• Stevens Model 70 (“Visible Loader”)
• Stevens Model 73Y
• RG / Rohm
• Bryco
• Jimenez
• Hi-Point
• Raven
• Lorcin
• Jennings

We do not offer repairs for failure to eject or failure to extract for any of the following firearm models:

• Savage/Stevens/Springfield Models 87, 87A, 51 (or any of the variants)
• Remington 740, 742, 7400, Model Four (semi-auto)
• J.C. Higgins Model 31 (.22 caliber)

Prices / Shop Rates

Effective January 2024, our standard shop rates are $60/hr for general troubleshooting and service and $80/hr for man and machine. Minimum shop charge is $60, and firearms transfers are $35.00 for the first firearm and $20.00 per additional firearm listed on the same transfer form (additional fees apply for multiple handgun transfers). In instances where it is not conducive to bill by the hour, we use the Brownell’s Shop Price Survey as a general guide.

To keep things moving along and ensure our prices remain affordable, we are not able to stop our workflow to provide detailed estimates prior to the completion of service. While price estimates are available upon request, we consider them to be broad (“ballpark”) and non-binding. In exchange for your trust, we promise to be as fair and reasonable as possible in billing.

Please bear in mind that all prices listed on our website and in correspondence assume payment by cash or check to reflect our four percent cash discount. As a repair shop, we are required to collect sales tax on all sales, including sales of service (please figure on 6.75% sales tax at the register or when mailing work from in state). Because our out-of-state sales are not generally high enough to establish a Wayfair-decision nexus, sales tax is generally not collected if you mail us work from outside North Carolina.

Ken Barfield: Gunsmith

Ken Barfield is a full-time, professionally trained gunsmith, custom rifle builder, and firearms instructor from Yanceyville, NC. A lifelong gun enthusiast, Ken’s interest in precision rifle shooting was piqued while attending the US Army sniper school in the early 1990s. Since graduating from the Piedmont Community College School of Gunsmithing in 2003, Ken has gone on to repair, service, or build over 12,000 unique firearms, some of which have been used to win several state championships and even set a national record in 2015. When Ken is not rebarreling a rifle or sending lead downrange, he enjoys rabbit hunting, fishing on Lake Hyco, fixing up his ’86 Ranger, and tending to the family farm.