Welcome to Canada
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Our vision is to create a fully integrated Canadian firearms and firearms accessories manufacturing business, enabling mountain hunters internationally to live out their dreams. We endeavour to provide only the very best equipment, engineered by us, never compromising on materials or design that would lessen the end product. As we grow, we look to ways we can increase our involvement with the conservation community, ensuring we can support those things that allow us to pursue our passions.
This is part of our DNA. This is how we do business with all customers, suppliers, supporters, and employees.
We live by our word. Trust is earned through diligent, hard work; we aim to keep it.
The game we hunt and its habitat is our lifeblood. We recognize the importance of conserving and enhancing both for future generations. Without wilderness and its game, we have nothing.
Mountain hunting should be hard. It should be a grind, and it should take many years to hone your craft. There is a beauty in the character and mental toughness that you develop through this process. If you stick with it long enough, you’ll reach a point where you feel nearly unstoppable, despite near zero odds, or ridiculously tough conditions. It becomes a metaphor for how you approach the rest of your life. This is the environment in which Alpine Riflecraft was born.
There is a lot of time to think when you are weathered in, listening to the wind whip and the snow pile up. Or on those long 20+km approaches into, or out of sheep country. It was these moments that were spent dreaming up what is in our opinion the ultimate hunting tool. Having never been satisfied with what was available on the market, there just always seemed to be too many compromises. The goal was to develop a tool so light as to not burden its packer, yet have the stability and ergonomics of rifles in a different weight class to help make your shot of a lifetime. Along with that, I also wanted to create something that would support conservation organizations in a meaningful way, ensuring the sustainability of our wilderness, wildlife, and hunting traditions.
Alpine Riflecraft is the culmination of those dreams, over 2 decades worth of mountain hunting and engineering experience, and passion to explore the wilderness with good boots, a backpack, and rifle. We believe the results speak for themselves.
I have always been attracted to beautiful, classic hunting rifles. They were custom Model 70’s and Mausers mostly, the G33/40 in particular. Not only were they beautiful, but the actions themselves were mechanically excellent for hunting. The main problem that constantly arose with my want to build a sheep rifle from these actions was weight. No matter how light you made the stock and barrel, you always had that 2lb plus chunk of metal at the heart of it. Looking at lighter actions, they all had their misgivings. Too many features stripped for ease of manufacture or weight reduction. IMO there was nothing that demanded my attention from both a weight and feature perspective. To reach the weight and overall balance I was targeting, the receiver would have to be titanium. The feature set would be classic; CRF, 3 position safety, double stack magazine, integral mounts and recoil lug etc. It also had to have thoroughly modern touches, such as roller cocking, helical camming, wire edm raceways, carbon barrels, and compression moulded carbon stocks. What had started as a wish list of requirements for an imaginary rifle in 2019, led to some serious engineering and design effort over the coming years. Through more than a dozen iterations and input from many sources, the design developed into what is now the Zenith – what we believe to be the ultimate mountain hunting tool.
Canadian Manufacturing has been in decline for many decades. Outcompeted by overseas countries with cheap labor and operating costs, our regulatory climate and cost of production put Canadian companies on the outside of high volume manufacturing. On a positive note, what we do have is a highly skilled industrial sector. This translates into massive opportunities when it comes to high value add manufacturing. In this area the high volume/ low quality manufacturers don’t stand a chance. While much of Canadian manufacturing is located in Eastern Canada, we have a solid base in the West serving industries such as Aerospace, Tech, and Energy.
One of the main goals of Alpine Riflecraft was to build a business on the strength of partnerships with Western Canadian, and primarily local Alberta manufacturers. This approach allows us to access technologies and equipment that are simply out of reach for a small start-up. What it does for our customers is provide an exceptionally well made product, unconstrained by manufacturing methods, that can compete with anything in the marketplace.
When you support Alpine Riflecraft, you are supporting multiple small, privately owned Canadian manufacturers, their employees, and communities. Your money is staying in Canada, supporting Canadians!
Nearly all parts used to manufacture our rifles are machined locally in Alberta. Our barrels are made in British Columbia, triggers in Ontario, and magazine springs in Quebec. We do use a handful of parts which are not manufactured in Canada, such as small springs, dowel pins, set screws, and recoil pads. These non-Canadian parts comprise less than 1% of the material cost to produce each rifle.
Supporting Alpine Riflecraft means peace of mind in that we are a Canadian family owned small business where relationship and reputation are everything. We share your passion, and we are here to stay. My expectation is that every rifle that leaves our shop is flawless, and ready for your next local hunt, or the hunt of a lifetime.
Growing up in Western Canada, you take a lot of things for granted in your youth. Certain privileges we have here, you soon realize are a rarity. This really hit home when I started hunting Bighorn sheep in Alberta in my early 20’s. It doesn’t take long to realize how special this opportunity is, and that most folks will never experience it. These privileges are to be cherished and protected. They must be conserved and handed down. We are the stewards of our generation, and it is our duty as hunters to look after the wildlife and ecosystems in which they live, to ensure their continuance for the
next.
By donating our time and money to science based conservation organizations, we are investing not only in the future of wildlife and their habitats, but the future of our hunting traditions as well. If you are reading this, please consider becoming a fellow member of a science based conservation organization if you are not already. We are proud members of WSFAB, and WSSBC.
