Famed Machine Gunner Kent Lomont Dies

Longtime SGN advertiser and pillar of the Class III community Kent Lomont died January 27. He was 66.

He was proprietor of Lomont Precision Bullets and one of the nation's largest NFA firearms dealers. His table at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot was a mandatory stop for anyone interested in choice Title II arms.

He lived in Salmon, Idaho, and was in his younger days a close associate of that small town's most well known resident, Elmer Keith. Not surprisingly, he was an early advocate of very powerful pistols, notably the Auto Mag. He was a .50 BMG rifle shooter and loader at a time when the infrastructure for that hobby was almost nonexistent.

He was an avid handloader, and bought the laboratory equipment of the former Super Vel ammunition factory to support his experiments. He was involved in lawsuits against the BATF relating to interpretation of the National Firearms Act.

SGN Handgun Editor Frank James said of Lomont: "I don't think I will ever meet anyone who has fired as many personally owned rounds through firearms as Kent did. He 'lived' for guns and was one of the most knowledgeable authorities on heavy Smith & Wesson revolvers, the Auto-Mag handgun design and full-auto/select-fire machine guns of any description that ever lived. The big difference between Kent and every other expert out there is he shot every one of those guns to destruction and therefore he knew what they would do and what they wouldn't.

Senior Editor Peter Kokalis was a longtime friend and customer of Lomont's, and said:

"I first met Kent in 1990 at the Soldier Of Fortune Convention in Las Vegas. He had set up a substantial display of his wares at the SOF Expo. A year later I purchased my first Title II firearm from him, which was actually a 'destructive device,' as it was a Colt M203 40mm Grenade Launcher. Over the years, I purchased from and traded to Kent several hundred machine guns. About half of my current collection of machine guns came from Kent. He was quite simply this country's premier machine gun dealer, and especially respected for his complete honesty in all of his dealings."

Kent soon became a regular participant at the SOF Firepower Demo held in each year during the SOF Convention at the Desert Sportsman range on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The Firepower Demo drew thousands of spectators each year. It was the convention's biggest drawing card and received a great deal of media attention. Each year, Kent and I would perform the Demo's greatest crowd pleaser.

I would give the audience a brief lecture on machine gun fire discipline, stating that three- to four-round bursts provided the greatest accuracy potential, and asking that Kent demonstrate this. Standing behind a pedestal mount, to which were attached two FN MAG 58 belt-fed General Purpose Machine Guns, Kent would proceed to fire a continuous 500-round burst through each gun simultaneously and the crowd would go wild.

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"Kent and I were two of the original 10 owners of the LLC that owns 450 acres near Bagdad, Arizona. We spent many weekends together up at the property, which is surrounded by thousands of acres of BLM land. Camping out was one of Kent's great passions and he loved to drive around the rugged terrain on his ATV, armed, of course, with a belt-fed machine gun of one kind or another, although most often with one of his beloved FN MAG 58 GPMGs.

I have hundreds of fond memories of the times I spent with Kent that I will forever cherish. He leaves behind a great number of us who will remember him always. Kent is now on the Elysian plain with the immortals, most likely disturbing their peace and quiet with the incessant rattling of a belt-fed machine gun firing at its cyclic rate."

Lomont is survived by three ex-wives, four children and two step-children.