Quality gunsmith near Denver, CO

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twnw

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Trigger on Ruger GP100 still pretty stiff and its been several years since I shot much. I'd like to have a good gunsmith take a look.
My location is West of Denver, about an hour, but travel to Denver frequently.
Any suggestions?
 
Thanks for the fast responses.
I was going to go to Green Mountain shooting range tomorrow and get reacquainted with my revolver. Other than cleaning it periodically, it has been sitting idle too long.
But WheatRidge works just as well, since my errands take me very close to Gunsmoke.
 
Gunsmoke is just an amazing shop to visit anyway. Rich, the owner, trained with Col. Jeff Cooper and teaches some classes that I WISH I could afford. While he has little inventory, none of it is junk, most of it is top-of-the-line, and almost all of it is stuff that makes you think, "Well that's a standard, you gotta have one of those."
 
I took my CCW class from Rich Wyatt. As an ex-police officer he had some interesting things to say about how to handle certain situations.

If I remember correctly the guy that does his 1911 work is Dave. Really nice guy. Some of their prices are high but I have bought a few guns from them on that were on consignment.
 
I've never had him do any work, but numerous people have recommended Todd Lockerburner in Colorado Springs.
Click to expand...

He's some miles north of Colorado Springs. I took my Ruger Mark II from the far end of hell's furnace room to him with a Volquartsen parts kit. I ended up with a heavier, much creepier trigger than expected. By and bye, I shipped the gun to Clark in Louisiana, and ended up with much better results, albeit still not as light a trigger as specified.
 
I have to give a HUGE

Thumbs down to Gunsmoke. At one time there was one of them that could work on 1911s, but anything else looked like an untrained chimp worked on it.

They did the sights on a rifle of a friend of mine.... Both sights were canted badly, and in the opposite direction. A different person showed me some work they did on his rifle..... It was horrible.

I have never heard of anything other than 1911s that Gunsmoke could do well.

Just things I have seen.

Marshalldodge, do you remember the work they did on Forrest's Rifle? and you can recommend them with a straight face? hehe

And anyone who has to have a photo page of celebrities he conned into being photographed with him has issues....
 
Although I have not used them yet, the Colorado School of Trades does work. I have heard good things and believe allot of the Gunsmiths out there were trained there.
 
CST does work on guns, as said. They work on more firearms than any other gunsmithing place in the country.
 
I took an AR to gunsmoke once. I wanted them to pin a compensator to the barrel. I was very specific that I wanted the compensator pinned.

When I picked up the AR they had silver soldered the comp to my barrel, did a crap job of re painting it and wanted to charge me twice what they quoted.

Thats the last time I ever went there. Just my personal experience.

I have used the School of trades. For what you want they would probably do a fine job.
 
I have had work done by John Kelly for the last 7-8 years. Everything from a perfect trigger on my High Standards to Bowmar cuts on a 1911, with lots of stuff in between, like making screws and springs. Great work and a great guy.
 
Thanks for the kind words, Richard.

If you're in the Colorado Springs area, please give us a call and we'll be happy to dance with your Ruger for awhile.

Earl (Hickman) and/or Jeff would be the ones working on your trigger if you decide to trek this far south...

Forrest

Hickman Rifles
(719) 633-4680
Tue-Sat, 9AM-5PM
 
I went to Gunsmoke on Fri & although the trigger is at 8# pull, they suggested just putting in time at the firing range, which I did later in the day. Although I had not shot it in about 4-5 years, it was really accruate. I impressed myself, which is not easy to do! But I did stray into the 8 circle 6 out of 50, so I just need more range time.
Before I went I was feeling stupid, for buying a .357 rather than a .22, which I thought was too girly. I guess the old lady still has the touch, if not a waistline.
 
TWNW, I cannot believe you were told to put in more range time with an 8 lb trigger pull. :eek: If you take that Ruger to a gunsmith to get the trigger adjusted to about 3-3.5 lbs (or buy a custom trigger to have installed) you will feel like you're in heaven. I have had my trigger work done at a small shop in Colorado Springs just off Interstate 25 called the Shootin' Den, phone 719-634-3331. Nice folks, quality work, and very reasonable prices. BTW, the last rifle I bought had a 6 lbs pull. It was hard work concentrating to squeeze off the round and keep groups tight. I had the trigger adjusted to 3.5 and groups are tighter and "easier" to shoot. Get the trigger reworked; you will feel like you have a new rifle!
 
I graduated from CST, and would fully recommend them.
To actually work on guns you have to be in the last section of the school. That is the design and function section. The teacher Stewart is a very knowledgable pistol smith, and will check all work done by students. By that time in the training all the bad students have been weeded out. It would be cheaper to bring your gun there, and they will not let it be turned back in unless what you wanted done is done, and is satisfactory. They will also fully dissasemble, clean, oil, assemble, check headspace, and testfire your weapon to make sure it is working properly.
 
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