Southern Precision Tooling

Southern Precision Tooling (SPT) has been in the business of making high-quality products since 1979. Originally specializing in precision gauges and instruments with tolerances as close as 40 millionths of an inch, the company entered the firearms industry almost by accident when a Tennessee firearms dealer asked them to fix a problem rifle. 

SPT’s repair work was so good the dealer asked them to do more repairs, so they decided to get federal firearms licenses and opened a gunsmithing arm to the company. Word of mouth spread, and nine years later SPT is repairing three times as many guns every year than they targeted for a successful gunsmithing operation.

Although they were already gun enthusiasts, once SPT started focusing on repairing guns they started seeing opportunities to improve gun performance, so they started applying their high-precision tooling approach to the problems they were commonly seeing with firearms.

Now, between the game-changing Hu-Du muzzle brake, the Church Mouse suppressor, high-velocity Dingo rounds, custom rifles and other developing projects, firearms work has become the company’s core business. 

MEET OUR TEAM

The four men behind Southern Precision Tooling bring nearly 200 years of experience and passion working on guns and high-precision machinery to everything they do. Meet the men behind the magic:

NORMAN GRIFFITTS
Maryville, TN native Norman Griffitts has been in a machine shop since he was in pants and shoes and could follow his dad through the doors. He built his first firearm in second grade – a black powder cannon, and by high school had worked his way up to building a miniature civil war-style field cannon. After four years at the University of Tennessee, Norman went to work at a machine shop in Oak Ridge, TN doing various projects (some of which we can’t talk about…). 

In 1979 Norman started Southern Precision Tooling (SPT) in Maryville and has been in the same location ever since. For decades SPT focused on primarily tool and die, and industrial machining, and quickly made a name for themselves making high-precision specialty gauges as close as 40 millionths of an inch total tolerance.

While SPT still does precision gauges when called for, Norman turned his unique, innovative and highly-precise mechanical thinking, his innate sense of what will and won’t work, and his superior applied design skills to firearms, resulting in several inventions including the HU-DU muzzle brake and the Church Mouse suppressor. More neat gun projects are rolling around in his virtual reality mental machine shop just waiting to be prototyped.

GARY MUNCY
Master Machinist Gary Muncy from Vicco, Ky discovered his love for machine work in high school and has never looked back. In his 57 years there are very few machine projects he hasn’t tackled: specialized tooling, precision gauges, government contracts, prototyping and much more. 

Over time, Gary moved into shop management running multiple government contracts and now lends his skills and experience helping develop the game-changing products flowing out of the SPT brain trust. 

DUANE PAYNE
Maryville native Duane Payne has been tinkering on guns and reloading for more than 60 years, making him a walking encyclopedia of gun knowledge. After a tour in Vietnam with the 2nd brigade 101 airborne - 75th Ranger Regiment, Duane came home and continued gunsmithing and hunting. SPT’s super-velocity 260 Dingo round was developed by Duane using his extensive knowledge on reloading and hunting.

ANDY WELSHAN
Another Maryville native, Andy Welshan grew up in a gun family. His grandfather was a hunting guide and taught him from an early age to love firearms and Andy learned gun repair from his uncle Duane at an early age. Andy has grown up to become an avid shooter and a self-proclaimed gun nut. He has been tinkering on his own gunsmithing projects since he was a teenager, and has served as a key contributor to SPT’s switch over to focusing on firearms. Andy started working and learning machine work from Norman Griffitts and Gary Muncy right out of high school.

Along with 30 years of machine work at SPT, he has been providing professional gunsmithing services for the past eight years. Andy has a vast knowledge on all things firearms and greatly enjoys his fellow gun culture patriots.