Our History
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In 1952, shortly after Ken Eyster got out of the army, he received his first metallic cartridge reloader from his uncle, Paul “Kid” Leedy. While Ken was never an apprentice, he “learned by doing” and learned by reading everything he could get his hands on from gun magazines to gunsmithing books. He learned to work on his own guns, and by the mid 1950s, he opened up a gun shop in Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
By this time, rifle shooting after World War II was beginning to decline, and Ken was discovering that “controlling the performance of a shotgun was much more difficult and subtle than controlling the performance of a rifle.” He was also discovering that there were many more shotgun owners shooting as a regular hobby.
Wanting to expand his business and having the option of testing guns more easily, Ken and wife Dorothy purchased land outside of Centerburg, Ohio. In 1966, Heritage Gunsmiths, Inc. was established. Today, Heritage Gunsmiths, Inc. sits on a county road just outside of Centerburg, Ohio. Gunsmithing, stock work, and barrel work once done by Ken and Dorothy Eyster is now done by son Jim Eyster.