Gunsmithing what would you do?

[The Punisher]

My gunsmith has had my Remington SPS 308 for 2 months and from the looks of it all he`s done is removed the barrel and action from the stock....it`s supposed to be a new 260 Rem barrel, trued up action,lap the lugs, bolt knob, and work on the stock to fit and refinish it.

I have a shoot coming up in 3 weeks and would like to get some trigger time...

Am I to impatient or should I go get it and go some where else(I have already paid for it all up front)

 

[Goin'Hot]

Re: what would you do?

What did he quote you for a timeline? My last build was quoted at 6 weeks and turned into 5 months before it was finished "the first time", and then turned in to an additional 2 months on top of that to re bedd the stock.

Custom gun work ALWAYS takes longer than quoted. Beware of the smiths that quote unbelievable turn around times like my last. They are typically just trying to stockpile work. When I threatened to pull the build from him, he "started" on it. Hind site, I should have pulled it at that point and parted ways. The rifle would have turned out much better.

Good luck.

 

[Trigger Monkey]

Re: what would you do?

Did he say he'd have it done in less than 3 months? Does he have all of the components? Hell my first build took almost nine months and more than half of that was waiting for stuff to come in.

 

[The Punisher]

Re: what would you do?

yes he has everything, keeps putting on the back burner for guns he`s building for a gun show. I don't go by every day (went there 3 times in 2 months) and he said it would be around 1 month to do it.

Its my first "custom" rifle and guess I should be a little more patient....just bum`s me out, the years first shoot and I have to break out the 300 Win mag and see what I can do with it.

 

[Goin'Hot]

Re: what would you do?

The ballistics of the two are near identical so, you'll do fine. The only difference will be recoil.

If he told you 1 month, show up more often. He'll get sick of seeing you and do it. Just hope he doesn't rush the job at the cost of quality work.

 

[Trigger Monkey]

Re: what would you do?

Yeah it sucks, most of us have been there before but sometimes you just have to gut it out. You could just tell the guy to fork over your stuff but then you're in the position of trying to find someone else to do the job and waiting all over again. Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to back out of the shoot because you don't have a rifle.

 

[The Punisher]

Re: what would you do?

well I`m glad i talked to you guys, and thanks for the input.


went this far might as well ride it out and see what happens.

 

[Ratbert]

Re: what would you do?

For the life of me I still do not understand why people who are supposedly professional gunsmiths need multiple months to get around to doing something that takes moderate amateurs 16-20hrs of labor plus some chemistry cooking time. Ok, you're busy. Great. Either tell the customer up front that he's got 72 guns in line ahead of him or tell the customer that his gun will be done when you happen to get bored one day and decide to kill some time actually working. But don't take a man's money under the guise of being a professional and then stick his equipment on a shelf for weeks on end because a better offer keeps coming along. Unless he told you when you pulled out your wallet that you'd be his lowest priority for the foreseeable future, I'd want at least a damn good explanation as to what exactly he's been doing with himself the last few months.

 

[dang472]

Re: what would you do?

I'm right there with you, Ratbert. I understand it's a niche group, but I'm a mechanic in the powersports industry. I've done a few custom motorcycles worth over 20k that didn't take more than a couple of months to complete. I know my customers barely put up with a 2 week wait time for complete engine rebuilds. We can complain all we want but it seems as though they have us. If a new shop came along with 2 week build times, people on here would say that the work has to be shitty. I guess if you wait 9 months for a custom rifle, you feel like there was more work put into it.

 

[Ratbert]

Re: what would you do?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dang472</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'm right there with you, Ratbert. I understand it's a niche group, but I'm a mechanic in the powersports industry. I've done a few custom motorcycles worth over 20k that didn't take more than a couple of months to complete. I know my customers barely put up with a 2 week wait time for complete engine rebuilds. We can complain all we want but it seems as though they have us. If a new shop came along with 2 week build times, people on here would say that the work has to be shitty. I guess if you wait 9 months for a custom rifle, you feel like there was more work put into it. </div></div>

I build my own stuff now, costs a bit more to have your own equipment but I get the enjoyment of building something and some control over when it is complete.

 

[Icallem]

Re: what would you do?

PM sent

 

[Goin'Hot]

Re: what would you do?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Ratbert</div><div class="ubbcode-body">For the life of me I still do not understand why people who are supposedly professional gunsmiths need multiple months to get around to doing something that takes moderate amateurs 16-20hrs of labor plus some chemistry cooking time. Ok, you're busy. Great. Either tell the customer up front that he's got 72 guns in line ahead of him or tell the customer that his gun will be done when you happen to get bored one day and decide to kill some time actually working. <span style="color: #3366FF">But don't take a man's money under the guise of being a professional and then stick his equipment on a shelf for weeks on end because a better offer keeps coming along.</span> <span style="color: #FF0000">Unless he told you when you pulled out your wallet that you'd be his lowest priority for the foreseeable future</span>, I'd want at least a damn good explanation as to what exactly he's been doing with himself the last few months. </div></div>

This quote was pulled from the builder that put together my last rifle. I'm sure this is what occured while mine was in his shop as well. Unless a guy needs his rifle for work, the line is there and should be gone through in the order it was received. This perticular rifle that the quote was pulled from is deffinatly not a service rifle.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: doorgunner762</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Thanks for putting a rush job on this rifle build for me.</div></div>
If you have taken on more work than you can get done in a reasonable amount of time, MAN UP just like Roscoe did and shut off the pipeline until you're schedule is back in line with time quotes.