Kelbly's history

In 1969, Ralph Stolle, an active benchrest competitor, designed and built an unlimited steel action that he called the Stolle Grizzly. It was a round action, over 14 inches in length, 1.700 in diameter, with a blued finish. He built somewhere between 25 and 30 of them, mostly for unlimited bag guns. In 1970-71, Stolle manufactured the first aluminum Panda action, which was 11 inches in length with a long barrel thread area. Stolle suffered a heart attack in 1979, and moved to North Lawrence a year later. In 1981 he produced his first actions at Kelbly's facility.

Production has come a long way since. Today, Kelbly's is averaging over 500 actions yearly with 30% sold to overseas customers.

Benchrest is about 70% of our business, with the rest split up between hunting, Palma and others.

George Kelbly and his 3 sons, George Jr., Jim, Michael and 8 full time employees continue making precision benchrest firearms today.