Pioneer For Precision: We Sit Down with George Gardner [ZEROED IN] 

George Gardner, owner and founder of G.A. Precision, is considered one of the world’s premier gun manufacturers. In addition to his talent for building barrels — his attention to the minutest detail, which has set him and G.A. Precision far apart from other manufacturers — Gardner is an accomplished competitive shooter, having notched a few national titles in F-Class Open and won numerous matches from 2005-2014 in Precision Rifle Matches and PRS Series Matches.

A passion for shooting, which started at the age of 10 when his grandfather took him rabbit and dove hunting, evolved into a career in the military as an MP investigator followed by 12 years in stateside law enforcement, including time as North Kansas City’s department armorer, SRT unit sniper, then spending the last seven years as a narcotics K9 handler.

What started as a passion, then a side job, and then an actual business in 1999, Gardner’s G.A. Precision now customizes and builds from scratch 1,700 to 2,100 rifles for top competitive shooters annually, along with elite military operators and law enforcement worldwide.

He and his team recently helped introduce a folding-stock model alongside Manners Composite Stocks and are expanding into the night-vision and thermal hunting categories with specifically mounted rails to accommodate clip-on optics.

We sat down with Gardner at his range southeast of Kansas City, where he hosts an annual 2-day PRS match — this year the Manners Mayhem — to discuss how it all got started, and how’s it going.

RECOIL: Why did you join the military right out of high school?

George Gardner: I learned early on I wanted to be a police officer, and I really didn’t want to wait. It was either go to college and wait till you’re 21 — because you have to be 21 in the United States to carry a pistol. 

A lot of guys go to college, but unless you want to be a captain or brass, college doesn’t really get you anywhere in law enforcement. So, I decided to join the military because you can be a cop right out of the gate. I joined as a military policeman. Did the whole Europe package where you go directly to Europe after basic.

I got stationed with the 501st MP company, which is First Armored Division. It was a division MP, which is two-fold. You do a little battle MP stuff, and then half the time you’re driving around in police cars and doing police work. I also did a stint as an armorer.

RECOIL: Is that when you got the bug?

GG: It wasn’t really because I was just working with changing parts M16s and stuff. But it is technically the first gunsmithing job I had. I got picked up because I was super into the sports competition there that they did with the German Army. I got really, really good at it — and that was shooting, swimming, ruck marching. I ended up winning the gold badge. I was the only soldier to do it in Europe that year. So when that happened, I got picked up for PSD work and started getting really good jobs.

I became an investigator. That was what I really wanted to do. And then when I came back stateside, I worked as an investigator in the prison at Fort Leavenworth, which isn’t kind of where I would have wanted to go, but I’d gotten married. My wife and I were both in the military, and the joint domicile thing is she got orders first and I followed her.

She got orders to become essentially the warden’s secretary. They call it the commandant, so she was the secretary to the commandant of the U.S. DB. I ended up getting assigned there. Fun job. I was basically working undercover inside of a prison — not as an inmate but like as a kind of just behind the scenes, spying on the whole operation. It was interesting. 

RECOIL: Were you still able to shoot competitively then?

GG: I was there for 2 to 2 1/2 years, maybe almost 3. Yeah, that’s when I really got into shooting — shooting High Power in Kansas, shooting High Power in Missouri, shooting, some pistol league stuff, was actually on the CZ shooting team at one time.

Fast-forward a little bit: I get out of the military, get hired on my first police job at Platte County. I was still doing a lot of shooting. Platte County didn’t pay very well so I was constantly looking for a better position somewhere else. I applied to the Missouri Highway Patrol, then Kansas City and North Kansas City, ended up getting hired by all three, but North Kansas City had the best package for paying benefits. That’s where I ended up going.

When I got to North Kansas City, there was a little gun shop there called Denny’s Guns. They had a big gunsmith shop in the basement. When I say “big,” it’s a big one, pretty much the only place in Kansas City where you can really get guns worked on like detail work. So, I’m a cop and I’m bored sometimes, and when there was nothing going on I would go hang out with this guy Fred Lipowicz there and watched him do stuff.

RECOIL: What year was that? You started G.A. Precision in 1999. 

GG: That would have been ’94, ’95 when I got to North Kansas City. Fred didn’t necessarily take me under his wing, but he’d let me hang out. Then, they moved their shop to a new building and set up a big gunsmithing area in the back. When I got there and they moved all the work over there, I could really see how much work Fred had that was getting behind — walls of stuff.

Fred wanted the stuff that paid the bills fast, so the stuff that was more tedious to do or took more time or was more labor-intensive or just pain in the ass and didn’t pay as much — that work sat there. I talked to him about it and said, “Hey, I’d like to maybe come in here and help you with some of this backlog of work.” He grumbled a bit but eventually agreed to it. 

I started like working on all those guns that were sitting there forever, Fred helping me along the way. A lot of the work was making parts that didn’t exist anymore. I’d look at diagrams and get on a mill and make a little part or find something. I call it “creative gunsmithing.” Essentially, you’re fixing something that doesn’t have a fix for it, being obsolete. 

RECOIL: When you’re shooting competitively and you’re gunsmithing, is there a point where gunsmithing improves your competitive shooting because of what you can do with your own gear? 

GG: Sort of, but when you start getting into the competitive gunsmithing — super accurate stuff — there’s a lot more knowledge base in that, so we’re not quite to that part of the story, because that’s not Fred. Fred knows how to put on a barrel, but in a very different way than a Benchrest or LR rifle would be done. All the normal gunsmithing stuff, he was a wizard at it, but precision gunsmithing just wasn’t his daily bread.

But one day, Marty Bordson, owner of Badger Ordnance, moves to town, and he just shows up in the shop. I knew who Marty was because I’d use some of his rings and bases on guns. When he came in — it was kind of cool — I said, “Man, you’re Badger Ordnance. Where’s your manufacturing facility?”

Well, a lot of the gun industry isn’t what you actually think it is. Marty designs stuff mainly, and then has his stuff made at a precision machine shop in Sturgis, South Dakota, that is purpose-built for making parts, But I got to be friends with Marty. We would have what we called “ring parties.” I’d go to his house and help him put together rings, because when they come back from this machine shop, he sends them off to finishing, then they come back in pieces and we’re putting together the rings, bases, and so on.

RECOIL: How did you start G.A. Precision?

GG: I got to know Marty pretty well and came to find out Marty was the head engineer/gunsmith at Dakota Arms — Dakota Arms being one of the big, fancy gun shops in the United States, really well-known for $20,000 to $30,000 rifles. A lot of their woodworking and stuff is what they were known for, but big name in the industry.

So I kind of clamped on to Marty and said, “Hey, you have to teach me to barrel a gun, and teach me to do this. You have to teach me to do that.” We would sit around in Fred’s shop on Fred’s machinery and build guns after hours.

My wife wanted to go back to school and become a nurse. So she goes to school, and we’re trying to pay the bills. I knew I had to get another job. Initially, it was mowing grass and doing landscaping. That’s hard work. I’d get off from that and go to become a cop, and literally a couple of times I’d fall asleep, and the police car ends up in the ditch. So I was said to myself, “This ain’t working.”

I talked to Fred and said, “Can I come work for you five, six hours a day and maybe build some guns on the side? I’m into High Power. I know enough now from Marty to probably build a few high power guns and make some money on the side doing that, and he agreed to it. 

That was the first step into building guns. The first 10 were through the gun license belonging to Denny’s Guns. Then, I started getting known locally in the area for re-barreling sniper-type rifles. Some of the guns I was shooting in High Power were winning and I was re-barreling guns for guys in High Power matches and they were winning. 

RECOIL: Word was starting to get out.

GG: Yeah, there wasn’t even internet back then — it was the earliest part of internet, what you would call a forum back then, just these email chat groups. There was like 500 emails, and you sent an email and 500 people got it, and then when you answered it, 500 people got it.

There were a couple of these groups, most of them were police snipers across the country, and I would get in there and say, “Hey, competition shooter on the High Power side, police officer, I’m on the TAC team, I’m building these guns, they’re shooting really good. I’d like to offer services for police departments, re-barreling guns, accurizing your guns, adding extended bolt knobs, which is something we started doing as well with Badger.

Just super-upgrading police rifles was the original deal. I was getting a lot of business, mainly from that chat group. It was crazy how much of it I was getting, to the point where even Fred was like, “Holy sh*t. How are you getting all this business?” I told him I was on my computer typing emails.

RECOIL: What arrangement did you have with Fred while you were working out of his shop?

GG: I helped him a lot do his stuff, then we started making and installing custom bolt knobs. Fred’s brother was at a little machine shop, and I think he made a couple hundred of them at four bucks a piece or something. We started putting those on police guns and Badger Ordnance asked, “Can I sell that in my catalog?” He put it in there. There was a page in there for installation: “Call G.A. Precision in North King City.”

So, there’s lots of those that started coming in, and Fred started doing them and was making money because we would split all that work initially, at least the stuff Fred didn’t mind doing. I also paid Fred rent but don’t remember what it was. We all got along well and still do to this day.

RECOIL: So this was the start of G.A. Precision?

GG: A guy I cut grass with told me his cousin or nephew was in the Marine Corps and built sniper rifles. I said, “Yeah, whatever.” He said, “No, I’m serious. He’s in Quantico.”

His relative got out of the Marine Corps, and he introduced me to him and sure enough this dude built sniper rifles for the Marine Corps in Quantico and knew a lot about building precision guns. I hired him pretty much that day, and he was my first employee, Eric Reid.

I think it was up to three employees in the back of that gun shop. That’s when I knew I’d need to get my own space and FFL. I moved to my own building, hired another employee so I was up to four. I finally needed to hire someone to help me answer the phones and do sales and bookkeeping, and then I had to hire someone to do more about bookkeeping and paying taxes than I did, so I got my first office manager as we got to the height of things. We’re now right around 20 or 22 employees. 

RECOIL: What does G.A. stand for?

GG: Gnat’s ass.

I never really thought that was gonna be anything. I thought it was just gonna amount to making a little extra money until my wife got out of school.

When they asked me to name the company while working at Fred’s shop — well, he’s an old-school machinist. Everything was in machinist terms. And when you cut a piece of metal to a really tight tolerance, you might say you cut it to the “gnat’s ass.”

So, when we were deciding, I’m like, “I don’t know. Gardner Arms,” which also sounds like G.A. I actually called out gnat’s ass, and we all started laughing. I’m like, “Let’s just call it G.A. Precision.” And that’s how I got the name.

RECOIL: Very similar terms in precision shooting, like “bug hole.” 

GG: Yeah, you also use it in shooting terms. Like Vapor Trail Bullets literally says, “These bullets are so accurate, you can shoot the dingleberry off a gnat’s ass.”

It’s been used in the shooter’s world so it kind of made sense anyway. At the end of the day when you’re a bigger company, people say, “That’s kind of hokey.” Well, it wasn’t when we started. We do toy with it like the back of this [hat] has a gnat shooting a rifle. We’ve made shirts that kind of sort of tell the story.

RECOIL: Let’s talk PRS. What was it like in the early days?

GG: There were a few guys that probably were in it a little bit sooner than me. PRS formed by some guys on Sniper Hide. They were talking in a forum about keeping track of all the matches during year. At that time, there was only like three or four, maybe five matches [nationwide].

But the idea was — to be honest — it was more of a war between Oklahoma and Texas, between those shooters that were wanting to keep track of who was scoring better over a year than anything.

That was right out of the gate, 2011. Though the series officially started in ’12, the first year was really ’11, and then ’12 is the year that it really took off because they put together a schedule and started selling PRS memberships.

There are other guys that are still in the sport, but the board now is made up of just match directors. If you’re a match director in the series, you’re on the board. So, there’s like 40 people on the board now.

There’s a new guy heading it up now, Ken Wheeler, and I think he’s going to do a great job. I’ve told him a lot, like, “Don’t change things that don’t need to be changed. That’s where you’re going to run into the biggest amounts of problems.”

RECOIL: Sounds like a lot of work and potentially a lot of pressure.

GG: He hired a media guy. I think you always have to have at least three or four people, full-time, somewhat employed to make that thing run. And it’s a beast, and it’s getting bigger and bigger.

RECOIL: When did you yourself start the GAP Grind?

GG: The Grind started about the same year as the PRS, believe it or not, but it didn’t start out as what it is now. It started out as, the PRS started focusing more on kind of what you see it now. Like there wasn’t as much prone, and there was less movement. When I say less movement, I mean, there was a lot of movement.

We wanted to make it a grinder and that’s where the Grind came from. There were half-mile runs with pistol in between. Like it was a grind. You would start from a position, shoot off the top, swing your rifle, run down the stairs, into the woods, pull your pistol and shoot five pepper poppers and holster, run through the woods, shoot off of another barricade out to a thousand yards, come off of that, run down, shoot pistol again, run to the end — I mean it was crazy what we had the first couple of years.

And it was fun, but it was very hard when running a match to have an event or two like that. It wasn’t all like that, but there was at least one stage. Look up “2012 GAP Grind” and look at the stage called “Grinding It Out” and watch that reel. It’s all over YouTube. And you’ll be like, “Holy sh*t.” 

The next year we did the same thing. We found an aerobic yoga instructor that was a shooter that basically ran the course of fire with every shooter, because you couldn’t RO it without having someone right with them. You needed someone who was available to run pretty much a marathon all day long with the shooter.

The first year we had like five ROs. They’d have to walk back, and they’d run and you only had like maybe a 5-minute break before you ran the next shooter. And if the shooter behind you caught you, then you got a zero for the stage. So, at any rate, that’s where the Grind came from.

You had to be in decent shape to shoot that match. And if you weren’t, you got your ass kicked. And then the guys that got their ass kicked didn’t come back to the match. Cause they’re like, that’s just stupid. Well, a lot of guys loved it. The first few matches were in Florida, right next to Pensacola, a lot of the SF guys came. In fact, Brian Sikes and I met because of that stage. Like I needed someone who was in really good shape to run it.

RECOIL: What brought about the changes we see now?

GG: Well, Scott Parks [of Vortex Optics], back in the day, he said, “This match is kind of cool, but long-term, what sponsors really want is people, for the sport to grow through new shooters.”

I asked him, “What do you think? What do you mean by that?”

He said, “Something like a pro-am, or even have a pro shooter and they bring in a new shooter.”

It stuck in my head. I’m like, “Yeah, that’s a damn good idea.”

RECOIL: So that remains the current setup for the GAP Grind?

GG: Yes, the biggest match we’ve done is 460, and it’s kind of the max of being able to get completed on time. The pros shoot first, then the amateurs and the targets are a lot bigger or their movement is less. So maybe the pros have to shoot five rocks, five targets and the targets are small.

RECOIL: How many amateurs graduate to pro status? 

GG: It’s getting to be a little bit less but depends on score. If they make the 60th percentile, they’re a pro the following year for the Grind match.

RECOIL: For any shooter who feels he or she is starting to plateau, what advice you would give? 

GG: Depends on why they’re plateauing, like some people plateau for medical or physical reasons. I’m not as competitive as I used to be because my eyes are terrible.

But then, like anything, there’s practice. The year that I was the top shooter going into the final, in ’14, I shot like 20,000 rounds that year. For the average guy, it’s two bucks a round probably to load any of this stuff. Plus, all the equipment and travel — you can’t shoot any two-day match anymore even if it’s fairly local for under a grand. So, it’s an expensive sport. And that’s limiting. The top guys are making a huge commitment.

RECOIL: So, does the average shooter get in practice both in a range and match setting?

GG: I think the growth of the sport lies with the one-day matches, because you can still shoot a one-day match with a hundred rounds. They’re all fairly local, and there’s a ton of them spread out. For those matches, you can still shoot one for 250 bucks probably. And they all have trophies and lunches. They probably don’t have prize tables. 

RECOIL: So obviously the PRS skillset translates to hunting, and you’re a big big-game hunter. What is the farthest shot you’ve taken?

GG: My farthest ever on a real game animal, like something I would consider a trophy game animal, is 823 yards on a Dall sheep in Alaska. I had a lot of time to set up for it and think about it. Sikes was there and helped calm my nerves. It wouldn’t have been one of them snapshot things I would have done, but I have shot antelope at 1,400-plus, 1,423 my longest in Wyoming.