Fred Zeglin Biography

In 1981 Fred started gunsmithing classes at Lassen College in Susanville, CA. Bob Dunlap was the lead instructor, Fred lucky to have started his career learning from Bob. Bob’s teaching method is centered on the design systems of firearms; if you understand the systems you can apply them to any gun that comes your way. This makes gunsmithing much easier as new guns come on the market or a rare gun crosses the bench.

Over the years Fred began to specialize in wildcat cartridges, mostly for rifles. He started making his own reamers and reloading dies, so that he could form new wildcats and test ideas without spending a fortune on equipment. Soon Fred was asked to teach about wildcatting for the NRA Short Term Gunsmithing program in Oklahoma and then in Colorado. This led to his first book on Wildcat Cartridges published in 2005.

During those same years Fred was working with a line of cartridges that we marketed through Z-Hat Custom Inc. (www.z-hat.com). Untold hours were spent testing and developing the Hawk line of cartridges. Literally years of data collection and testing have now led to the Hawk Cartridges Manual.

Fred has several more books in the works. He lives with his wife Colleen in Kalispell, MT. They have two grown children and one grandson.