FROM SISK RIFLES

SHOOTING THE CUSTOM STAR
FROM SISK RIFLES
By: Jay Pinsky
If you want the finest hunting rifle
money can buy, don’t bother looking
for it sitting on any box store’s shelf.
In fact, don’t bother looking for it in
any gun store. If you want the best
there is, especially for you, then the
custom route is the only way to go.
After all, the finest rifles only get
made one way, and that’s one at a
time, completely customized for the
shooter by master gun builders who
are as much artists as craftsman.
If you want the finest hunting rifle money can buy,
don’t bother looking for it sitting on any box store’s
shelf. In fact, don’t bother looking for it in any gun
store. If you want the best there is, especially for you,
then the custom route is the only way to go. After all,
the finest rifles only get made one way, and that’s
one at a time, completely customized for the shooter
by master gun builders who are as much artists as
craftsman.
American shooters are blessed with accuracy
artists because there are a few special gun builders
in the United States. Texas has a few, and one that
stands out is just outside of Houston. His name is
Charlie Sisk, and no matter what size or shape a gun
you want, need or dream about he’s the guy who can
give you the gun no one else can – the best one.
Charlie is a Kentucky transplant who took his coalmining know-how and parlayed it into the custom
firearms business. He took a knack for fine machine
work and a love for shooting to heart and began
building very accurate rifles well enough to pay the
bills. How accurate? Minute-of-angle is just a warm
up and on every rifle I’ve fired made by Charlie which
included a 260 Remington, .223 Remington, a .308
Winchester and two different 9.3x62mm Mausers,
I was well under MOA and the 260 Remington was
exceptional at less than a dime-sized spread on a
five-shot group.
With accuracy and functionality a constant,
Charlie’s successful gun building hobby became
his meal ticket. In 1988 he started Sisk Rifles. There
he built rifles in all shapes and sizes from ground
squirrel smoking 22-250’s to Cape buffalo stopping
Safari rifles. In the beginning, he took other peoples
parts and put them together better than anyone else
could, and slowly but surely he realized his genius
and craftsmanship needed better parts. So, he made
them. Today, Charlie is the proud father to the Sisk
Tactical Adaptive Rifle, known as “STAR.” “The STAR
offers demanding hunters, professional and competi-
tive shooters something they’ve never experienced
before – a take-down rifle with near-infinite adaptability featuring adjustment points at the butt, comb
and wrist for customizable, ergonomic performance
in any shooting situation imaginable,” said Sisk.
The rifle’s stock is the pinnacle of form, fit and
function, as it should be according to Sisk. “The
rifle stock is the one piece that allows the shooter
to interact with the rifle,” Sisk wrote in his book,
Selecting and Ordering a Custom Hunting Rifle. Sisk
writes several pages in his book devoted simply to
ensuring you get the proper fit. Why? If you talk with
Sisk, and you listen to the world-class gun-builder,
you’ll quickly realize fit is the final difference in an
accurate shooter more so than any space-aged
material, super-flat caliber or massive doe-eyed optic.
This unique stock means he can make your rifle fit
46 Shot of Texas Magazine™ March/April Issue 2015
you, period, by adjusting it, and not having to carve
wood, shave metal or any other sort of permanent
alteration. The all-aluminum stock, which weighs
less than you might think at 3.6 pounds, cradles the
barreled action on three separate sections, which
are joined by “STAR” joints. The sections are the fore
end, the receiver and the buttstock. The ability of the
operator to break the rifle down into much smaller
sections helps the platform remain very portable and
stealthy because one need not carry their “STAR” in
a dead-give-away rifle case. There’s a lot more to the
“STAR” than just its ability to break down easily. Each
of the sections has several unique adjustments.
The rifle is perfect because it can be anything, almost, to any shooter, any optic, and caliber or any use
without having to carry around four different stocks,
six sets of scope rings and other little tweaks other
custom gun builders need to use to tell you that your
gun fits you. It might well fit you when you bought it,
but as you change, as your conditions change, and
as your style changes, so can the STAR – and the gun
that be anything you need without having to visit a
gunsmith, is about as perfect as a gun can be.
“Standard straight-stocked rifles aren’t designed
to fit a single shooter well,” said Sisk. “They’re
designed to fit every shooter just good enough. In
truth, a stock should be adaptable – not only to the
shooter’s body, but also his shooting form and every
field situation he finds himself in.”
The bottom line is this: If you want the best rifle
you can get, someone needs to build it for you from
scratch. If you want to gamble on getting the best, try
any custom builder, but if you want to guarantee your
hard-earned money is invested in a rifle built by an
artist gifted enough to create your vision and skilled
enough as a craftsman to have it exceed your practical need, then call Charlie at SISK Rifles:
Charlie Sisk, 936-258-4984
or email [email protected]