GRANVILLE, W.Va. — This week, West Virginia basketball legend Jerry West passed. West’s contributions to the game were immense and well documented. However, his death came just days after the passing of another West Virginia legend who may not have been as well known to the general public, but his contributions to the world of shooting and hunting were on par with what Jerry West contributed to the world of basketball.
Melvin Forbes, founder of Ultralight Arms was first and foremost a hunter. The native of Morgantown died at age 77 at his home in Granville, West Virginia June 5th. Early in life he worked in the glass industry. During his early days he made molds for the dinnerware of the John F. Kennedy Presidency which is still on display in the White House today.
However, it was his interest in hunting and firearms which made him a legend.
“In the world of rifle manufacturing and design, Melvin Forbes’ name should be right along beside Samuel Hawkins, John Browning, and Paul Mauser. His innovation, especially with the rifle stock he made, was just as important as the work any of those guys did,” said Field and Stream Shooting Editor Richard Mann in a recent conversation on West Virginia Outdoors.
Mann and Forbes were longtime friends and shared many conversations in hunting camp about firearms. As Mann tells the story, in 1985 a West Virginian for whom Forbes had built a light-weight rifle was elk hunting in the Rocky Mountains. The man became stranded in a snowstorm and was forced to leave the eight pound firearm on the mountain just so he could escape. When he made it back to West Virginia, he told Forbes, “I need a lighter rifle.”
“That kind of started Melvin’s thought process. What it ultimately evolved into was a five-pound bolt action rifle that shot like a bench rest rifle. It revolutionized the whole industry. He introduced it to the world in 1985 and all of the major manufacturers have been trying to copy him ever since,” Mann explained.
According to Mann, two things set apart the rifles Forbes crafted in his shop in Granville. One was the precision machining of the metal parts. Second was the stock. Through conversations with engineering friends at the Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory in Mineral County, West Virginia, Forbes was able to get a better understanding of carbon fiber and Kevlar. Those materials were cutting edge for the time. They were widely used in the space industry, but during those days the firearms industry was tooling stocks from fiberglass products typically associated with boat building.
“Up until that time manufacturers put stocks on rifles just so you could hold onto them. He revolutionized the stock so it was an integral part of the gun and didn’t add weight. Melvin liked to say he built the gun from the front guard screw out. Everything he put on the front end he also put on the back end so the rifle would balance perfectly,” said Mann.
Forbes’ precision machining and refined stock creations also led to another breakthrough which was revolutionary. The stock was stiffer than the barrel, therefore there was no need to free float the barrel. What he discovered was he could shoot any load through the rifle with the same degree of accuracy without any recalibration. Typically, you need to zero the rifle with every new load. That was not necessary with the rifle Forbes built. Mann said it took some smart guys at West Virginia University to explain what he had done.
“They essentially determined what the stock he had created was doing was dampening barrel vibration so the gun just thought everything it shot was the same load,” he said.
“He was true, blue West Virginian,” said nationally known outdoor writer and shooting industry marketer Chris Ellis of Fayetteville, W.Va. “One of the nicest people you’d ever sit down and talk to. He didn’t hide the fact he was a true-born hillbilly. Once you started talking to him it didn’t take long to realize, this hillbilly is super smart and super talented. But he was just one of us.”
He produced each of his rifles one at a time in his shop in Granville. He was meticulous with every detail. Early on, Mann said he was also misunderstood.
“Up until him a five-pound bolt action rifle that will shoot like a target rifle, nobody though that would ever exist. As a matter of fact when he told all his friends that’s what he was going to make, they told him, ‘You’re full of sheep-dip, that ain’t gonna happen,'” he said.
However, it did happen and nobody has ever been able to truly figure out how he did it. Forbes never got a patent for his rifle platform. However, he also never shared with anybody how he did it. The company he formed, Ultra Light Arms was sold to Colt originally but with financial problems they were unable to replicate his level of quality. Forbes bought the company back from them. He then resold the company two years ago to Wilson Combat.
“Wilson Combat is making a slightly modernized version of his rifle. It’s still extremely light weight, still an extremely good shooting rifle, but they’re a lot cheaper because they have applied modern manufacturing processes. So if you didn’t get one of Melvin’s original rifles, you can still get something that’s really close, just as light, and shoots almost as good from Wilson Combat. Plus, it carries Melvin’s legacy on,” said Mann.
Ellis added Melvin Forbes didn’t spend hours in the shop to create a collector’s item, he expected his firearms to be in the field.
“He built his rifles to go hunting. He wanted them out in the wild, in deer camp, in elk camp. They were his rifles, he may have sold you one–but they were still his rifles and he wasn’t bashful about telling you that. But his rifles were not designed to be in a safe or only shot from a bench. Melvin was a hunter, and ultimately that’s what those rifles were designed to do,” Ellis noted.