• In The Press

Nathan L. Heineke was born and raised in rural north-eastern Wyoming, and took his undergraduate degree in Visual Arts at the University of Wyoming. He has been an avid hunter and outdoorsman his entire life. The design of his work reflects both his practical wilderness experience and his admiration for the elegant and capable British style in gunmaking.

I founded N.L. Heineke, Inc. to create custom sporting firearms built to embody a demanding series of design standards. Even among custom firearms, the rifle in whose design all functions are identified, taken into consideration, and integrated into a balanced design is surprisingly rare. That rifle is what I set out to build with each project.

What are the most important characteristics of the rifles I build? They are: repeatable accuracy, excellence and ease of function, safety, shootability, handling quality, longevity, reliability, repairability, beauty, historical points of reference to great firearms of the past, and, above all, balance in every sense of the word. N.L. Heineke, Inc. produces custom firearms with the understanding that each of these considerations is important, and that the whole of the design should be greater than the sum of its parts.

It is my personal hope that commissioning, owning, and using such a rifle will be a deeply rewarding experience for each of my clients, going far beyond the simple pride of ownership associated with having a custom rifle. The possession and use of such a firearm is a direct, tangible and very personal tie to the great firearms designers, craftsmen, gunsmiths, explorers, scouts, hunters and marksmen of the past. It is a link to one’s heirs and the future as well, since we expect our rifles, properly maintained, to shoot as well in a hundred years as they do today.

My designs do not look like the standard factory rifle of the present day. Instead, my guns are informed by my great respect for some of the best designs of the past, a time before shooters’ eyes became accustomed to rifles designed for ease of mass manufacturing, not ease of individual use. James Howe (a founder of Griffin & Howe) and Colonel Townsend Whelen each emphasized the need to make every sporting firearm a free-standing functional design, capable of standing on its own and functioning in the field, often under adverse conditions, without exterior supports such as shooting aids and additional optics. I believe in this principle of self sufficiency through excellence in design and craftsmanship. Sporting rifles so designed have a simple interface and allow optimum shooter input. They incorporate redundant systems for reliability. They are absolutely functional; they are user-friendly; and they are often very beautiful.

Looking through this website you will see a common theme in many of the entries and short essays. That theme is the central importance of balance to a successful rifle. Balance is not simply a reference to proper weight distribution, although it surely includes that. Neither is it simply a statement that all design involves compromise. Balance is instead a goal in and of itself. To me, balance resides in a thoughtful series of considerations establishing the relationships between various parts and design functions of a rifle. These relationships are subtle, they are intentional, and together they make up the details that define a great custom firearm.

This website is designed to give you an initial walk through my take on some of the design considerations that go into building an N.L.Heineke custom rifle. The American Custom Gunmaker’s Guild publishes a fine small guide through the process of commissioning a custom rifle, called “Realizing Your Dream – A Client’s Guide to Building a Custom Gun”, available through the Guild at their website at www.acgg.org., which I recommend that you read.

So where do we fit into this picture? N.L.Heineke, Inc. caters to shooting and hunting enthusiasts who prefer rifles made to proven design standards and refined through actual field and target use. Here you will find walnut stocks, chrome-moly barrels, moderate scopes and classic cartridges. You will find tasteful engraving, lightly applied, and fine English blacking. While these technologies may seem outdated, they are chosen for specific reasons and earn their way into an N.L.Heineke, Inc. rifle by fulfilling a function of firearms design better than any other. As this website will explain, these are not throw-back, nostalgic rifles. Rather, they are proven, tested, established designs, refined through actual field use and ready for a century or more of fine shooting.

While my specialty is designing and building custom sporting rifles, I do also build target rifles and regularly incorporate benchrest rifle construction techniques into my sporting rifles. This is, above all, a custom shop and the work will be tailored to the customer provided the request meets a standard of safety, good design and function. Please enquire with any ideas and I will be delighted to advise you accordingly. I will give you an answer and a reason, or point you in the right direction.