The Gunsmith's Lament

[Taurus 617 CCW]

Ideally, the gunsmith in question could turn down the work, assuming he was running the shop and had veto power over his projects.

I used to work for a shop and was in exactly the opposite situation. I was told to take anything that I didn't think was a liability. There were several jobs I would have personally turned down but was forced to take and ended up costing the owner money. Eventually that lead to me being let go. Not saying I didn't make any mistakes (still human) but the business model has a large bearing on how things turn out. I now only do the work that I choose to take on and know I will be successful at. Gunsmith skills are a great thing to know but experience can come at a high cost at times. A specialization would be my recommendation for anyone wanting to learn gunsmith-type skills. That way you can focus your efforts on proper training and less tooling.

 

[doubleh]

I understand that the OP was satire but you can get similar requests in almost any occupation. My favorite was a guy that wanted me to build him a charcoal grill from 18" pipe. This is a really long days work if you do every thing right. He saw mine and asked if I would build him one and offered to buy me a case of beer if I would. One case. Big spender. Not for as pickup truck load.

 

[entropy]

It's the same for any repair man. My best friend is a auto repair shop owner. I have seen one of his customers go crazy after being told that his 2015 Mustang needed a new engine ( he had put some off brand nitrous oxide kit on it he had bought off of eBay and melted all of the pistons ) .
' No, you ARE going to fix it and I need it by tomorrow evening.'

OK, I'll bite. What was his reply? I know what mine would be.
Taurus617CCW, see my post #21. That sucks, what happened. I had a shop owner who was also a gunsmith, and he cherry-picked the jobs working only on certain models, or his buddies' guns. I hated when he'd take in a Mossberg 472 lever gun...

 

[Dragon breath]

OK, I'll bite. What was his reply? I know what mine would be.

Long story short, Two days later the guys wife came and paid the tear down bill and the car left on a rollback.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

I have been told that the best way to make a million dollars as a gunsmith is to start with 2 million...

 

[north east redneck]

Not a gun smith and never intend to be.
This type of thing happens with any skill. Used to work on cars and motorcycles for people, not anymore. Especially not friends...for some reason they think many hours of labor and sweat are part of being thier friend and little if any compensation is forth coming.
Same with welding and plumbing jobs.... No, I can't weld rust together and that other 'little' job you want me to do for a 12 pack is going to be hours of prep work.
Or, sure I can replumb your garage bathroom and slop sink, uh no, not for $100....
I used to do such jobs, thought I was throwing money away if I didn't, now realize I was just throwing my time away.
Anyways, good illustration by the OP of how frustrating any skilled craft can be when customers ask for outlandish results.

 

[1911 guy]

I wrench on a few guns, but only models I'm very familiar with, the parts I am confident i understand their function and I don't do it as a business. In short, I am NOT in any way, shape or form a gunsmith. But I can understand the struggle. I'm a machinist. Been doing it for a couple decades now and am in a position that I deal with both our engineering department and on a limited basis, customers. I hate dealing with customers. Trying to imagine a career that entails 100 percent dealing with customers gives me the willies.

 

[JeffG]

When I was a neophyte shooter, I read through a copy of a gunsmith's copy of Gunsmithing Kinks. No thanks, not for me. I met Hershel House in 1975, during the Foxfire revival....the man is a god to me...

 

[fpgt72]

Same with welding and plumbing jobs.... No, I can't weld rust together and that other 'little' job you want me to do for a 12 pack is going to be hours of prep work.
Or, sure I can replumb your garage bathroom and slop sink, uh no, not for $100....
I used to do such jobs, thought I was throwing money away if I didn't, now realize I was just throwing my time away.
.

Very good point....I felt the same way....well it will take half a Saturday and I will get $200 out of the deal.....then it got to the point where my weekends got more valuable.....blamed it on the wife for turning down jobs for a wile (with her blessing...you gotta clear it with the boss first) Then after all the mechanical work on my body I had an easy out....oh I just can't do that anymore.....what do you mean you said you just put in a hard wood floor in your bedroom....yea but it took 4 weeks and we slept on the bed in the living room....and it was home...get tired I shower and sleep....at your house I get tired drive an hour shower sleep. There is a difference.

Now if you want to take a month to have it done and me leave at 4 every day (I usually get off work at 2) I will come and HELP you.

 

[hdwhit]

Other than the "gunsmiths" resident at some of the local gun clubs who have a very limited range of services (i.e. installing replacement parts, smoothing trigger pull, etc.), I haven't seen what might be called a "full range of services" gunsmith since the 1980's.

 

[morcey2]

I think if I won the lottery...the BIG ONE...I'd go to gunsmithing school, buy all the tools, set up a shop, and then NOT go into business.

That's my thinking as well. I'd have to add all of the mechanics tools also.

I worked as a mechanic for a couple of years putting myself through school and have seen and heard many stories like the OP's and the others. Everything from "the engine can't be blown up, I drove it here" (without any oil in it) to "Isn't there something you can pour in that will fix the burned up 200,000+ mile transmission?"

The worst one was in my current industry, software. I was working at a company that did host and network security software. We supported a very broad range of operating systems. One of our sales weasels sold a huge installation (500+ systems) that included a bunch of VAX/VMS system installations. Not only did we not support that system, it wasn't in our plans because it was being replaced, it was so different from any of our current supported systems (Windows NT, Netware, and most Unix flavors) that it would take us at least a year to port it over. The best part? He promised delivery in two weeks. If there were ever any justification to allowing civilians to call in air-strikes on really stupid people, that one is it for me. He knew we didn't support it but wanted the sale so bad that he decided that we would rescue him. We didn't. We lost the contract. He tried to get some of us fired. That didn't work. But he didn't get fired either. I left shortly after that for greener pastures. Just remember, greener pastures are usually filled with more manure.

I still work on lots of cars for people, but mostly just family members. I do consult with friends to make sure that they're not getting ripped off and I recommend shops for people. As for gunsmithing, there's only one gunsmith locally that I trust but he is really busy. He'll get it done but you may have to wait. There are a couple that have sprung up in the last couple of years that I will take very small jobs, but nothing that requires machining, forging, or the like.

Matt

 

[DPris]

I'm very (make that EXTREMELY) fortunate in having had access to my full-service guy for 31 years.
Told him recently that there are two people without whom I could not have achieved whatever level of success I've managed to reach in 27 years of my current professional field.

One is my long-suffering and always supportive wife & partner.
The other is him.

If I lose either, I'm outa the biz.
And he's getting to the point where he's about as worn out as I am.

Wife & I have talked about pulling up stakes & moving to a different set-up, but it comes down to the fact that I can't leave my gunsmith behind & he won't move with us.
So, here we stay.

You find a fully competent & capable smith, you don't idly give him up.
I think I've bought him two trucks & paid off half his house with what I've spent on him in the past three decades.
Denis

 

[Hypnogator]

...reminds me of the story about the old farmer that won a million dollars in the lottery. When asked what he was going to do with the money, he replied, "Guess I'll just keep on farmin' 'till it's used up!"