Ever been in .... "Gunsmith Hell?"

[Topgun]

That's where the gunsmith takes in the gun. Tells you it will be a couple weeks. You wait THREE weeks. You call. He reminds you that HE would call YOU. You wait another couple weeks and then "drop by." He looks concerned and says "something" came up. You wait another MONTH. He begins making excuses. It's now THREE MONTHS and you call again. He is "busy" with (name a group....law enforcement, hunting, you name it) and is trying to find "time" to get to it.
You finally call and say "Look, I'll be there at such and such time and I'll pick it up anyhow."

Exasperating. Talked to a buddy across the country and HE has 3 shotguns that have been at the ....."gunsmith" ......for EIGHT MONTHS.

 

[Nathanael_Greene]

I had a rifle in a shop for over *two years* before I finally got it back.

 

[El Tejon]

Three weeks?

Try three years. My gunsmith decided it was an opportune time to refight the Korean War one dark and rainy night (no one got hurt, he decided to dig a hole in the woods and hunker down).

Poor fellow, he got help, but it took a court order to get my rifles back.

 

[Wildalaska]

Then there are the guys who drop off Granpas old shutzenboomer, hasnt been made since 1912, he calls every day about it, the guns worth only $20 and it takes a gunsmith 47 hours to fix, the day its done ya call him, he says he will pick it up then it sits there for 6 months.....

WildforeverytitthereisatatAlaska

 

[T. Bracker]

I bet that if some of the gunsmiths respond, we will find that this is a thread that cuts both ways.

 

[Onmilo]

I feel the collective pain here.

Customer brings in a rifle, long obsolete, no parts available, everything has to be made by hand, and he wonders why I can't fix it while he waits.

Another Customer brings in a handgun for a routine detail cleaning and he has to wait two weeks to get it back because he is #47 in the cleaning rack and there are other projects in the works that came in before his pistol.

Sometimes that hole in Korea can look pretty good.

 

[Arc-Lite]

Gunsmith hell...is just the wait...after you get it back, you seam to forget all that time in limbo, ANY wait is HELL...welcome to the world !!!!

 

[PaulTX]

When you take a firearm to a gunsmith, a reasonable person would expect the work to be done first in, first out - assuming no other delaying issues.

I took an M1 Carbine to "my" gunsmith. I had 3 small tasks to be done - no parts required and should have taken less than an hour labor. I was told it would be ready in 2 weeks. I checked back after 2 weeks and it wasn't done yet. Thereafter I would check in every 2-3 weeks or so and it still wouldn't be ready. Finally after about 4-5 months it was ready.

When I picked up the carbine one of the tasks was not done as I requested. When I asked why it took longer than I was told the gunsmith said "bird season". In other words, there were a lot of shotguns that came in after my carbine that got priority. I was very disgusted and that was the last work the gunsmith did for me. I had another job before this that was supposed to take 2 weeks and it ended up taking months.

I know when you are running a business there are some terrible, unreasonable customers you have to deal with. A business person still has to be reasonable.

Small businesses that are technical in nature (gunsmith, computers, etc.) all too often are owned/run by a good technician but a very poor business person! They just aren't good at both jobs and aren't big enough to hire competent business staff.

 

[Markheck1]

Can't say that I have

Either I have a good gunsmith, or I haven't been bitten yet....

really only had 2 things done, one had my Model 70 .243 glass bedded was ready in the 2 weeks he said it would be...

2nd time I had bought a Fairly new model 70 XTR in .300 win mag. The safety was VERY stiff, took it into him to see if I needed warranty work, he said no, just needs some attitude adjustment.....took it apart, did some filing and fitting, put it back together WHILE I WAITED...err...watched actually... IIRC didn't cost me much either....

 

[Old Fuff]

In general, I think there are two kinds of gunsmiths - those that get work out fast because they don't have a whole lot to do (maybe for good reason); and those who are known for their good work and are booked up solid.

While work is scheduled on a first in/first out basis, emergencies such as a lawman with a broken sidearm can upset a schedule. So can jobs requiring handwork that sometimes take longer then expected. In many parts of the country gunsmiths are in short supply because someone with their skills can make more money as a machinist or toolmaker. Last but not least I’ve run across customers that think the ‘smith should pay them for repairing “ol’ junker†because working on guns is so much fun …

For these and other reasons “homesmithing†has become popular – a practice that has made 1911 Tuner one of the most popular persons on this forum, as pistol owners seek his how-too-do-it advise. One of the professional ‘smiths least popular pastimes is fixing something that someone else fixed at home. Of course this observation can work both ways. I have no good answers, but notice that the manufacturers now design guns so that the “fixer†simply takes out a module (such as a trigger group) and replaces the whole thing without any fitting or handwork. Supposedly a trained monkey can do this. Such will be the wave of the future …

 

[TheEgg]

While work is scheduled on a first in/first out basis, emergencies such as a lawman with a broken sidearm can upset a schedule.

I know for a fact that some gunsmiths put things in order of who they are buddies with. I know this because I have a good buddy who is a gunsmith, and if I bring something in, he will put it first, even ahead of other customers.

It isn't right, and I have tried to get him not to do this (well, ok maybe I haven't tried REAL hard ) but I am sure he is not the only one to do this.

 

[whm1974]

You know guys, this is why I rather learn how to at least to do basic gunsmithing and own gun that are so commen that I can get parts anywhere.

Add to the fact that there isn't a gunsmith near here...

-Bill

 

[Stevie-Ray]

I was on a first name basis with a smith about 6 miles from my house. Since he always delivered on his promises, and they weren't ever an exorbitant amount of time, I didn't yap about anything. I can understand why people do, though, as I've heard the horror stories from friends.

 

[PaulTX]

I try to do all of the gunsmithing or parts replacement I can. I'm very thankful most of my firearms are easy to work on and don't require machining.

I have no problems with having to wait longer for due to priority repairs for our LEO's. I do have a problem with: 1) Predictions of completion dates that are the nearest thing to a lie and 2) Favoritism.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I've taken guns in and waited over 1 year to get it back. I've sent barrels in for rebarreling and it's taken over a year. I've had guns here that it took me over a year to get parts. I've been to and from Gunsmith Hell.

My solution? Have more than one gun. If one child is gone, there's another to keep you company.

 

[Bullet Bob]

This has been a topic of humorous and scary articles in gun rags for years. I know I have several guns that I'd like to have trigger jobs done on (mostly .22 rifles), and I've been waiting a long time to try and find a local guy I trust not to screw the jobs up. Still looking.

 

[Gifted]

The gunsmith I took my gun to, he charges after the fact. I can see the delay when he's waiting for people to come pick up and pay for thier guns so he has the money to buy the parts for other guns to work on.

 

[Firethorn]

If I was a gunsmith with enough work to get backed up, I'd have a simple system.

Routine: It's done when it's done. You pay when the work is done.
Priority: For a fee ranging from 1.5x to 3x what routine would run, the work goes into the priority pile. Trumps routine work. You pay the extra up front.
Immediate: 3x to 10x the routine rate. Otherwise same as priority.
Emergency: 10x-100x base. I drop everything else. Fabricate parts if it would be faster than having them overnighted, cannibalize parts(off my own guns) if necessary, etc... Again, you pay the extra up front.

Note: The extra is only for labor, not parts, unless you're paying to have them overnighted or such.

I'd have it typed up and placed on the wall. Want your weapon fixed the day before the season/compitition? Be prepared to pay through the nose. Willing to wait to have that safe queen back? You can get it cheap.

If I have so much that routine isn't getting done within a few months, excluding awaiting parts, then I'll take it as a reason to raise my rates.

*Note: The rates are approximate and subject to fine-tuning

 

[Atticus]

My gunsmith is pretty fast. His work sucks sometimes ...but there no wait. Generally, I don't mind waiting if I'm told up front how long that wait will be, but don't tell me a week or two when you know damn well it will be a month or two or three or so.

 

[valor1]

Oh yes. In the little country called the Philippines, a very enterprising gunsmith named Tony Pascual is smith I can never be proud of. He thinks he is supreme to his customers and if you bring back your gun for servicing , he will try to do a llot of explanations making you feel the lowest form of life in this earth. One more thing, he will charge you for those back jobs.

He is very enterprising in the sense that he tries to copy products from Brownells and sells them locally at imported prices (labor is cheaper in the Philippines, thus killing is an everyday thing for his business). I wonder what the intellectual property rights group will do once they found out. He makes all those cheap knock-off parts from AR-15's to 1911's.

He once built an STI pistol for me using nothing but STI parts. Things he did:
- broke the barrel's ramp
- misaligned the fitting of the beavertail
- made some "clipping" marks on the frame
- replaced some of my STI parts with some of his fabrications
- even replaced my mainspring just to achieve a 4 lb. trigger pull
- blah, blah, blah

The best thing about this is that he even charged me for his failures. Sorry for the rant. I am so excited and waited for a gun that was built in words that I cannot find in the dictionary.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I paid Lou Lombardi over $300 in advance for a High Standard barrel he said might take as long as three months. Eighteen months and half a gazillion half-baked excuses later, I demanded a refund.

I bought a wonderful barrel from the good folks at http://www.volquartsen.com for half the price I'd have paid Lombardi.

 

[Sean85746]

I am IN gunsmith hell right now!

A 'smith down in Tucson has had my Model 66 Snubby for a year now.

Oh well...he is the best in AZ, so...I will keep waiting.

 

[Old Fuff]

Gee ...

I'm glad I don't have a model 66 snubby that needs any work on it ...

 

[ScottsGT]

I had my Garand refinished in under a week. And that was with a 1 day delay because something "Came Up" My 'smith is really good at getting things done. Only problem I ever had was the time I gave him cash up front to order me a RRA upper. He kept telling me that it still had not come in and he didn't know why the delay.
I called RRA, told them of the situation and they gave me the UPS tracking #. Man was he BUSTED! The package was attempted delivery 3 times and was being held at the UPS location for him to pick it up when he had the cash. He spent my money before the upper arrived. I've learned my lesson. I order it, then bring the cash to him the day the package is expected.
The things I do to get dealer cost

 

[jeff-10]

Long wait? Try not even being able to find one. I live in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country and as far as I can find out there is just one in the entire county. To top it off he is semi-retired and only works a few days a week.