Most of the gunsmiths I've used have been great, but I'm wondering if you have any good stories to tell.

Had one screw up cerokote finish and refused to refund payment. First and last time with that.

Had a barrel re- chambered from .223 to 221fireball and when I picked it up, the barrel was threaded also.

I never asked for the barrel to be threaded.

The guy I use is great.
Mike with Smiths Speed Shop In Purvis Ms is very well informed and does great work.

Had someone quote a month on a Cerakote job and it took them two months to complete (after asking repeatedly).

still trying to figure out the title and its contraction

Thanks.  I must have had a stroke.  lol

Many years ago I had a gunsmith put a new finish on a muzzleloader stock for me (before I learned how to do it myself). He put it on real thick and didn't buff it so it had a glossy finish. It was so thick in some areas that it had runs in it, and he didn't remove all the metal furniture first and there were spots where he got the finish on the metal. When I was there to pick it up he was dealing with a customer who was pissed because he put a deep scratch in the slide of his 1911 that he did some work on for him.

Later I heard the gunshop fired him because he kept fucking up peoples' guns.

Gave a guy my PTR91 that didn't have a flash hider or a threaded barrel to have him thread the barrel.
He had it 6 months and was a complete fucktard when I tried to get it back.
Sent it to a guy in AZ (can't mention his name), he threaded it and sent it back to my within three days for less than $120 including shipping.

I bought a used Ruger MK II, the mounting screws holes on the barrel were stripped out.
Gave it to the premier local gunsmith, he had it for two months, when I got it back I found that he had oversized the holes in the barrel and used helicoils to fix them - and he didn't even break off the ends of the helicoils so it ended up scratching the slide.
He refused to fix it, I contacted Ruger and they fixed it for free (new barrel, slide and they removed the home made trigger and installed a stock trigger)

My guy has been good.. no complaints..

Awesome

LOL

They put the bolt face on backwards on my Savage.

Not a big deal, and was a 2 minute fix for me, but not exactly confidence inspiring.

That experience did play into doing all gun work myself, so I can't complain.

I think it would be waaay easier to list my positive experiences with a gunsmith, as it's a much shorter list.

I've never had one deliver their services on time, by their own schedule, ever. Not fucking once.

I did have some good work done, at a very high price, very late, and I guess that's kinda ok, maybe.

I hope I'm not about to find out.

I've had some really good experiences.

Like I'd show up and say, "Hey I think my chamber's pitted."  "Oh, really?"  20 minutes later he had polished the chamber and there was no charge.  That's typical for me.  One would just be like, "I'll do this for you if you go to the grocery store next door and get me a Dr Pepper."

Years back I had a Mosin 91/30 ex sniper that I wanted to have an original PU scope and base attached to.

On a forum that was primarily for milsurp type weapons, I was suggested by multiple people to use this one guy who had an FFL and gunsmithing business out of his home. People had work done by him, quick turnaround, etc.

Contact him and get pricing; he had an existing price sheet, shipping instructions - everything looked and felt like it was GTG.

Sent it to him in a rifle case, bolt wrapped separately in the case as well as a print out of our emails. About 10 days later I get an email asking if I wanted a trigger job as well because the trigger was your typical horrible Mosin trigger and I said sure for whatever he quoted it.

Another 10 days goes by and theres a package at my door. Realize its the rifle and am excited. Open it and......its the rifle, with the base/scope attached to it........with the fucking bolt floating around in the fucking box. Not only did this fucking moron not send my case back, but he fucking just put the rifle, in a box that was a couple inches longer than the gun and 2-3x the diameter. No wrapping paper, no bubble wrap, no nothing. Rifle inside a cardboard fucking box, with the bolt in it and it now had a gouge in the wood from something probably being smashed ontop of it during shipping.

So I email this guy, hinting that there may be a problem because well...I got the rifle in a cardboard box and no case. I get a reply back where he sounds oblivious to the fact that sending a rifle in a box by itself was bad and was more worried about sending my case back. I mentioned how this wasn't even remotely acceptable and he wanted to have me send it back and have him look at it. After taking it apart and seeing that his fucking trigger job consisted of using a grinder and cut off tool and cutting the top of the trigger sear (I think? - the flat part on top that holds the bolt from firing) with it in 3 different directions without anything even remotely looking like quality work, I told him to get fucked.

Haha, I put together quite a few guns that were brought into the store in shoe boxes....worst was a Nylon 66.

I don't have any bad gunsmith stories, but I did have a less than favorable experience ordering a scope a few years back.  The scope took a few months to get, and cost was around $2400...finally arrived, and it had a very obvious flaw in the reticle.  As in, there was no way it should have been missed.  It was fixed no questions asked, but it required me shipping it back and waiting another few weeks.

Had a guy do a crown and bed job on a varmint/long range 700.

A few years later I take it to another guy to have it threaded for suppressor.  He calls me to tell me the first guy bedded my rifle with the recoil lug totally crooked.  Like ridiculously crooked.

So he obviously straightened that out, but I was none too happy with the first guy who was supposed to be some bench rest god.

I own a very low ssn Henry rifle. I brought it to a very well renowned "gunsmith" for a lifter, hopefully replaced from a Italian repro, which I would pay for the whole rifle just to cannibalize one part.  After I sent it, I start getting emails and phone calls about it being lost, then it being a repro, then it can't be serviced.  I got an email saying that they can't return it, and I need to file a USPS claim.  Worst experience ever.  Had to get a lawyer involved just to get it mailed back.

So what happened to it? Lets hear the carnage..

Yeah, sounds like it needs it's own thread!

Not a damn thing.  Just a shifty person who wouldn't return it after 6 months.  Not as exciting as the Solstice Arms story.

I mean I have never done business with him, but there's a guy out in white city that seems kinda sketchy.  

I had an idiot do a pin & weld on a
NIW Colt R6001 barrel, he fucked it
up royally.

 

LOL!

3 out of the 4 times ive used a gunsmith it turned into an absolute shit show.

The bad
Owner - Fox Valley Firearms
Jim - JBI armory
Daniel Estep - Esteps Guns
^ fuck these guys

The good
Dude running a side business out of his basement.

7 for me... Months that is. Two handguns. Slide was dropped and cracked. Offered a discount on any other weapon I wanted coated... LMAO.

Not as bad as 14 months for a trigger install. Training gun so while annoying it wasn't like a carry gun being down that long. Big reputable orgs both... Ill never do business with them again. Not because of the time. Work takes what it takes. The lack of comms and the damage is another story entirely.

Now that right there is an awesome story.

First one was a cerakote job on a complete DD AR.  When I got the gun back it had areas of raw aluminum where there obviously was no cerakote on the outside of the receivers, the flash hider was installed upside down and the once tight fit between the receivers was gone and left with the worst rattle I've ever encountered in any AR factory or parts build.

Second was a former industry partner, who has a cult following here still, who screwed up my muzzle device on a pin and weld.  Instead of reaching out and discussing the issue, he shipped the upper back to me and then sent me an email saying that he'd fix it at a later date.  Soon after he closed his shop.  I ended up having another gunsmith replace the muzzle device and he is my go to for everything now.

One of two things:

making a modification they thought was "cool" that I didn't ask for or not returning parts that were upgraded.

"we fired up the cnc and made some cool serrations on your slide... O' and I lost your factory sights when I put on your adjustable set"

I've gotten past the 1 week equals 6 months dog year math that all gun smiths seem to use.

No horror stories for me, just the night sight install on my old HS2000 was a pain in the ass for the person attempting it.

Long ago I took an old .45 auto pistol to a gunsmith to tighten up the slide a bit if possible.

Get it back and it looks like he put the slide into a vice...….my heart sank...…..I showed him the marks on the slide and he gave me a muted answer but did not charge me.  He KNEW he fucked up bad.

Took it to a retired OLD gunsmith near my house back then and told him what happened...…….he said "you took it to 'Mr. Jackass'...….OH NO!!??".

My heart sank again and I said "yes".

He said "give it to me, I'll see what I can do".

Called me back in a week and he did a GREAT job of getting that slide working again and even got rid of most of the "scratches" Mr. Jackass put on the slide when "bending" it back to a more tight fit.

And he didn't charge me!!!  But he did lecture me on my fucking stupidity for taking a gun to "Mr. Jackass".

(So, I immediately went to the store and bought him a nice 5th of whiskey.)

That old gunsmith passed on about 25 years ago...…...he was probably in his late 80's or early 90's by then.

I do my own gunsmithing, so no real complaints here.



ETA: I did take my first AR15 to a shop to put a free floating handgaurd on it many years ago. They failed to properly align the gas tube to the bolt and it only made it about 5 rounds before locking up. Brought it back and they fixed it for free. The only thing it cost me was time. That's when I started just doing things in my own. If someone else can do it, so can I.

Did I make it in before the tooth & nail glock slides?

Can't say I've really had a "bad" experience with gunsmith services. Just not "Great" ones sometimes.

On a couple I sent out for work, the work itself was fine and passable, but not really up to the quality of work that I would consider myself.

That being said, I've had other ones come back great.

Right around 2006 I bought a new old stock Mossberg 9200 from a shop going out of business. Think I paid $200.

Dropped it off at the local smith to have the barrel cut from 28 to 22 and rethread for choke tubes. I wanted to make it into a Turkey gun.

Week later I go to pick up my barrel and he's threaded it for Beretta tubes instead of Winchester/Mossberg tubes.

Ended up taking it anyway and he threw in a couple used Beretta choke tubes he had laying around. He apologised and said he had a regular  customer who preferred Beretta tubes and grabbed the wrong tooling by mistake.

Same smith a few years later I'm working on a 10/22 project and drop off a 20 inch bull barrel to cut and recrown at 16 inches. He cuts it at 18 and threads it. He ended up cutting it again and all was well.

Doubt I'll use that particular guy again.

I had a well respected local gunsmith polish and reblue a Commander size 1911 clone.  He rounded off the extractor hole and then tightened a grip screw down so much that it was jammed into the bushing.  When I took the grips off, the bushing came out with the screw.  I will never use or recommend him again.

I once had to threaten to sue a well known former gunsmith that had been recommended in Peterson's Handguns just to get my two S&W pistols back.  I had sent them in for trigger jobs.  It wasn't 14 months, but just a hair shy of a year.  I was originally quoted 3-4 months, and starting at month 6 I keep getting promises that weren't kept and the run around whenever I called.  I honestly thought they had lost both Smiths, or they were stolen, and they didn't want to let me know.  After 11 months, including 5 months of excuses and broken promises, I sent the company a letter telling them that I wanted the guns back, fixed or not fixed, or I would sue to have them returned to me.  FWIW, that gunsmith worked for a company, and they did have clerical staff and counter staff that helped him out.  Communication was non-existant there.  In hindsight, i'm glad I threatened to sue, since that smith left a couple of months later and who knows when I would have gotten my guns back!

A buddy and I both had ex-91/30 Mosin-Nagant snipers that we wanted to turn back into snipers.  We took them to a local gunsmith that specialized in rifles to have the screws drilled out and holes retapped.  I even provided the bits and tap to the smith.  The smith looked it over and said it wouldn't be a problem for him.  When we went to pick them up, he had charged each of us an extra $100.  It turns out that he burned out his drill press motor drilling the screws out, and charged us for a new motor.  When we objected, he said it was either pay the money or he will keep our guns.  We paid, but I swore that I would never use him again for anything.  IMHO, he was stupid.  He got us for an extra $100 each, but he probably lost thousands in additional business we would have given him or recommended to him.  This smith was also a big racist.  When we picked up our rifles, he bragged to my friend and I that if he saw a black man pull up to his shop, he'd lock the door since he wouldn't do any work for *******.  After my dealings with him and listening to his rant, I thought he was a scumbag and swore that I would never use him for anything or recommend him to anyone.

After these experiences, I either do my own work (including learning how to do something) or just do without.

Totally blown, lead time, work not completed as order and generally not done correctly.  The guy who took the work on left the shop, and the owner did not want to refund me.  I was told 6 weeks and it took over a year.

I should have known better so lesson learned I guess.

Something about Tooth & Nail Armory and Glock RMR machining......

Many years ago- in the pre -internet days- I sent a rifle several states away to gunsmith X for some work.
Shortly after the date it was due to be completed and returned I received a certified letter in the mail that gunsmith X has gone out of business and that they would TRY to return all firearms in their shop to their customers.
I waited several weeks with no further contact.
The shop telephone number was never answered when I called.
I sent a certified letter that was returned as unable to be delivered.
I contacted my local small town PD and the detective I talked to called gunsmiths X local PD and one of the detectives there found gunsmith X and my rifle was returned to me very quickly. I was told that the BATF was already involved due to the other customers seeking return of  their own fireams.
The work had never been started so it was in the same condition as when I sent it but mainly I was thankful to get it back at all.

Not a firearm but I sent a Unertl 1 1/4" target scope to Parson`s Optical for service and refinish.
Through the years I `ve had a couple of old style external scopes worked on there.
Unfortunately the owner, Gil Parsons, passed away during the time my scope was at his shop.
It seems his children tried to keep the business going after his death. I had one hell of a time getting my scope back- it took 18 months. In fairness to them the work was completed and perfectly done.

Gave a smith my ak pistol to have a folding triangle stock installed.

First time for him.  When I picked it up there were some extra parts in the bag

He didn't install the stock latch on the receiver because he didn't know how.  The trunnion was installed at an angle

Ended up sending it out to Firing Line in OK iirc.  They redid everything.

To his credit the original smith did refund my money

Stealing my guns

Two times I have gone to a licensed gun smith and in asking questions decided not to use them.   One was converting a shotgun to left hand safety.   He wanted $50.  I went went home and called the factory and the guy talked he through it.  It was a 2 minute project.

I worked in a fairly well known gunshop in the Houston area for a few months, "getting to know the ropes", as they wanted me to develop training curriculum for them.

They had two locations, and at the one I was at, they had two "custom" Glocks, a 19 and a 17, that their "gunsmiths" had worked on.  One of them, the 17, I believe, basically had a binary trigger because of their shitty trigger job.  If you dry fired it, and racked the slide hard enough, upon release of the trigger, the striker would trip again.  Quality work there.

I pulled it from display twice to send it back to the gunsmiths, and twice it ended up back in the case.  I said that if it wound up back there again, I was going to crush it in the parking lot with my truck.  Later it returned with all new internals.

Ruger MkII barrel thread/recrown job at a local Tulsa area gunsmith. Threads cut wayyy too long and required shims to mount silencer without making baffle contact. Recrown was a joke and end of barrel was to be saved and threaded for seamless thread protector (...not)

Thank God replacement barrels are plentiful because he botched the job every way he could.

Locals can contact me for more information.

I was 21, got a heritage rough rider for less than 100 bucks. I had been shooting it for a while and then the cylinder wouldn't turn when cocking. Took it to a gunsmith and waited 2 months. When it came time to pick it up he said it would be 90 some dollars. Fuck that. He said he had to custom make the part because they dont make them anymore. Me being the young stupid kid I was I paid him. I looked up that part he said it was when I got home and found them available for around 5-10 bucks. Lesson learned on my part.

Awesome story, sir.  It gives me hope for this world.  Cheers.

My first FAL build in the 90s.  Had a Class III dealer.gunsmith barrel it. After a month past his deadline. I got it and shot it. Worked fine. Learned more about what it takes to build one.

Looked at the locking shoulder and he used a bench grinder on it. You could see the round grinding stone contour. It was only locking on one side.
Fucking guy was a POS. Everybody was after him for something. He use to be a regular at one of our shows, and finally folded his tents because of all the people trying to collect guns and or money from him.