[CrisisBill]

Does anyone here have or seen a gun made or worked on by Andy Cannon?

I had a S&W 25-2 in 45 ACP fall into my lap that Andy Cannon built and this thing is "Tricked Out" he installed a bull barrel with a comp and a Bo-Mar rail sight system and the action is outstanding.
It is a great PPC gun, I will post some photos when I get some more time.

I bought the gun from a family trying to rid the household of all guns once the shooter passed away, last week at a gunshow a customer saw the gun in my glass case and proceeded to tell me about the gun.
It seems this customer belonged to the same gun club as the owner of the gun and got to shoot it a few times, he told me the gun cost 1800.00 to build not counting the cost of the gun, I picked up the gun for 300.00.

Any info on Andy Cannon would be helpful.

Thank's
Bill

 

[Reg]

Cannon

Last I knew Andy Cannon was up in Polson, MT on Flathead Lake. I think he was a game warden that got into action tuning and such back in the New England area and relocated sometime later. Massad Ayoob has some guns tuned by him and had some info some years back on him in one of the gun mags.

Some years back he tuned a Redhawk for me that was quite nice. Over the years he has had his ups and downs. At one time he expanded his shop and added additional gunsmiths but I guess this didn't work out.

Perhaps someone else can add some more info. I know Ayoob is quite fond of his 66 tuned by Cannon.

Reg

 

[Anthony Lombardo]

I have handled several Cannon-tuned revolvers and they are sweet!I fired a 586 that he had worked over that was like butter, 7 lbs DA and fired every magnum primer under the sun.

Andy had a big shop that did everything from .45's to rifles, but revolvers were always the meal ticket I gathered. His action jobs were not cheap- $125-$350 depending on the level of precision. Massad Ayoob proclaimed his revolver actions to be the finest in the world several times in print. Several guns that you may remember from the magazines were the "Street L", .454 Super Redhawk(years before Ruger), and comped 25-2 that was his signature gun.

One of Cannon's famous conversions was a hunting version of a Smith .44 mag with integral comp barrel. They used Apex blanks for the conversion. After building a pile of .44's over a period of a few years, the guns started coming back for warranty work with cracked forcing cones. According to Cannon, the barrel's were faulty and the steel used was improperly heat treated or different than the spec that Apex alleged. Apex wouldn't budge on offering replacements, they said their barrels were fine. At any rate, Cannon went out of business replacing/repairing the "bad" .44's but resurfaced a few years later and is doing action tuning once again as far as I know.

You got a great deal on that gun!

 

[Delrin]

Cannon guns

Cannon built two revolvers for me back in the '80's: a 'Street L' and a S&W 25-2. The 25 has a compensator milled into the end of the stock 5" bbl, round butt, Millet sights, and a super action. I used it a lot for bowling pins and some IPSC. As I recall, the price was close to $1000, so you really got a fine buy. Both guns have had many thousands of rounds through them in the past 18 years and they are both still very accurate, show little wear, and have never failed to fire. I have owned or fired a lot of revolvers over the years and Cannon's action work on a revolver for personal defense is tops. Glad to hear that he is still in business.
Delrin

 

[sheepdog]

Cannon Street L

Delrin, a pic of that Street L available? I remember salivating over one when Ayoob did the write-up in AH. Weird deal, seems like Cannon was everywhere, then nowhere. I had not heard the Apex barrel info, but I recall Ayoob writing something about Cannon taking on too much, doing some outsourcing that caused problems, going out of business. Wish I could recall the whole version. I still want the "Street L."

 

[Jim Watson]

I have two Andy Cannon S&W revolvers.
The M-19 is a little jewel, smooth and light.
The M-25-2 was a constant aggravation. I sent it in during the period when he had a large shop with a large throughput and assistants to handle the routine jobs while he concentrated on the centerfold projects like CrisisBill's. It was a mess, still not right after four trips to the shop (pre-UPS ripoff rates, thank goodness) so it sat on the shelf.
When I read that he had closed the big shop, done movie guns or some such for an income for a while, and then reopened a one-man shop; I sent it back again. To his credit, he went through it and straightened it out. It is now my IDPA SSR clipgun.

 

[Reg]

I never heard about the Apex barrel problem. From what I had read the inference was that Cannon had spread himself too thin with the additional gunsmiths. Guess that could explain it.

As I recall some years back Cannon's action job was $195. His job, however, included polishing and radiusing the trigger for double action shooting and chamfering the cylinder for speedloader use along with other adjustments as needed in the tune. When looking at what was included I thought his prices were competitive. Has anyone ever had him tune a Colt Python? I would be curious as to observations about the tune.

 

[Delrin]

Cannon 'Street L'

Sheepdog,
Yes I do have some pictures that I took last year when I was considering selling it. I have no way to post them here, but if you email me I can email the pictures to you directly.
Delrin

 

[Austin Behlert]

Andy Cannon

I couldnt agree more with the idea that a shop with too much help is bad for the owner. I at one time in my Union, N>J> shop had 6 gunsmiths. All seamed to be more interested in learning all they could from me and never earning their pay which I at that time had a set rate./ When I finally went to a percentage on each job it was amazing how much money they could make.

 

[wethammer1]

Andy Cannon

I have a Dan Wesson .357 mag, Model 15-2VH that Andy did an action job on for me in 1979. I got lucky one day in Springfield, MA and won that revolver and the Andy Cannon action job for being the highest scoring LE Officer in MA and the first member of the MA Governor's Twenty.

I've had many guys offer me lots of bucks for it because it shoots anything right on the money. It's one of the most accurate guns I own. Mas Ayoob tried to buy it off me at another match in Attleboro, MA the same year.

 

[randr]

I seem to recall the Andy Cannon died a year or so ago. I hadn't seen his ads for some time in the gun mags.

 

[MAP]

ANDREW 'ANDY' CANNON
POLSON -- Andy Cannon died of cancer on Feb. 19, 2005, in Missoula. As a young man, Andy spent time on a ranch in Texas and developed a love for hunting, fishing and tinkering on guns. Andy's love of the outdoors evolved into a career with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Most recently, Andy had a distinguished career as a detective for the Lake County Sheriff's Department. Andrew was preceded in death by his mother Mabel, father Andrew Sr., and brother Hugh. He is survived by his wife Marty; daughters Kathy Hobza (Billings), Bonny Moore (Red Lodge) and Jennifer Cannon (Kalispell); three grandchildren Nicholas Maanum, and Austin and Abby Hobza; as well as sons-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mother-in law and nieces and nephews. A memorial service was held Feb. 26 in Polson following cremation.

 

[1911 custom]

I own a .44 Ruger Super Red hawk by Cannon,s guns after finding all my paper work this weekend,,,I don't understand you call him Andy ------On My paper work he calls himself Marty..? Did he have a brother?
He was located in Victor Montana this is the year 1988....anyone know anything?

 

[one eye joe]

Wow, talk 'bout threads comin' back to life.......

 

[1911 custom]

Look at My Pictures in Classified's...

 

[Jackstone]

Andy Cannon

I have two S&W 686's that I sent to Andy Cannon in approximately 1989 or 1990. Over the years I have owned and shot quite a number of Smith's with good action jobs, but none of them come close to the Cannon guns.

I have read on various forums that Mr. Cannon passed away in 2005. He is and will be sorely missed by those of us who have experienced his work.

 

[one eye joe]

Welcome to theforum, Jackstone...

 

[MTGIRL]

About Andy Cannon

Hi, Andy Cannon was my Fathers good friend, what most people do not know is he worked with several of the actors in "Disorganized Crime". He taught Actors; Corbin Bernsen, Rub'en Blades and Ed O'Neill how to shoot a gun for the film. 2 had never shot a revolver before . He was a superior shot!!
They even concidered useing him in a few scenes, but they didn't use them.
I even had a bit part in the film sad to say the last I saw him was 2004 and he wasn't doing very well.
As MAP posted (his obituary) he pasted away in 2005 after a battle with cancer. He worked with Ravally County Sheriff on several cases.
If you are lucky enough to have any gun he signed or created......HANG ON TO IT!!!
I was givin all his signed photos from the actors in the movie, he liked to be called Andy or AC. I own 2 of his guns as well
Just a little FYI for ya all
MTGIRL

 

[rbryson69]

Anyone know anything about a series of ruger RedHawks he did for hank jr.?