Al Biesen 1918-2016 and Roger Biesen 1943-2020

What is the Biesen Legacy?

To those who were lucky enough to visit Al's gunshop in Spokane, Washington in the early years...

Some would say it was visiting the shop ---  The experience and memory of visiting a basement gunshop packed full of equipment and spectacular guns.  Most remember, hearing hunting stories told by the man himself. Al's stories may have been about his childhood growing up during the great depression, when hunting and fishing were the only way to put food on the table.  Al may have told you about how they moved the house on to its current location.

(Pictured above some of the Biesen clan traveling with the house to it's new location)

Many gun shop visitors witnessed Al's uncanny ability to tell a magnificent tail, all while only occasionally taking his eyes off of the project that he was checkering at the time.  These days they would call it multi-tasking, but in the world of custom gunmaking, his peers would call it absolutely amazing.

If it was lunch time or 5pm, you might hear thumps on the floor.  This would be grandma's notification that a meal was on the table.  Grandma Gen would have been the first person to tell you that without her, there would be no Biesen guns.

Either Roger or Al may have taken you back into the wood room, where a customer could choose from some of the finest blanks of wood that they had acquired over the years.  You may have heard an additional story of how the late Joe Oakley acquired large walnut tree's as California expanded their highway system and other infrastructure the late 1950's and 1960's.  If there was a good story on how a blank was acquired, you were sure to hear about it.

Above are examples of what a stock blank would look like.

Above is a semi finished stock that showcases how fabulous a piece of wood can be

If you visited during the 1980's or 1990's you might have witnessed Roger stamping out butt plates and grip caps on the punch press, turning barrels on the lathe or cutting out wood blanks on the stock machine.   

Roger had the ability to look at a gunstock blank and know exactly how to position it in his stock machine to showcase the best possible play of color. Experienced gunmakers or hobbyists alike would request Roger cut out a woodblank using the same Biesen Winchester Model 70 pattern that Jack O'Connor loved so much.  

Above is Paula's husband David Malicki helping Roger cut blanks on the stock machine.

It could be the their activities within the community ---  Both Al and Roger were generous with their time and attention when it came to teaching others in the custom gun industry. Al taught hunter's education in addition to a college course in gunsmithing for a short time.  If you called the gunshop and had a question, either Al or Roger would not hesitate to help.

Al was also a competitive shooter, known to support the local gun ranges.  Many a colorful story was told over the years about how Al would arrive and uncase his favorite custom rifle and assemble it before a match.

Al was a charter member of the Custom Gunmakers Guild, and Inland Northwest Wildlife Council.  Both Roger and Al served terms as President of the Inland Empire Chapter of Safari Club International. They also supported, the Jack O'Connor Hunting Heritage Center in Lewiston, Idaho along with many other charities in our community.

It could have been all of the articles written about them over the years ---

• May 1953 issue of Outdoor Life - "Birth of a Custom Rifle"

• Sunday March 29, 1953 newspaper The Spokesman-Review - written by John Reid, "Spokane Guns go all over the World"

• July 1957 issue of Guns Magazine  - written by William B. Edwards, "The Shooting King of Iraq"

• Sunday September 10, 1961 newspaper The Spokesman-Review -  written by John Reid, "Spokane Gun Maker Hunts in Yukon Big Game Frontier"

• April 1962 issue of Sports Afield, -written by John Jobson, Part I in a series of 2 "Yukon Wilderness Expedition"

• May 1962 issue of Sports Afield, - written by John Jobson, Part 2 in a series of 2 "Yukon Wilderness Expedition"

• September 1962 issue of The American Rifleman - written by Edward T. Walsh, "Alvin LeRoy Biesen"

• January 1963 issue of Sports Afield - written by John Jobson, "Hunting the Western Chuck"

• July-August, 1966 issue of The Handloader Magazine - written by Dick Woolmand and Al Biesen, ".25-06 On the way Back?"

• Sunday February 27, 1983 newspaper The Spokesman-Review - written by Rich Landers, "Son of a gunmaker is 'butting' in"

• November 1992 issue of Workbench magazine - written by Phil McCafferty, "Gunsmithing Secrets"

• June 1993 issue of Guns Magazine - written by Holt Bodinson, "The 1993 Custom Gun Show"

• February 1997 issue of Guns Magazine - written by Holt Bodinson, "Custom Evolution"

• 1998 Annual issue of Guns Magazine - written by Holt Bodinson, "Creating a Vision"

• Sunday December 7, 1997 newspaper The Spokesman-Review - written by Rich Landers, "Family reputation rests on rifles"

• December 1999 issue of Petersen's Rifle Shooter - written by Wayne VanZwoll, "Women of Steel"

• December/January issue of Outdoor Life - "The Big Ram of Pilot Mountain"

• 2003 edition of the Shooter's Bible - "The Biesen's"

• September 2003 issue of Sports Afield - written by Alan Liere, "It Might as Well be Pretty"

• August 2004 issue of Shooting Illustrated - written by Wayne VanZwoll, "The Biesen Connection"

• December/January 2005 issue of Outdoor Life - written by Jim Carmichael, "Wonders in Wood"

• December 2005 issue of Guns & Ammo - written by Craig Boddinton, "Jack O'Connor's Rifle"

• April 2, 2006 newspaper The Spokesman-Review - written by Rich Landers, "Gunmakers Shoot for Perfection"

• Thursday January 3, 2008 newspaper The Lewiston Tribune - written by Eric Barker, "Giving back to Jack"

• Sunday January 13, 2008 newspaper The Spokesman-Review - written by Eric Barker, "Gunmakers give back to Jack"

• July 2008 issue of Precision Shooting - written by Gene Brown, "Al Biesen: American Gun Maker"

• 2012 Gun Digest - 66th edition - Page 44 featuring Paula Biesen-Malieki (miss spelling) Page 45 featuring Roger Biesen

• Copyright 2013 book "Modern Custom Guns" - written by Tom Turpin, 2nd Edition "Walnut, Steel and Uncommon Artistry"

• May/June 2013 issue of Sports Afield please note Paula's engraving on a Cooper Firearms rifle is featured on the Cover Page 4 and Page 94 she is not mentioned by name or given credit

• May 2015 issue of Guns Magazine - written by Dave Anderson, "Rifle Royalty"

• September/October 2016 issue of Bugle magazine - written by Wayne VanZwoll, "Alvin Biesen: 1918-2016"

• March 2017 issue of Rifle, Sporting Firearms Journal - written by Terry Wieland, "Al Biesen .270 Winchester, Not Just Another Custom Mauser"

• May/June 2017 issue of Gray's Sporting Journal - written by Terry Wieland, "The Genius of Spokane, The Biesen-O'Connor partnership"

If not those things, it is the guns themselves and how well they perform ---

(Roger instructing Paula featuring her "3 generation Biesen" rifle, also pictured below)

I would also like to point out the difference in the way the stock looks in multiple pictures.  The stock is a fabulous golden maple color that came from Tillamook Oregon, I have yet to take a picture that captures how magnificent this stock is.

This is a picture of Paula's custom rifle stocked and checkered by Al Biesen before his stroke in 1999.

It is the last project he checkered himself...

All the metal work, bluing and final assembly was completed by Roger almost a decade later.  

It did not get fully finished until Paula felt her engraving talents were WORTHY of this priceless project.

This rifle is engraved with a "Grand Slam" of sheep with both the Desert and Stone sheep on the floor plate.

Big Horn sheep on the grip cap and Jack O'Connor's Pilot Mountain Dahl sheep on the butt plate.