My experience with Kenny Howell and R&D Gun Shop is a mixed bag of mostly unhappiness. I have his cartridge conversion cylinders on six black powder revolvers, two Pietta Remington New Model Army .44s, two Pietta Remington New Model Army Police .36s, and two Euroarms Rogers & Spencer .44s. They all had to be fitted either by R&D Gun Shop and/or by Taylor's & Company so they could be easily installed and turned. The fitting included modifications to the hands.
The one bright spot is the Pietta/Navy Arms Remington New Model Army .44 that Kenny permanently converted to .44 Colt for me. He turned it around relatively quickly, within a year, and I only had to return it to him once for a finish issue that he handled very quickly.
However, he's had two of my Colt Signature Series blackpowder revolvers in his shop for conversion work for seven (7) years. And, as many of you have experienced, I received no responses to E-mails and the phone was never answered.
I finally wrote a letter that got the attention of Kenny's new wife demanding the return of my 1860 Army and my 1851 Navy and my $1000.00 deposit. She called and said I could get everything back, but the guns would come back in pieces since work had been started on them. The 1860 Army was to be a Richards conversion to .44 Colt and the 1851 Navy was to be a Richards-Mason conversion to .38 Colt.
Mrs. Howell assured me that work would be completed at the prices that were in effect seven years ago when I sent in the guns. But it's been several months now since that phone conversation and I've heard nothing from her or Kenny.
Mrs. Howell told me that, as you know by now, his first wife passed away. She said Kenny also fired either his sons or daughters and their spouses that were involved in the business blaming them on running it down.
I haven't called lately. Their web site is down. I may have to travel to Wisconsin one of these days to see what's going on. I hope I don't have to sue him. I guess if you're not Tom Sellick, you can't get your work done quickly. It's too bad that he has allowed his reputation to be destroyed by failing to attend to his business. It's also too bad that more gunsmiths aren't involved in cartridge conversion work. Bob Millington is, as I understand it, booked for a very long time. There used to be a gunsmith in Georgia doing conversion work, Ray Hindle I think his name was, but there's no trace of him that I can find. And years ago a gentleman by the name of Dave Anderson in California was doing work and at one point had a company called American Frontier Firearms that I saw at a SHOT Show. But he appears to be inactive as well and American Frontier Firearms is very long gone.
There's nothing wrong with the Uberti-made conversions as far as I know. But it would be nice to have more American gunsmiths doing converson work and doing it well.
Boomer
SASS #16754