Peninsula In Passage

Revolver Armorer Reasonable rent and friendly zoning drew Matt and Gwendolyn Almeda to Driver six years ago to set up their gun smithing business, Revolver Armorer. In an area with a hunting heritage, it seems to be a good fit. “We wanted to manufacture ammunition and have the potential for an outdoor firing range, maybe in an adjacent field,” Matt Almeda says. “We’re the only facility in North Suffolk like this and while the community didn’t realize we were here, we’ve always done well. We do a lot of gun cleaning in the fall.”

The showroom holds a few guns and more accessories, along with a few mementoes of Almeda’s military career. Step next door into the workroom/classroom and the atmosphere turns more sterile – an operating room for firearms. The pungent odor of Break Free cleaning solvent and lubricant permeates the air and lingers over the workbenches where Almeda teaches gun smithing classes. Originally from Spokane, he grew up in a military family. After seven years in the Army, he came out for a month, and then joined the Coast Guard and took all the ordinance and weapons schools he could – Smith & Wesson, Glock and more. The couple was in Hawaii and considering launching a sea tow service when the economy took a downturn. He advanced to Senior Chief and came back instead to Norfolk to work in naval

Matt Almeda

ordinances. When he joined a hunt club, members who had asked him to work on their guns encouraged him to open a business. He opened in 2006 while he was still on active duty. “As soon as we opened, the hunt club disbanded,” Almeda says. “I thought ‘What have I done?’”

But word of the shop spread, he left the Coast Guard and business thrived. He hopes to expand to a second shop somewhere in the western part of the state as well. Now Almeda often works on vintage guns such as a 22 rifle that he cleaned and restored and wonders if the rumor is true that it once belonged to a prominent Suffolk resident, perhaps a Riddick.

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