Tony Kennedy, the Cornish gunmaker whose career ran from a start at Leslie Hewett’s to his own name over the door at Bisley, has died after more than 50 years in the trade. The Clay Pigeon Shooting Association (CPSA) announced on 18 September that he died in June, and its notice sets out a working life that many in the UK trade will recognise as their own industry’s story in miniature.

Fifty years in the trade, in four moves

The notice gives the career in outline. Mr Kennedy began at Leslie Hewett’s, then opened his own gun shop in Launceston in 1977, running it alongside a pheasant shoot: the West Country model, in which the shop, the shoot and the customers were one community. In 2000 he moved onto the national stage with Kennedy Gunmakers at Bisley, and in 2007 he sold the business to William Evans, the London gunmaker. He did not stop: the notice records that he kept working from home under the Kennedy Gunmakers name to the end.

What does the 2007 sale tell the trade?

For any independent weighing succession, the shape of the Kennedy deal is worth noting. The name went to a buyer with the retail reach to use it; the man kept the bench. A gunmaker’s brand has a value separate from its founder’s hands, and selling it while the founder is still working, rather than when he stops, is the version of the transaction that leaves both sides with something. Nearly two decades on from the sale, Mr Kennedy was still turning out work under the name he had sold, which says something about the terms and more about the man.

The Bisley move itself is the other lesson. A Launceston shop serves the customers who can drive to it; a Bisley address puts a maker in front of the national shooting community every weekend of the year. Moving the name to where the shooters were, after 23 years in Cornwall, is the kind of decision the trade talks about and seldom makes.

The gunmaker who shot

Mr Kennedy was not only a tradesman. He won many Cornish county championships and co-founded North Cornwall Gun Club with Dick Bray in the early 1990s, and his grandson William has just made the Cornwall down-the-line team. For the trade the point is commercial as well as personal: a maker who competes is his own best demonstration, and a club built by a dealer creates the customers who come through his door. That was true in Launceston in the 1990s and it is true of every shooting ground with a gun room today.

What happens next

The Clay Pigeon Shooting Association’s notice, linked below, carries no funeral or memorial details. Trade colleagues with recollections of Mr Kennedy’s time at Hewett’s, in Launceston or at Bisley are welcome to share them with Gun Trade Insider for the record.

Useful links

Clay Pigeon Shooting Association – the association’s notice of Tony Kennedy’s death, published 18 September 2026

Frequently asked questions

Who was Tony Kennedy?

Tony Kennedy was a Cornish gunmaker who spent more than 50 years in the trade. He began at Leslie Hewett’s, opened his own gun shop in Launceston in 1977 and founded Kennedy Gunmakers at Bisley in 2000.

When was Kennedy Gunmakers sold to William Evans?

Tony Kennedy sold Kennedy Gunmakers to William Evans in 2007. He continued to work from home under the Kennedy Gunmakers name until his death in June 2026.

When did Tony Kennedy die?

He died in June 2026. The Clay Pigeon Shooting Association announced his death on 18 September 2026.

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