8TH GRADER CRAFTS HIS OWN SHOTGUN FROM SCRAP

After the local paper apparently turned up its nose to the youth's accomplishment, one of his family members took to social media on Wednesday to boast of the young man's homebuilt shotgun, which looks to be a clone of an old-school H&R/NEF break action single shot model. Within hours, the post was shared and liked over 2,000 times, with some 200-- overwhelmingly positive-- comments logged.

This is Hunter Newbert and for his 8th-grade project, he wanted to build a stainless steel 20-gauge shotgun from scratch. He made the barrel from a used stainless steel boat shaft, the receiver from a scrap piece of stainless steel, the stocks from some cherry wood that was in a woodpile that was going to be used for firewood. He put many hours in learning how to and machining his own shotgun and we are very proud of him and by the way, it does fire and works properly. Great job, Hunter.

We'd like to echo that sentiment. Great job, Hunter.

A time-honored American tradition that pre-dates the nation, there is currently no license required under federal law to make a firearm for personal use.