Gunsmith Question

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CTGunner

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I dropped off a 1911 for a reliability job with a smith. They were not willing to commit to a specific time frame in which it would be complete..they indicated about a month. A month has passed, I called, and they said if I didn't get a call it's not done. Typical? Should I push for a completion time or is this pretty typical?
 
Personally, I would have picked up the gun and taken my business elsewhere. I wouldn't bug them every other day, but there's no reason why a business would be rude to a customer (potential if they haven't even started on your gun). The least they could have done was given you a "one more week" answer.
 
I agree with tetralaw. I wouldn't put up with being treated badly, unless he's an amazing smith that charges peanuts.
 
Since I have no idea what a "reliability job" is, I can't say how long it should take. If you were not more specific than that, they might just do a bit of tinkering, fire a box or two of ammo and tell you it's done, please pay the bill.

Jim
 
I described the feeding issue it had. Beyond that I hope you're wrong.
 
Go back to the gunsmith and discuss with them face to face what you expect them to do for you.
Have them tell you exactly what their plan is to resolve the problem, what the costs should be, and have them give you an up to date time table for the work being performed. They've already used up their first month. They should be able to tell you how long it'll be till you get your pistol back, in a specific number of days. If the remaining time frame is unacceptable get possession of the pistol and find another gunsmith. If it's acceptable, come back on the day they promise it to you and pick it up, one way or another.

Hopefully you're in an area with multiple gunsmiths available to you. My guess is that you'll end up walking out with your pistol the day you next go to see them.

I drive 2-1/2 hours each way to get to my gunsmith, because I won't trust any others with my guns. Once you find the one you're happy with you won't consider another, unless something outside of their capabilities comes up. And a good gunsmith will have no issues helping you find another that can help you.
 
I agree with gearchecker. I've met a few gunsmiths (most are nice) that are so set in their ways, that they think it's ok to lack professionalism.

Show them that they're wrong with your dollars.
 
Thanks for the advice. The more I think about it, the more upset I get. I felt a little uneasy about it at the time I dropped it off and had the initial discussion. Now I realize I should have trusted my instincts.
 
The good news is they haven't even started working on it yet so you can go deal with them before they do.

If you don't like what they say take the gun back!
 
good gosh.

If the smith has a good rep; give him a break. This is the busy season; and work estimates arent an exact science. Id rather know my guy is slogging through the workload as opposed to calling up 50 clients every week and telling them their work will be delayed a little.
 
I agree with you olyeller, but there is a difference between a smith getting down to business, and a smith saying "don't bother me, I'll call you."
 
If the problem is feeding or extraction/ejection with some specific type of ammo, tell the gunsmith that. It is flat impossible to get a 1911 to work with every possible type of ammo. You tell them the ammo you use and either supply it or expect to be charged for whatever they use in test firing. Since I would never consider an auto pistol even reasonably reliable without having fired at least 200 rounds of the carry ammo with each carry magazine, that is a lot of money.

Or you can tell them to fire a few rounds then you will fire more and let them know if it doesn't work. Either way, a "reliability job" may sound simple when posting on the net, but it isn't and if the basic gun is not good quality, it might never happen.

Jim
 
Update

So here's the story - I stopped in today to speak with the owner face to face. I explained what happened and he said, actually your gun is done and has been for about a week, but we haven't tested it yet. I asked to take a look at it and it was in fact complete. He said that I will have it back on Wednesday. It's unfortunate that the first person I spoke to was so rude and frankly uninformed. Thanks for the suggestions folks.
 
I got my first 1911 when I turned 21. It was used and had been accurized by someone that knew his stuff. The gun ran 100% with every kind of ammo I could find. From the low powered target stuff to cci's flying ashtray. I could even load up the mag. with fired casings and they would feed and eject 90% of the time. Who ever built that gun knew his stuff. The gun was scary accurate. Years later my brother bought a full lenght guide rod and I made the mistake of putting it in my gun. The very first shot the gun seized up. I noticed the barrel bushing was bent. I had a new bushing fitted and threw the guide rod away and never looked back. I put thousands of rounds thru that old gun and it started shooting lower and lower. I kept filing down the front sight and eventually there wasn't enough front sight left. I took it to a 1911 smith and he installed a new barrel, bushing and sights. It still shot low. I can only imagine that the lugs in the slide were wore out, but I will never know cause I sold it.
 
Did he say what they did to it?
Click to expand...

The gun is a Les Baer Commander length 1911. He 'cut' the extractor - he said it didn't look right (I really don't know what this means, maybe he meant that he tuned it and I misunderstood, I'm not sure). He's not sure if what he did will work though and he may have to install a new extractor. He also polished/opened the feed ramp area slightly. Lastly, the gun was so tight previously that there was a little hitch that prevented it from going back into battery when the slide was retracted and then slowly returned (not slammed), he smoothed that out so it's still real tight but now much more smooth. The whole job was $85...I consider that pretty reasonable considering the amount of time it appears he put into it. IMO he just added some finishing touches to it that perhaps a slightly higher end 1911 would have already had. I chose the Smith based on location and reputation. He has a fantastic reputation for building custom 1911s and a lot of people (Everyone) that I have spoken to locally recommended him highly.

Bottom line - I still feel very uncomfortable that I had to have anything done to an $1800 pistol to get it functioning correctly. I still feel uncomfortable giving it to someone I don't really know to do the work. But I had to do something and I really didn't want to sell it. I haven't been able to shoot it yet so I don't know if it will in fact work any better than before. If it doesn't work I'll likely move on. I do wish, looking back on it, that I had just gone with a Wilson. The LB is a good shooter, don't get me wrong, but I truly believe that there is something to be said for the full on royal treatment that you get from Wilson's customer service department. Let me know your thoughts.
 
I'm kind of surprised you didn't let Les Baer work on it (assuming you bought it new and recently).

I bought a used Baer last Christmas and had my local 1911-smith fix the "will-not-slingshot" issue that Baer considers to be a "feature" :rolleyes:

I was not aware of that "feature" before I bought it (shame on me) and was not to happy about it, but it was fixed for under $50 and I am very happy with the Baer now.

A good 1911-smith is worth his weight in gold (or at least brass :))
 
I'm kind of surprised you didn't let Les Baer work on it (assuming you bought it new and recently).
Click to expand...

It was not a matter of not wanting him to. When I called he simply suggested I shoot different ammunition. Frankly I was annoyed and frustrated by his proposed solution. I could have pushed the issue but I didn't and that may have been a mistake.

How did your Smith fix the slingshot issue? My understand was that the frame needs to be cut down to true commander specs to make that happen...though mine does slingshot??? I wasn't aware of the issues with the commander models either.
 
wow--I though Les Baer had a decent reputation for making his guns work and his customers happy. :uhoh:

My 1911-smith looked the gun over carefully and proposed a several-step approach, starting with the least intrusive surgery.

The first step was to chuck up the guide rod in a lathe and take a bit off of the rearward face of it (thickness). That did the trick, so no frame mods were necessary.

I was really happy about that, because mine is the alloy frame, and removing material from the frame (depending on the location) might have required re-hard anodizing ($$$) or at least spot re-finishing ($).

I have never had any trouble with it feeding/firing/ejecting any type of ammo, including a half-dozen types of JHP and my SWC reloads.

All I need now is a fresh set of night sights--my "new" gun is over ten years old and the night sights are very dim.

If anyone wants the name of my 1911 smith, PM me and I'll share. He has worked on three different 1911s for me so far. He does great work in a reasonable period of time and does not over-charge for his work. Not cheap, but good value for the price.
 
I absolutely detest when I call any type of business to inquire about an order or service and they are rude because they said they would call me. I've lost track of the amount of times a business has told me they would call, then they don't. One of my biggest pet peeves.
 
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