About
A new shop.
Old standards.
GunTex is new. There’s no wall of photographs yet and no long list of customers to quote, and we’re not going to invent either. What we can show you is how the work is done.
The shop.
GunTex is a custom gunsmithing and repair shop in Boerne, Texas. It is Philip Hughes’s shop, and the work on your rifle is his.
The whole idea of the place is in the one line Philip wrote to describe it:
“no gate keeping. I just want to help people.”
That means a few practical things. You’ll be told what’s wrong in words you can follow. If the fix is something you can do yourself, you’ll be shown how. If the right answer is to leave it alone, you’ll hear that too, before any work is charged for.
A new shop has one advantage. Every job matters to it, because every job is most of what it has to show.
The shop buys, sells and trades firearms as well, in person and never online. Send a request and say what you have in mind.
How we work.
The same five steps for a loose scope base or a full restoration.
Send a request.
You tell us what you have and what it’s doing. Philip reads every request himself.
A consultation.
If it’s work he can do well, he books a time to talk it through, in the shop or by phone.
The order.
If you both agree, he accepts the job and emails an invoice. Nothing is paid on the website.
On the bench.
One job at a time, each taken as far as it should go before the next comes up.
Proved and handed back.
Test fired where the job calls for it, then handed back with what was done, what was found, and how to look after it.
The prices are published, job by job, so you know before you write.
The full price listWhy the shop is small.
There is one bench, and one pair of hands at it. That sets a limit on how much work can be done well, and the shop keeps inside it.
GunTex is family-first, and it is small on purpose. Philip takes on only the work he can do well, one job at a time. Evenings stay evenings. A gunsmith who is rested and unhurried does better work than one who isn’t, and you are paying for the better work.
So when Philip says a job will take a while, or that it isn’t one he can take on, that isn’t a problem the shop is working on. It is how the shop is meant to run.
Texas, and why it matters here
A town named for a man who never saw it.
In 1849 a group of German colonists camped on the north side of Cibolo Creek, about a mile west of where Boerne stands. The Handbook of Texas says they called the place Tusculum, after Cicero’s home; the City of Boerne calls that name a local tradition. In 1852 Gustav Theissen and John James laid out a townsite and named it for Ludwig Börne, a German author who had died in 1837 and never set foot in America. A shooting club, the Boerne Schuetzen Verein, was formed here in 1864. Philip can tell you a good deal more than that. The habit behind it is the one the bench asks for: get the particulars right, and say so when you don’t know.
Source: Handbook of Texas, “Boerne, TX”; City of Boerne, “Boerne History.”
More in the Journal- 1: Boerne
- 2: Cibolo Creek
- 3: Sisterdale area
Sketch map, not to scale.
What you won’t find here.
- A rush lane.Nobody’s rifle gets set down half done so another can jump ahead.
- Gatekeeping.Ask how it’s done and you’ll be told.
- A hard sell.If it doesn’t need doing, we’ll say so.
- Guesswork.If we don’t know, we’ll say that too, and then find out.
- A promise we can’t keep.No dates we don’t believe, and no group sizes guaranteed on a website.
Write to the shop.
Email is the best way. [email protected]. Replies within 3 business days.
Businesses and collaborators: @GunTex26 (opens in a new tab) on Instagram.