Since 1922
A century of gunmaking in Eibar
Eibar, in the Basque Country, has made guns for centuries. Ugartechea has been part of that story since 1922.
Timeline
- 1922
Ignacio Ugartechea (1899–1937) founds Armas Ugartechea in Eibar, devoted to the craft manufacture of fine hunting shotguns.
- The early years
The workshop is self-sufficient: it starts and finishes every gun with no outside help, with its own barrel boring, hardening, bluing and chroming. Stocks and forends are always high-quality walnut with an oil finish.
- Over-and-unders
Ugartechea becomes the first Spanish company to make over-and-under shotguns.
- The second generation
Ignacio Ugartechea Aulestiarte trains at Eibar’s gunmaking school, the Escuela de Armería, but learns the trade in the family factory. He builds his own .410 over-and-under and shoots with it at hunts and driven shoots across Spain.
- Parker-Hale
Ugartechea builds side-by-sides sold in Britain under the Parker-Hale name.
- 2015
Production pauses, and the trade press reports the end of an Eibar name.
- Today
Under new ownership the company is reorganized, reinvested in and relaunched. The workshop on Calle Txonta is building and exporting again.
Who has shot a Ugartechea
Over the decades Ugartechea guns have been made for heads of state and royalty in several countries, and for leading hunters and competition shots, as well as for generations of sportsmen who simply wanted a well-made gun from Eibar.
From the archive
Ugartechea today
Ugartechea today
In 2015 production at Ugartechea stopped, and for a time it looked as though another historic Eibar name had gone.
It hadn’t. Under new ownership the company has been reorganized and reinvested in, and the workshop is building and exporting again: the same models, made the same way, for importers, dealers and private buyers around the world.
Contact
Talk to the workshop
Questions about a model, a specification or an order? Email us and the team in Eibar will reply, usually within one business day.
