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Lee Hadaway was
born and raised in Georgia in a definite pro gun family. He attended Georgia Southwestern College for a while with his sights
set on a Business degree. In the Winter of 1988, Lee came to his senses (realized he couldn't wear a tie the rest of his life)
and enrolled in the Gunsmithing Program at Trinidad State Junior College, Trinidad, Colorado. He graduated in the Spring of
1990 with a A.A.S. - Gunsmithing and a Advanced Firearms Repair Certificate.
Lee's first job out of school took him
to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There he worked for a shop that performed warranty repair work for most of the Wal-Marts in the country.
He performed warranty repairs for Smith & Wesson, Remington, Winchester, Browning, Savage, Colt, and Mossberg. Emphasis was
placed on quick diagnosis, repair and return of the firearm. During his 7 months on the job, Lee repaired over 2000 firearms.
He then moved to Columbia, South Carolina, but after four months he decided to move to Geneva, Alabama. He bought
into an existing business, The Ammo Shop, Inc. When his partner retired, Lee took over the complete operation which included
retail sales, gunsmithing, pawn business, commercial ammo manufacturing, and running the indoor range. Lee was asked by the
Geneva County Sheriff to be the Sheriff's Department Firearms Instructor and for 7 years, Lee qualified all the Law Enforcement
in Geneva County, Alabama.
NAFTA, drought, and the local economy forced Lee to give up The Ammo Shop, and this time
he lit in Nashville, Tennessee working for Scattergun Technologies. He was put in charge of the Rebuild Program and performed
the service of rebuilding ragged out Law Enforcement 870s and 1100s. After 9 months, Lee was promoted to Head Gunsmith and
took over the supervision of the whole shop. For the last year Scattergun was in Nashville, Lee built every shotgun that was
produced by that company. He performed work for over 200 Law Enforcement Departments or Agencies, including FBI, DEA, INS,
HUD, US Postal Inspectors, Federal Reserve and US Marshals.
In his spare time, Lee provided gunsmithing services to
Game Fair Limited, a very high end gun shop. This gave Lee the opportunity to work on Purdy, Holland & Holland, Westley Richards,
Parker, and LC Smith side by sides.
Scattergun was sold to Wilson Combat, and Lee had the chance to move to Arkansas,
but instead he chose to move back to Trinidad, Colorado and teach for his old alma mater, Trinidad State Junior College. For
3 years, Lee has taught the Third Year Advanced Firearms Repair Program. He has also regularly taught Blueing, Winchester
High Wall I & II, and Shotgunsmithing.
Lee has also taught in the NRA Summer Program at Trinidad State. His summer
classes are Takedown Lever Actions, Tactical Shotguns, Handgun Repair, Long Gun Repair, and Blueing & Metal Finishing.
He has been happily married to Angela since 1990 and they have three kids, Rachel, Sarah and David.
Lee's specialties
seem to be Tactical Shotguns, Takedown Lever Actions and Gun Kote Metal Finishing. Lately he has developed an interest in
AR-15s, both for tactical use and varmint hunting. He is willing to take on most challenges and loves to hear someone ask
" I wonder if you could .....".
Lee is always looking for ways to improve existing firearms. His joining the Target
Masters Team has led to the design of the Glock Standoff and the AR-15 Left Side Operating Handle. Who knows what will be
next?
Items of interest over the past year -
- Rebuilt 11 Sniper Rifles for Denver SWAT Team
- Left Side Bolt
Handle was approved for duty use by Denver Police Department.
- Built 2 Sawed Off Shotguns for "The Missing",
a movie directed by Ron Howard and starring Tommy Lee Jones.
- An article about me and my products was published in "Special
Weapons For Law Enforcement - 2003 Buyers Guide"
- Attended The Practical Shooting Academy's LE/Military Advanced Handgun
Skills Inst Course taught by Ron Avery. What a great course!!!
- Attended the NRA's Law Enforcement Handgun/Shotgun Instructor
Course
- Picked up as a moderator on AR15.com's Shotgun forum.
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