Issue link: https://let.epubxp.com/i/137309
FIREARMS What's in your backyard? Sometimes a standout firearm, accessory or service is just a road trip away By Dennis Haworth T imes are getting tough. Budgets are short, paychecks are smaller and law enforcement work loads are bigger. If you're like me, you invest your own money and time into your training and equipment. Most years I put myself through at least one school on my own dime. If my agency does not have the money to issue me what I feel I need in order to do my job or do it better, I buy it myself. In these tough times it's getting harder and harder to afford these things or to travel for the training I need. This past summer I needed a barrel made for one of my rifles. I could have bought it from one of several reputable manufacturers, but I was on a tighter budget than usual. I contacted Mike Badella, who is an owner of B&M; Gunworks out of Madera, Calif. I asked Mike if he could make the barrel I needed. At the time I didn't know it, but B&M; Gunworks already had been making AR-15/M4 barrels for several large companies, and has been doing custom and mass production barrels for several years. Mike said they could make me just about anything I wanted, chrome lined or Melonite finished. The shop has come a long way from when he first started to do work for me more than 10 years ago. The best part is that B&M; could build a custom barrel to my specifications at a lower price than ordering a comparable product off the shelf. That first conversation with Mike sparked an idea: What else is in my backyard? I started by contacting some guys in the business and asked them who else is in our area. The list began to grow and was diverse in both products and services. I ended up having to limit it to only companies in Madera County. If I expanded the list to include neighboring counties, the list would have become too big and the point of this article would have been lost. I stopped by B&M; Gunworks to work out the details of my barrel. While there, I was given a full tour of the shop. They had just finished applying a Cerakote camouflage finish on a customer's Barrett M99 and matching M98B long range rifles. Both guns looked beautiful with matching finishes. B&M; left areas of the controls for the A Barret M99 Cerakoted by B&M; Gunworks out of Madera, Calif. Photos courtesy of Eric Scott 8 Law Enforcement Technology June 2013 www.officer.com