Farmer-Turned-Gunsmith Enjoys National Acclaim

COULEE CITY, Grant County - In his bib overalls and blue work shirt, Maurice Ottmar easily could pass for one of the many farmers here whose livelihood is wheat.

But the patch on his overalls proclaims "gunsmith," a trade that has brought Ottmar a good living, the respect of his peers and a measure of fame.

"There's no question about it, he's become one of the foremost stock makers in the country," said Coulee City farmer and insurance agent Larry Tanneberg, who owns a lever-action .22-caliber rifle made by Ottmar.

"He's made a lot of gun stocks, for everyone from rock stars to farmers."

Ottmar's ability to craft a hunk of wood into a work of art earned him the right last year to help produce a rifle for the American Custom Gunmakers Guild.

He and two other gunmakers made a .22-caliber rim fire rifle for the guild's raffle at its convention in Reno two months ago.

Ottmar, who turns 56 this month, modestly said he was chosen because he's getting older.

"They want to get the guys before they kick off, I guess," he said.

But guild members sold more than 1,600 tickets for the rifle - a record number - at $20 each. After the guild took its 20 percent cut, that left more than $26,000 for the three gunmakers to split.

Such success wasn't certain when Ottmar became a gunsmith in the early 1970s. He had lived on a farm in Coulee City since he was 4 years old, "but I really didn't like farming at all."

He left to enroll in the gunsmithing program at Trinidad State Junior College in Colorado. The next year, the price of wheat shot up to $7 a bushel.

"At the time, it looked like it might have been a bad decision" to leave farming, Ottmar said, chuckling. "But I've never regretted it."

After working for a big gun-making company in Oklahoma for a few years, Ottmar returned to Coulee City and set up his own shop. The building reflects his easygoing style.

There's a stool made from an old tractor seat welded to a metal milk can. There's a vise partly made from an old bowling ball. Against the east wall, he has modified a window so he can load a bird feeder from inside. The feeder is partly enclosed, protecting birds from the winds that gust through Coulee City. A steady stream of songbirds keeps him company during the day.

Ottmar works 40 hours a week. It takes about 200 hours to complete a custom rifle, including metalwork, engraving and the stock. A gun made from the ground up sells for $8,000. He's already got enough orders to keep him busy through 1993.

Each year he also makes himself a new gun. There's a .22-caliber rifle made simply because he had an old gunsight he wanted to use, and there's a hunting rifle with a stock made from a piece of pecan wood sent to him by an old customer.

He has a locker full of rifles and shotguns.

"I'm supposed to try to sell them after I make them, but I don't try very hard," Ottmar said.

Most of his customers are from outside north-central Washington. Some are collectors. Others hunt with them as well.

"I have one customer in Connecticut," Ottmar said. "They have a very liberal deer season back there. He has six of my rifles, and I'm making two more for him . . . he uses a different one every day."