Hello everyone! My name is Kyle Hestand and I am one of two summer interns at the Cody Firearms Museum (CFM). I am a senior majoring in history at the University of Louisville. Prior to the beginning of my studies I served for five years in the United States Marine Corps. While in the Marines I served in 1st FAST Company and then 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. I have long held a strong interest in firearms and was taught to shoot by my father at a young age in Arkansas.
Since then I have built a small collection of firearms. I own of mix of firearms from antiques to modern weapons. My oldest firearm is a .30-40 Krag-Jørgensen rifle in good condition. The Krag-Jørgensen has been a firearm I have wanted to own since I was first introduced to it by my Master Sergeant who owned a sizable collection himself. It is a personal favorite of mine second only to my Benelli M4 12 gauge shotgun. The most sentimental item in my collection is a .20 caliber Sheridan Blue Streak air rifle. It was my father’s when he was a child and I still have it today.
While I am interning my duties will include archival work, writing blog posts, planning guided tours, educational spotlights and research. The archival work will be largely to provide factory letters on Winchester, Marlin, and LC Smith firearms. I will be participating in digitizing parts of the museum’s archival material. In future posts, I plan to highlight some of the firearms in the collection that have unique designs or peculiar features. The vaults contain some fascinating firearms that aren’t on display yet. Preparing the guided tours will be challenging since there are so many firearms worthy of a patron’s attention. The educational spotlights will be a time to inform the layman and provide detail for the enthusiast. I am still undecided on the primary direction of my personal research as there is so much fascinating material to work here in the museum.
I am excited to be a part of the CFM team and that I have this amazing opportunity to work with the firearms here. Hope to see you soon at the CFM!
