Well I’m back from my ~13 hours of driving. I left my house at 4:30AM, fought Texas/OU traffic down I-35 to Dallas from Oklahoma City for 4 hours and made it to Mehrdad Fanousi’s house in Southern Dallas to pick out my lumber.
Mehrdad was extremely nice and his wife greeted Bailey and I with Turkish coffee and sweets when we arrived. He had just gotten in a new shipment of blanks from Turkey and I practically got first pick on it all. All the wood is Turkish Walnut that he obtains by driving around Turkey and hand selecting old growth trees. He said that he then has it dry in his warehouse in Turkey for 2 years and then imports it to the U.S.
I ended up picking out 2 very nice blanks with Baileys help to ensure it was equally strong as beautiful. Mehrdad then let us select forend blanks from his ~100 different options that best match the buttstock free of charge, although Bailey said most of the time he can get a forend out of the same blank as the buttstock.
The one on the right will be for the 500NE and the one on the left for the 375 Flanged.
I then also purchased another very interesting blank for possible future rifle purchases while I was there. I got a good discount on it since it has a few defects but Bailey said it should be more than adequate for smaller caliber rifles or shotguns. Probably going to be turned into a few single shots.
After I purchase the blanks Mehrdad then offered to take Bailey and I to a steakhouse for lunch as a thank you for doing business with him. Meal was obviously great and the conversations even better. I would highly recommend Mehrdad if you are looking for high grade wood for a shotgun or rifle at a reasonable price! He has so much to choose from and ships nation wide.
I then went on to drive another 2.5 hours to Baileys shop for him to show me around and for us to go over some more details on my rifles. He showed me some of his prototype rifles, one is a twist action with a rotary magazine(I believe Ron spoomer reviewed it on his channel), the other is a lever action(think scaled up savage 99 but not exactly) that will handle up to 458 WM! It will be able to hold 6 rounds in the magazine I believe. Very cool! We went over some engraving options and just talked for another hour. Bailey and his wife are incredibly nice people and it truly was great to spend the afternoon with them! Then 5.5 hours home arriving around 10:30pm! Long day but a Great day! I’m very happy and thankful to be able to pick out the lumber and get a personalized experience.
Mehrdad was extremely nice and his wife greeted Bailey and I with Turkish coffee and sweets when we arrived. He had just gotten in a new shipment of blanks from Turkey and I practically got first pick on it all. All the wood is Turkish Walnut that he obtains by driving around Turkey and hand selecting old growth trees. He said that he then has it dry in his warehouse in Turkey for 2 years and then imports it to the U.S.
I ended up picking out 2 very nice blanks with Baileys help to ensure it was equally strong as beautiful. Mehrdad then let us select forend blanks from his ~100 different options that best match the buttstock free of charge, although Bailey said most of the time he can get a forend out of the same blank as the buttstock.
The one on the right will be for the 500NE and the one on the left for the 375 Flanged.
I then also purchased another very interesting blank for possible future rifle purchases while I was there. I got a good discount on it since it has a few defects but Bailey said it should be more than adequate for smaller caliber rifles or shotguns. Probably going to be turned into a few single shots.
After I purchase the blanks Mehrdad then offered to take Bailey and I to a steakhouse for lunch as a thank you for doing business with him. Meal was obviously great and the conversations even better. I would highly recommend Mehrdad if you are looking for high grade wood for a shotgun or rifle at a reasonable price! He has so much to choose from and ships nation wide.
I then went on to drive another 2.5 hours to Baileys shop for him to show me around and for us to go over some more details on my rifles. He showed me some of his prototype rifles, one is a twist action with a rotary magazine(I believe Ron spoomer reviewed it on his channel), the other is a lever action(think scaled up savage 99 but not exactly) that will handle up to 458 WM! It will be able to hold 6 rounds in the magazine I believe. Very cool! We went over some engraving options and just talked for another hour. Bailey and his wife are incredibly nice people and it truly was great to spend the afternoon with them! Then 5.5 hours home arriving around 10:30pm! Long day but a Great day! I’m very happy and thankful to be able to pick out the lumber and get a personalized experience.
